Bones provide the framework of the body. And if not for these 206 bones that are well structured and anatomically positioned in all the right places in the human body, the shape of our bodies would be irregular. Can you imagine how limber you’d probably be if you don’t have bones? 

In this article, we will be discussing natural ways to promote bone health. But before that, we will review the basics of how our bones formed so we can gain understanding of what they are and how to take care of them.

Bone Formation

So, if you are interested in ensuring your bones to function properly for a lifetime, the first thing you need to be aware of is how exactly these bones formed. On a general note, minerals are infused into our bodies to form these structures. One thing that makes our bone formation quite interesting is the fact that they begin to take shape at an early stage of life. 

 

 

Also known as ossification, bone formation starts at the end of first trimester. From this moment on till about two to three decades, the formation of the bone continues to take place. Once this age is exceeded, you are believed to have reached the peak of bone mass. If the developments of your bones have been stunted by any means during this period of time, the effect is that you stand a chance of having fragile bones that can be prone to fractures and other related injuries.

Given the importance of the bones to the existence and activity of humans, it is important that a conscious effort is put into the building of healthy bones. One thing to note about building healthy bones is that it is best done by taking measures that agree with nature. Also, study has shown that if you desire to engage in the conscious building of healthy bones without having to deal with serious side effects, your best bet is to explore natural methods.

Hence, we are going to be taking a look at 10 ways you can take in this regard.

10 Natural Ways To Promote Healthy Bones

Here are 10 natural ways to build and strengthen your bones:

1. Consume a substantial amount of vegetables

Most likely, this is not the first time you are getting to know of the wonders that could happen when you consciously consume vegetables on a regular basis. However, if you don't know much about the benefits of vegetables to bone development, then, read on.

For one thing, there is a link between the healthy formation of bones and the consumption of vegetables. Vegetables remain the best source of vitamin C. Vitamin C, in turn, stimulates the repair and maintenance of bones, as well as cartilage, and teeth.

In addition to aiding bone formation, vegetables also seem to increase bone mineral density. This means there is a rise in the content of calcium levels and another mineral constituent of your bone. In hospitals, vegetable consumption is highly recommended for patients battling conditions like low bone mass (osteopenia) and brittle bones (osteoporosis). Physicians are in the best position to suggest specific vegetables that are very effective and are easily accessible in this regard.

2. Consider taking a collagen supplement

In the quest for a healthy bone, the use of collagen supplements should not be pushed aside. Protein is one of the minerals that aid the bones and collagen is one of the major types of protein that is responsible for bone strength and stability. In addition to its protein constituents, it also contains amino acids, including glycine, proline, and lysine. All these amino acids are instrumental, not only to the development of the bones but also to that of muscles, ligaments other tissues in the body.

Also known as gelatin, collagen supplements are usually extracted from animal bones. In addition to helping in the growth and development of bones, they have also been used to relieve joint pains since a long time ago. 

3. Include calcium-rich foods in your diet

You probably have heard that calcium is the most important mineral when it comes to taking care of the bones. Although there are several minerals that make up the bones, calcium accounts for 64 % of all the bone minerals. Therefore, it makes sense to eat foods that are rich in calcium. 

For the average person, the RDI for calcium is 1000 mg per day. However, there are a few exceptions.  For example, teenagers need 1,300 mg and older women need 1200 mg. Still, there are lots of other factors that can influence the ability of your body to absorb calcium.

To get the best result from your calcium consumption, you do well to take it at intervals. In essence, spread your calcium consumption throughout the day at regular intervals. You may decide to take beans in the morning, almonds in the afternoon, sardines in the evening and a few seeds in the night as the case may be.

Remember, cells of the bone also wear out and break down when they are quite old. That is why it is very essential to make the consumption of calcium a regular practice if you like to maintain the health of your bone structure and its strength.

4. Take Adequate Amounts of Vitamin D and Vitamin K

The importance of vitamin D and vitamin K should not be brushed aside if you are keen to maintain a healthy bone. It is one thing to consume calcium, but it is another thing entirely to make the consumption effective.

Vitamin D plays a huge role in making sure that the body absorbs calcium. This is crucial to bone health because calcium won't be properly utilized if it is in an unusable form.

So, where can you get Vitamin D? 

