Why do we need to protect our bone health as we age?

Our bone health peaks around age 30 and then declines as we age, growing brittle, porous, and liable to fracture. Strong bones help with posture, balance, and general mobility, helping you prevent a fall and live an active and healthy life. Bone fractures become increasingly serious as we age. Across her lifetime, a woman has a 50% risk of fracturing a bone due to osteoporosis. If she fractures her hip, her chance of death without surgery in the following 12 months. With surgery, that risk of death is still 29% after a hip fracture. We need to pay attention to our bone health as early as possible with exercise and a calcium rich diet to build up strong bones to protect you later in life.

Why do I need calcium?

Calcium is a critical mineral vital to build strong bones. Since nearly all the calcium in your body is stored in your bones and teeth, it is very important to build up a strong reserve of calcium to draw from later in life, when your bones stop rebuilding as quickly and your nerves still need calcium to communicate to your muscles and brain. Calcium is known most often for keeping your bones and teeth strong, but it is also important for regulating your heart rhythms, helping your muscles contract, and blood clot. Getting your calcium from food is the best way to build strong bones and teeth, but most Americans do not eat enough calcium-rich foods to meet the FDA guidelines: 1000 mg daily for most adults, and 1300 mg daily for women over the age of 50. The average American consumes 842 mg of dietary calcium a day, leaving women 50+ with a daily deficit of 358 mg.

What is osteoporosis?

Osteoporosis is a very common disease that weakens our bones. Bones are a living tissue and, normally, they rebuild themselves over and over again. As we age, this process slows down and our bones become weak. Even though some experts believe that 1/2 of all women over the age of 50 have osteoporosis, many people don’t know they have osteoporosis until they break a bone. Other symptoms are stooping, posture changes, and back pain. Bone fractures are not just painful and debilitating, they can be life-threatening, especially fractures in the hip and spine.

What is pregnancy-lactation osteoporosis?

Most women develop osteoporosis during and after menopause, when estrogen levels drop. Few women, however, develop a rare condition called pregnancy-lactation osteoporosis characterized by fractures immediately postpartum when the skeleton is vulnerable. When a baby is born, their skeleton contains 30 g of calcium, 20 g of phosphorous, and 0.8 g of magnesium. Ordinarily, the mother metabolizes calcium differently during pregnancy to give her baby the 30 g of calcium needed for their skeleton, resulting in minimal bone density loss in the mother’s bones. Sometimes, however, the mother can’t make up for the calcium taken by her baby and her own bones suffer, leading to osteoporosis in rare and serious cases. Jenny is one of the few women in the United States who have a formal diagnosis of pregnancy-lactation osteoporosis. Although to an extreme, this shows how taxing postpartum when breastfeeding may be and just how important it is for new mothers to ensure they are getting the needed nutrition for their new stage of life.