Osteopenia is a disease that occurs when your bones are weaker than normal, but not so far gone that they break easily. Think of it as a midpoint between healthy bones and osteoporosis. It usually occurs after the age of 50, although the exact age depends on how strong your bones are when you are born. If they are hardy, you may never get osteopenia. Osteopenia is not inevitable; diet and exercise can help your bones remain dense and strong for decades, but some people are genetically prone to it. Women are also more likely to get it than men.
What Causes Osteopenia?
This disease has multiple causes, although the most common include genetics (family predisposition to osteopenia or osteoporosis), and hormonal, including decrease of estrogen, or testosterone. Certain medications, smoking, and excess alcohol consumption may also be causes of osteopenia. A lack of calcium and vitamin D in your diet can be aspects that generate a greater loss of bone density, increasing the probability of you getting osteopenia, or osteoporosis.
Natural Remedies
Load Up On Your Calcium and Vitamin D Foods
Calcium is perhaps the first nutrient you think of when it comes to maintaining healthy bones. However, introducing both calcium and vitamin D to your diet can make your bones dense and strong. That is because vitamin D helps the intestines absorb calcium from the foods we eat. Vitamin D can be absorbed via exposure to natural sunlight, and you can eat tofu or a variety of mushrooms (maitake, Portobello, morel, button, or shiitake). Calcium can be found in spinach, kale, dandelion greens, oats, and these other foods.
Exercise
Exercising may help prevent fractures, stop further bone loss, and increase your bone density. You should include both balance and weight-bearing exercises to your workouts; balance so that you are less likely to suffer a fall, and therefore, a fracture. Weight-bearing exercises, on the other hand, can stimulate the body’s osteoblasts, which are the cells in charge of producing bone formation.
Increase Bone Density With Herbs
Herbs such as dandelion shoots, horsetails, and nettles, can help build strong bones and prevent bone diseases. Dandelion not only contains calcium, it is also rich in boron, a mineral critical to strong bones. Horsetail may improve the bone-building ability of osteoblasts, while nettle contains an abundance of calcium.
Vincent Stevens is the senior content writer at Dherbs. As a fitness and health and wellness enthusiast, he enjoys covering a variety of topics, including the latest health, fitness, beauty, and lifestyle trends. His goal is to inform people of different ways they can improve their overall health, which aligns with Dherbs’ core values. He received his bachelor’s degree in creative writing from the University of Redlands, graduating summa cum laude. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.
