Having healthy bones & joints is the best solution to keep Arthritis condition away. Here are 8 recommended guidelines to keep your bones and joints healthy –
1. Maintain a Healthy Weight
Maintaining your weight within a healthy range is one of the best things you can do for your bones and joints. Weight-bearing joints like your knees, hip, and back, have to support your body weight so the more you weigh, the more work they have to do.
2. Exercise
Engaging in strength training and weight-bearing exercises can help keep your bones and joints healthy. Strength training exercises are not only beneficial for increasing muscle mass but also help in protecting against bone loss. High impact activities like dancing, skipping, jogging or running are great, but if you have frail bones or a history of falls, low-impact exercise like walking, swimming, cycling is also beneficial.
Practicing Yoga daily as a routine is an ideal way to keep your joints healthy. Yoga poses not only help bring more fluidity and flexibility to the joints but also strengthen the muscles around the joints to give more overall stability. Ardha Matsyendrasana, Trikonasana, Vrikshasana, Veerabhadrasana, Setu Bandhasana are few effective yoga poses that are recommended for Arthritis.
3. Perfect your Posture
Slouching is not good for your joints. Standing and sitting straight would help to protect your joints from your neck to your knees. When doing activities like lifting and carrying, following the right posture is important for both your joints and bones.
4. Eat Right
In order to have a good bone and joint health, an adequate supply of the right nutrients is mandatory. Foods rich in amino acids, omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties rich foods like dairy products, eggs, nuts and seeds, broccoli, berries, ginger etc. are recommended for bone and joint health.
5. Get enough Calcium and Vitamin D
To build strong bones and teeth and keep them strong as you age, you need to consume enough Calcium. Good food sources of calcium include milk, leafy green vegetables and beans. Other than Calcium, Vitamin D is essential for bone health since it helps the body absorb the former. Sources of Vitamin D include Sunlight, fish, eggs, milk, mushrooms and cod liver oil.
6. Protein
Getting enough protein is important for healthy bones. Having a low protein diet decreases calcium absorption and may also affect rates of bone formation and breakdown. 100 grams of protein daily if wisely consumed with plenty of plant foods and calcium intake is recommended.
7. Don’t smoke and drink excessively
Excessive use of tobacco and alcohol consumption is linked to loss of bone mineral density. Alcohol also affects the liver thereby affecting the function of vitamin D — the bone vitamin, thus causing weak bones. Hence, it’s recommended to stop drinking and smoking for a better bone and joint health.
8. Avoid too much salt, sodas and fizzy drinks
Foods with too much salt causes us to lose calcium through urine to release that extra salt. Also, fizzy drinks and sodas may limit our ability to use the calcium we consume because of its phosphorous content.
Bone and joint health are important at all stages of life.However, having strong bones and joints are something people tend to take for granted since the symptoms for arthritis, bone loss, etc. appear only when the condition gets advanced or worsened.
Fortunately, all you need to do, is to follow the aforesaid ways and lifestyle habits to keep your bones and joints healthy.
