What is Osteoporosis and how to prevent it

Introduction

Human aging is inevitable. While we are aging, many things start to deteriorate. It is an outcome that cannot be avoided. Our hair starts falling out, we start to have less collagen and our skin becomes wrinkly. Memory starts to get worse and worse, we start to lose control of our bowels and we gradually become weaker. These are some of the effects of aging. Another big part of aging is osteoporosis. Today I’ll go through what is osteoporosis. And even though we cannot avoid any effects of aging, we can have some measures that delay the onset and consequences.

 

What is osteoporosis?

Osteoporosis is when the quality or density of the bone diminishes. This causes the bone to become brittle and weak. As a result, we end up being more susceptible to fractures. The health of bones is dependant on two cells; osteoclast and osteoblast. The osteoclast is the cell that takes bone away and osteoblast are the cells which lay down bones. Throughout our lives, both of these cells work in harmony. However, as we age they do not work as well together as they should. This results in the osteoclast removing more bone than osteoclast forming bone. Thus causing bone density to decrease.

 

Collagen and calcium to fight the osteoporosis

Our bones are living tissue that can grow to different sizes. Just like other parts of our body, our bones need nutrients and stimulation to grow. One nutrient that can promote healthy bones is collagen. Our bones are actually made up of the protein called collagen. It provides the body with the effect of cushioning and strength. This protein can also be found in our skin, muscles, ligament, and tendon. Unfortunately, once we hit the age of 25 the production of collagen starts to decrease. Naturally, our bones start becoming weak due to the lack of this protein. Alongside collagen, calcium is also used to strengthen bones. Calcium solidifies the structure in our bone so it becomes stronger and less brittle. In order to strengthen the structure of our bones, we need to increase or keep up our collagen and calcium intake. This can be through natural sources such as different types of meats, beans, eggs, and dairy products.

 

The effects of weight training on the osteoporosis

Another way to delay the onset of osteoporosis is to exercise, more specifically weight training. Weight training can help with the prevention of osteoporosis. Every time we strength train, we actually stress the bone by pulling and tugging it through the lengthening and shortening of the muscles. So once we put stress on the bone, it stimulates the bone-forming cells into action causing more bone growth. It is strongly encouraged to do some sort of weight training at a young age as once we discover we have osteoporosis it is always too late for recovery.

 

Conclusion

Aging is something that we cannot prevent, however, we can delay the onset and minimize the effects it’ll have on our body. One consequence of aging is osteoporosis. Although we can’t prevent it from consuming plenty of food with high amounts of collagen and protein and doing regular resistance exercise can help us minimize the effects of osteoporosis!

 

 

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