Our London chiropractic clinic, MotionBack, often helps patients who are dealing with issues relating to their bones. Our chiropractors always stress the importance of maintaining good bone health to patients visiting our clinic. After all, strong bones are essential for providing structure to your body, protecting your organs, and facilitating mobility.
In this post, our London chiropractor shares some of the tips that he provides to clients for maintaining strong bones.
Our London Chiropractor’s Tips For Improving Bone Health
Perform Weight Bearing Exercises
A “weight bearing” exercise is one that forces you to work against gravity. This includes activities like weight lifting, body weight exercises, yoga, dancing, hiking, running, gymnastics, and racquet sports.
Several studies have found that weight bearing exercises can improve bone mineral density, bone size, and bone strength. They can also protect against bone loss in people who are suffering from conditions like osteoporosis. Aim for at least 30 minutes of weight bearing exercise on most days of the week.
Eat Calcium-rich Foods
The human body constantly breaks down bone cells and replaces them with new ones. It requires a plentiful supply of calcium to perform this task and maintain healthy bones.
Most adults will need to ingest about 1,000 mg of calcium per day, while teenagers will need 1,300 mg because their bones are growing so rapidly. Older women require about 1,200 mg because they are at greater risk of suffering from a degenerative bone disease like osteoporosis.
Before you run off to eat a large meal that is high in calcium, you should be aware that the body has limits on how much calcium it can ingest in a single meal. Researchers have found that the body will absorb less calcium when you eat a meal with very high calcium levels. This effectively limits your potential intake of calcium to about 500 mg per meal.
This means you should incorporate at least one calcium rich food with each meal. Some of the best foods for boosting calcium levels include cheese, seeds, beans, lentils, milk, sardines, almonds, whey protein, leafy greens, calcium fortified foods (like cereal), tofu, and figs.
Obtain Plenty of Vitamin D and Vitamin K
Both vitamin D and vitamin K play an important role in the maintenance of healthy bones. Vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium, while vitamin K modified a protein that plays an essential role in bone formation.
To obtain more vitamin D, spend time in the sun, take a supplement, drink milk, eat fatty fish, or eat dairy foods. To obtain more vitamin K, eat fermented foods like cheese, sauerkraut and tofu.
Increase Vegetable Intake
As we all know, vegetables are an essential component of a healthy diet — but this is particularly true if you are interested in maintaining strong bones.
Eating a diet high in green and yellow vegetables has been proven to enhance bone mineralisation in children and young adults. Vegetables have also been found to generate anti-oxidants which protect the bones from damage. This can be very helpful for adults suffering from conditions like osteoarthritis.
Add more protein to your diet
Protein is also important for maintaining strong bones. Several studies have found that older women particularly benefit from protein intake as it increases bone density. There has also been a large scale study which that found women who ate more protein had a lower risk of bone fractures.
Visit a Chiropractor Regularly
Visiting our London chiropractors gives you access to a variety of treatments which can help you maintain strong bones. This includes chiropractic adjustments (spinal manipulation), and rehabilitative exercises. Chiropractors can also provide counselling about exercise, nutrition, and dietary supplements to ensure you are taking the actions necessary to have strong bones.
Visiting Our London Chiropractic Clinic – MotionBack
Unfortunately, most patients first visit our chiropractic clinic as they are in pain. However, catching a condition before it gets to this stage can often greatly reduce the amount of treatments required to resolve the cause of the pain and may avoid the pain completely.
Suffering twinges, stiffness, pins and needles, headaches, poor posture and an uneven gait can all be indications of a possible problem with your spine. If you are experiencing any of these symptoms then a visit to our chiropractic clinic may help you avoid further discomfort and pain.
Our experienced and highly rated chiropractors are here to help you. You can book an appointment online at our website here or give us a call on 0207 112 5408.