OSTEOPOROSIS & BONE HEALTH THROUGH THE MENOPAUSE
Our bones... we couldn’t stand up or do anything without them! They are the literal skeleton our bodies are built on... We tend to think of them as static, solid structures, but actually they are constantly being broken down, and built up again.
Through childhood and puberty, the focus is on building them up, with peak bone density in our mid 20’s. Bones stay pretty stable until our mid 30’s, when they actually start breaking down, more than they are being built up. After this point, the bones start to become thinner, and, yes, you guessed it, this thinning speeds up during and after menopause.
This is because our Oestrogen levels start dropping. Oestrogen helps the body absorb calcium, which is needed to maintain our bones. It also has an effect on the bones themselves, by helping the cells which absorb bone to break down, so less oestrogen means that the cells which break down bone become more active.
Women can unfortunately lose 20% of their bone mass within 5 to 7 years of the menopause. This can lead to osteoporosis, a condition in which the bones become thin and fragile, meaning they are more likely to fracture or break. Osteopenia is a precursor to osteoporosis, where the bones are weaker than those of a normal person, but not quite as weak as those with osteoporosis.
SO HOW DO WE KEEP OUR BONES AS STRONG AS POSSIBLE TO PREVENT THIS HAPPENING?
Ideally, we would be looking after our bones from a young age! The stronger they are when they hit their peak in our 20’s, the longer they will take to thin. But whatever age you are, you can start looking after them now, even if you’ve been diagnosed with osteopenia or osteoporosis already.
One of our Club Spirit members actually reversed her osteopenia, by starting to exercise more, and including Body Weight and Resistance Training into her weekly schedule!
Which takes us to our Exercise suggestions to help protect our bone density…
EXERCISE:
- As you may already know, Body Weight and Resistance Training Exercises are one of the best ways to keep stimulating your bones to renew.
- Walking, running, dancing, squats, press ups, tricep dips, planks are all examples of exercises where we use our own body weight to put the skeleton under some stress to trigger new bone growth.
- Resistance Training means using weights or resistance bands to increase muscle strength and stimulate bone renewal.
- Try and do these types of workouts 3 times per week. We have lots of these workouts in The Video Library if you are a Club Spirit Member. (If you're not yet, you can join here)
- Pilates and Yoga are also great for keeping your muscles and bones healthy as they both use a lot of Body Weight Resistance exercise (and are also part of the Club Spirit Membership).
DIET:
- It's really important we get enough calcium, vitamin D, magnesium, zinc, and vitamin C in our diets to help keep our bones strong.
- Everyone thinks of milk and dairy products as the best source of calcium, but through the menopause dairy products are not the best thing to overload on. They can add excess oestrogen to our bodies, and many women become sensitive to lactose, the sugar in milk, through the menopause. It can also make our bodies too acidic leading to inflammation, which is the start of all chronic diseases.
Many cows are injected with Growth Hormone to make them produce more milk quickly. This gets passed on to us, which is also thought to be implicated in triggering some cancers. So if you are going to have dairy products, make sure it comes from cows organically raised that have not been treated with Growth Hormone.
If you’re avoiding dairy products, there are great vegan alternatives you can use like almond milk, coconut milk, hemp milk, and coconut kefir. Make sure you pick the unsweetened versions to avoid a big sugar hit. Many of the flavoured ones have a lot of added sugar, so check the ingredients!
- Did you know that leafy green vegetables contain about twice as much calcium as milk? If you’re avoiding dairy, fill up on things like broccoli, kale, bok choy, watercress and cabbage. Try to have a couple of cupfuls of these every day in smoothies or salads.
- More plant based sources include soybeans (like edamame), beans, peas and lentils, tahini (made from sesame seeds), chia seeds, flax seeds, and almonds.
- If you're eating fish, sardines contain 5 times as much calcium as milk, because of the soft bones.
-Get plenty of Vitamin C too by adding peppers, kiwi, lemon, oranges, sweet potato to your diet too.
-Vitamin D is also required to help the body absorb calcium and magnesium from the intestines, which are needed for bones.
This is mostly made via the skin through sun exposure, but 10-15 mins a day will build up your vitamin D levels. You don’t need to bake in it all day long!
Vitamin D is also found in oily fish, eggs, and fortified cereals.
THINGS TO AVOID:
- Unfortunately, for anyone who likes a tipple, regular alcohol consumption can really disrupt the bone renewal process.
- Tannins in tea can block calcium absorption, so try to have at tea at least an hour before or after eating.
- Smoking can decrease bone density by 25%.
- Being too sedentary!
So make sure you add some Body Weight and Resistance Training workouts to your weekly schedule.
And fill up on a colourful mix of veg and fruit every day to keep our bones strong and healthy through and post menopause.
Remember if you need extra support and guidance through the menopause sign up to our mailing list and …
Please don't suffer through the menopause alone. Millions of women are feeling the same way.
Dr. Clare & Sara x
REFERENCES:
Primary osteoporosis in postmenopausal women https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5643776/
Bone Mineral Density Changes during the Menopause Transition in a Multiethnic Cohort of Women https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2266953/
UK clinical guideline for the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5397452/
Gut microbiota and metabolite alterations associated with reduced bone mineral density or bone metabolic indexes in postmenopausal osteoporosis. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7244073/
Dairy, soy, and risk of breast cancer: those confounded milks https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32095830/
Pituitary growth hormone and growth hormone-releasing hormone receptor genes and associations with mammographic measures and serum growth hormone https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16284391/