The positive effect of summer

Vitamins for Building and Maintaining Bones

We’ve all heard of osteoporosis—the disease where bones become weak and more likely to break. While osteoporosis is more common in women, men can get it too, so it’s good to stay vigilant about keeping our bones healthy and strong. 

Calcium: Calcium is one of the most critical nutrients for bone formation. You can get calcium from the dairy products in your diet, such as milk, yogurt, and cheese, or from non-dairy sources such as broccoli, kale, fortified orange juice, and tofu, or from supplements if your daily consumption falls short.

Vitamin D: Our skin synthesizes vitamin D by absorbing UV rays from sunlight. But if you spend too little time outside or if your skin is naturally dark and can’t absorb UV rays, consider supplementing with a good multivitamin. Some dietary sources include the flesh of fatty fish (such as salmon, tuna, and mackerel). 

What is Vitamin D?

Vitamin D is classified as a fat-soluble vitamin, which means that the vitamin D you make and consume from foods and dietary supplements is stored in fat tissue for later use. Without enough vitamin D circulating in your bloodstream, it’s impossible to absorb all the calcium you need. Vitamin D also influences cell growth and immune function, which keeps inflammation in check and keeps your nervous system working properly.*

Strong sunlight triggers vitamin D production in your skin. In theory, you can make all the vitamin D you need for the year with a few minutes of direct exposure to the sun a few times a week during the summer months. In reality, many people do not produce the required vitamin D, either because their skin is unable to absorb it, or they don’t spend enough time outside.

Don’t Skimp on Strength Training

For many people, diet can be the key to unlocking healthy bones, but we often fall short on certain vitamins and minerals that play an essential role in building strong bones. Physical activity and strength training are also key factors in maintaining a strong skeleton and, when combined with the right nutrients, can have long-term bone benefits.

There’s another part of the bone health puzzle—and that’s strength training. The fact that most people don’t strength train in the United States, particularly as we get older, may partially explain why 10 million adults age 50 years and older have osteoporosis.

Strength training—or weight-bearing exercise—stresses your bones (in a good way) and by doing so, increases bone density. How? Cells called osteoblasts are critical to maintaining your bone structure; when you do weight-bearing exercise, the osteoblasts lay down new bone tissue to strengthen the points where the bone is stressed. Do regular strength training (for different parts of the body), and the osteoblasts continue to reinforce the bone, over and over again.

UV, workouts and outdoors

In conclusion, that’s why it’s so important to stay outdoors as much as we can over the summer. Unfortunately, we don’t always have so much time to take care of ourselves and that’s why this part of the year is a good time to make the strengthening workouts slightly shorter so that we have time for a walk, a run, or a bike ride to get our daily amount of UV and store some vitamin D for the long winter ahead