Self-care for your bones

Self-care for your Bones

💀The skeleton is made up of bones and held together by joints.  The functions include: support, movement, protection, making blood cells and storage of calcium, phosphates and fat.  

💀A good amount of calcium is required for our body to function properly, calcium is necessary for muscle function, nerve conduction and more.  

💣Why you need to pay attention: if you are deficient in calcium, your body takes it from your bones.  So a calcium deficiency makes your bones weaker. 

💣Why you should care: diseases like osteoporosis occur when your bones become weak due to a lack of calcium.  We need to start developing strong bones from childhood because as we age, our bones become thinner and brittle. This is especially common if we lead a sedentary lifestyle, or have poor diet. It is also common for women after menopause.  As we go through menopause, our production of estrogen lessens. But, estrogen is needed for healthy bone formation.  Therefore, proper self- care for our skeletal system is necessary early in life and throughout in order to take good care of our bones. 

💀Simple self-care tips for bone health💀

🏃🏽‍♀️weight bearing exercise is super important: weight bearing exercise like walking, running and aerobics make your bones work harder and they adapt by basically building more bone.  

🥬calcium: make sure you are absorbing enough calcium.  Calcium is not only found in dairy products, some other sources include dark green leafy vegetables, almonds, oranges, beans and broccoli. 

🧁try to cut back on sugar and salt: I know it’s hard, but try.  Both sugar and salt are linked to having various negative effects on the body like inflammation and, in the case of salt, low potassium, which weakens our bones. 

🕴pay attention to posture: bad posture puts pressure on parts of our spine, which weakens it.  This can cause skeletal and joint problems.  Try yoga or tai chi to improve posture.  

🤸‍♂️spine movement: keep your spine moving.  Lack of movement puts pressure on your spine.  Try doing spine stretch exercises daily or incorporate some yoga or Pilates into your exercise routine.  

🌞 vitamin D: vitamin D is essential for proper bone formation.  So find the time to go outside daily.  Maybe go for a walk and get your vitamin D at the same time.

Source: Deeply Holistic, Pip Waller