Well, the sun is a popular source of vitamin D. However, it is not likely that you will get enough vitamin D from exposure to the sun. To this end, you might want to explore other sources. These include foods such as liver, cheese, fish, and other foods rich in vitamin D.

As for vitamin K, the particular type known for supporting bone growth is known as vitamin K2. Just like its vitamin D counteract, it supports protein minerals which are vital to the development of the bone. To get this done, it modifies osteocalcin (a protein which is essential to bone growth).

The modification process works by aiding the binding of osteocalcin with a mineral constituent of the bones; thereby preventing the bones from losing minerals, especially calcium.

There are two arrangements of vitamin K2. They are MK-4 and MK-7. A minute amount of MK-4 is found in the liver, eggs, and meat. On the other hand, K-7 is found in fermented foods like cheese, and soybean, among others.

5. Pay attention to your protein intake

Protein intake has a direct bearing on the health of your bones. Studies have shown that almost half of the bone in the body consists of protein. Little wonder why reports from further research revealed that a drop in protein consumption brings about a decrease in the rate at which calcium is being absorbed by the bones. Obviously, this brings about a setback in bone formation and breakdown. In worse cases, the bones begin to weaken.

While protein consumption is good, it is also vital that you pay attention to the source and quantity of your protein intake. This is because diets with high protein content have the tendency to extract calcium from the bones in a bid to bring down the acid level of the blood in the body. However, you need not worry about this if you only consume up to 100 grams of protein on a daily basis. Just make sure you take a corresponding calcium diet.

6. Stay away from diets with a very low calorie

A number of people consciously avoid diets with low calories for various reasons. However, if you want to build and maintain healthy bones, you should not go down this lane. There are quite a number of reasons why you should not. First off, it slows down the rate at which metabolism takes place in your body system, leading to rebound hunger. At this stage, a lot of things could go wrong with your body system and will definitely have a negative effect on the health of your bones in the long run.

Also, research has shown that diets that offer less than 1000 calories on a daily basis are likely to result in lower bone density for people with normal weight and even overweight people. This is definitely not good.

If you are interested in strengthening and maintaining healthy bones, the most important thing is to strictly follow a diet that is designed for this purpose. A balanced diet that offers a minimum of 12000 calories per day is recommended. A lot of protein and foods with lots of vitamins and other minerals that support bone health will also be a huge boost to getting this done.

7. Make sure to include foods with magnesium and zinc content

Much has been said about the value of calcium to the realization of healthy bones. However, calcium is not the only important mineral in this regard. It will be out of place if magnesium and zinc are not talked about.

Before vitamin D can be useful to the bones, it has to go through a conversion process. Magnesium is a key player in the conversion of vitamin D into its active form before it can enhance the absorption of calcium by the bones. One main challenge with magnesium is the fact that it is found in minute quantities in foods. However, the good thing is that it is found in most foods. To get a boost in the result of taking in magnesium, it is advised that magnesium supplements be used. Magnesium glycinate, citrate, or carbonate have a good chance of doing this effectively.

Speaking of zinc, it is found in the mineral portion of the bone. It is very minute in quantity. Small as it may be, zinc is quite important. It plays a crucial role in the formation of cells that are responsible for the development of bones. Furthermore, it prevents the bone from breaking down excessively. There is a wide range of sources from which zinc can be observed. Oysters and pumpkin seeds, spinach, and shrimps are good examples of diets with zinc constituents.

8. Eat foods with high omega content

The inflammation of body organs is not good for the bone. If It isn’t attended to on time, it can spread to the bone cell and result in a complication. One way to combat this is by making sure to consume foods that are rich in omega -3. This category of fatty acid is known to be effective against inflammation of body organs which definitely includes the bones.

One additional benefit that can be derived from the consumption of omega -3 is its anti-aging capability. It has been discovered to be effective in the protection of bone loss during the process of aging. This implies that it is good for consumption when you are past the formative and development stage of bone growth as it aids the maintenance of a healthy bone in no small way.

While it is very good that you have omega -3 fat present in your diet, it is also important that you pay attention to the rate at which it is consumed. There should be a healthy balance between your consumption of omega -3 and omega -6. This should be done to make sure that you do not consume too much fat than necessary. If you want a diet with a high content of omega -3, then you should consider taking walnuts, chia seeds, flask seeds, e t c. omega 3 is very good in your diet if you are focusing on maintaining strong teeth.

