Most of us know that eating foods rich in bone building calcium, magnesium etc and getting plenty of bone building exercise are essential for keeping osteoporosis at bay. But did you know that stress management may be just as important?

Studies show that stress can be bad for your bones. This is because when you are stressed your body goes into overdrive and the stress hormone adrenaline is released to help you deal with the stress by either fighting or running away. The problem is this hormone should only be released during life threatening situations but the stresses many women face today, such as juggling home and work, or getting stuck in a traffic jam are demanding and irritating but not life threatening. Our bodies, however, can’t tell the difference between different kinds of stresses and as many of us lead stressful lives adrenaline is pumped out on a daily or hourly basis. Our bodies think our lives are in danger and put us in stress mode, ready to fight or run.

 

If this situation continues for too long the adrenal glands which pump out our adrenaline get exhausted. This is bad news for osteoporosis prevention on two counts. First, because the adrenal glands produce osteoporosis fighting oestrogen when our bodies reach the menopause and the ovaries no longer produce this hormone and second because when you are stressed your energy is diverted away from digestion which means that your body doesn’t get the nutrients it needs to keep your bones strong. If you are worried about your stress levels then you can take the Adrenal Stress Test.  It is an easy test to do because you collect four samples of saliva over the course of a day which are then sent to the lab and analysed for your levels of cortisol which is the main stress hormone along with adrenaline.  This test will show you how stressed you and what you need to do about it.  You can then re-test the levels three months later and see the difference (see the Resources Page for information on how to order this test).

 

So to protect your bones and your sanity try the following stress management technique when you feel the temperature rising:

 

Slow it down. Inhale for five seconds and then exhale for five seconds. Do this for about two minutes. Alternatively you could take five minutes every hour to shut down and think of nothing but your perfect situation. This could be a dream holiday or simply thinking about doing nothing at all. You’ll be surprised at how effectively this can lower stress levels. Day dreaming is a natural stress busting technique.

Exercise regularly and eat more calcium-rich foods such as canned salmon or sardines with bones, and dark leafy green vegetables such as collard greens, mustard greens, and kale. Avoid foods that deplete calcium, such as soft fizzy drinks and high protein diets.

Q: I have been diagnosed with an early menopause (early 40s) and have been told I have low bone density.  Is it possible to increase bone density in your opinion or just maintain the bone density you have and stop it getting worse?

A: This is one of those situations where it is ‘never too late’. You can always make improvements in bone density no matter what age you are, although for some women that increase may be smaller than others. It requires though a combination of approaches including dietary changes, vitamin and mineral supplementation and exercise. Obviously the sooner you can make changes the more chance of putting on a greater amount of bone density. 

First of all take a look at your diet and make sure that you are not consuming a lot of foods and drink that can deplete your bones because of their acid effect on the body. I have covered this aspect of bone helath in great detail in my book ‘Osteoporosis – the silent epidemic’.

One of calcium’s roles in the body is to act as a neutraliser. When you eat too much acid food your body calls up calcium reserves from your bones to counteract the acidity. We know that women who consume the most acid-producing diets have four times as many hip fractures as those whose diets are the least acid producing.  One of the most highly acid-forming substances, which cause most calcium to be leached from your bones, is protein, particularly in red meat. 

 

The best way to make your diet more alkaline is simply to aim to have more alkaline-forming foods (fruit and vegetables) each day than acid (animal protein) and choose good quality animal protein like fish or eggs. You also need to watch what you drink as caffeine causes you to lose calcium and soft fizzy drinks will also cause a leeching effect of calcium from the bones.

 

You need to add in certain vitamins and minerals to make sure that you are ‘feeding’ your bones.  The first nutrient that comes to mind is calcium. But many other nutrients are equally crucial for healthy bones, and these include magnesium, vitamin C, vitamin D, zinc and boron. 

 

• Calcium – is essential for bone health and not only improves bone density but also reduces the risk of fractures.  Choose supplements that contain calcium citrate rather than calcium carbonate.  Calcium carbonate is literally chalk and a difficult form of calcium to absorb.  Calcium citrate is almost 30% more absorbable than calcium carbonate.
• Magnesium – helps to metabolise calcium and converts vitamin D to the active form necessary to ensure that calcium is efficiently absorbed. 
• Vitamin D – one of the important ‘bone’ vitamins and it is now thought that having good levels of vitamin D is more important than calcium.
• Vitamin C – important in the manufacture of collagen, which is a sort of ‘cement’ that holds the bone matrix together.   Choose vitamin C as ascorbate rather than the acidic form – ascorbic acid.
• Boron – an important mineral in relation to osteoporosis as it plays a crucial part in the conversion of vitamin D into its active form, which, in turn, is necessary for calcium absorption.

 

(I use a good ‘bone’ supplement in the clinic called OsteoPlus which contains all of the above nutrients plus digestive enzymes for maximum absorption – see the Resources Page)

 

And last by no means least you musst include exercise. When it comes to bones and exercise, it is definitely a case of  ‘use it or lose it’. Use a combination of weight-bearing exercises like walking and dancing and weight resistance like bicep curls and lunges to creat mechanical stress which helps put calcium in the bones.