9. Take part in exercises that improve your weight-bearing ability

It will be difficult to maintain healthy bones if you don’t exercise them from time to time. In fact, physiotherapists have established from their practice that one of the most excellent types of activity for bone health is a high-impact exercise. This is vital to the formation of new bones as the consolidation of existing bones in the body encourages the bone cells to increase in the area where there is a need for it.

Strength training and weight-bearing exercises have been found to be good for children (including those suffering from type 1 diabetes). Children who engage in such activities are discovered to have developed more bone mass during the formative years of their bones.

Exercising is not beneficial for kids in their formative years alone. Further studies have shown that even older men and women who are passionate enough about the health of their bones enough to take part in weight-bearing exercises have also experienced positive results. This has contributed to the mineral content of their bones, thereby making it solid and healthy. Older ones tend to gain an increase in the strength and size of their bones when they exercise. Also, bone inflammation is less likely to occur.

10. Sustain a steady and healthy weight

All the effort you put into getting healthy bones might just go to waste if you do not pay attention to your body weight. This is because the bone is the framework on which every other organ of the body is hanging. Therefore, there is a need to make sure your weight is just fitting for the bones.

Although getting a nutritious diet is good for the bones and the body in general, it is even more important to make sure the diet is configured to maintain a healthy weight. You shouldn’t take a diet which contains extremely low calorie. At the same time, you shouldn’t go overbroad with your diet that you become overweight with respect to your bones.

If you decide to place yourself on a diet with low calories, you stand a chance of dealing with osteopenia and osteoporosis. Women who are in the later stage of life (menopause) are more prone to this condition when they consume a diet low in calories as hormonal changes worsen their condition. At this stage of life, estrogen hormones that should have contributed to the protection of the bones are usually deficient for them.  It has been noted that low bone density in this age group is usually caused by low body weight.

In the same vein, being overweight is not good for the bones in the sense that being obese can be damaging to the bones. It tends to drop the quality of the bones and the chances of having a fractured bone are quite higher in obese people than people with low body weight. This is obviously due to the excessiveness of the body weight.

One last thing to look out for while paying attention to your weight is the ability to maintain constant and stable body weight. When you are always losing and gaining weight, the growth and quality of your bones will definitely be affected.  For a fact, it is true that a lot of factors contribute to the loss and gain of weight and it may be difficult to control them at times. However, you need to do everything possible to get them all under control if you are interested in developing and maintaining healthy bones.

What matters most, in this case, is your ability to maintain a balance. Know when to eat more calories or less as your situation requires you to know when to step up or reduce the quality of your exercise.

Benefits of building healthy bones the natural way

Although it may be a long and tedious process, there are tons of benefits that come with building healthy bones naturally. One interesting thing about towing this path of health routine is that you will successfully avoid toxic side effects that come from other seemingly easier ways of building strong and healthy bones. It makes little or no sense when you incur another type of health complication because you are trying to get healthy bones. Hence, following natural methods in building healthy bones will promote the state of your health on an absolute level.

Another major benefit that comes from building healthy bones naturally is that it protects you from bone complications conditions like osteoporosis (a disease that results in the weakening of the bones) can lead to a fracture in the bones.

This is particularly important when we consider the fact that the average human being loses one percent of bones on a yearly basis. It is even more crucial for women experiencing menopause as the rate of bone breakdown in their body system is doubled due to the shortage of hormones that are designed to prevent this situation. To this end, it makes sense to make up for all these irregularities by being deliberate about building healthy bones in a natural way.

One last benefit of building strong bones the natural way is that other vital organs of your body get to benefit from the whole process. When you are consciously taking a diet that contains vitamin k, vitamin D, calcium and other vital minerals, your skin texture will be boosted and it will definitely reflect in your physical appearance. In fact, it won’t take the examination of a health official to know that you are healthy because you are going to look at it. When you exercise the bones regularly, your rate of metabolism will be boosted. Therefore, toxins will be cleared from your system.

Healthy Bones, Lifetime Investment

Building healthy bones is a lot of work. However, when you are consistent with your efforts and you do it the right way, you will definitely feel better for it. In fact, it is safe to assume that it is a lifetime investment.