Aging and Osteoporosis

Focus on the Physical

Osteoporosis triggers unwanted changes to your physical health and well-being.  Aging triggers unwanted changes to your physical health and well-being.  Reducing stress through physical interventions can help slow both osteoporosis and aging.  Here’s how:

• Improve diet. There is no surprise in the idea that you are what you eat.  If you eat many overly processed foods that are filled with of sugar, you will not feel up to your potential.  Luckily, diets that your doctor recommends to help with osteoporosis tend to be helpful in slowing down the aging process.  Foods high in calcium like low-fat milks and cheese are a no-brainer.  Add many dark, leafy vegetables and lean meats into your routine.  Proteins help to reduce hunger and weight, which will improve your physical health.  Beyond foods, ask your doctor about supplements for B vitamins to improve energy and ones that aid the production of elastin and collagen.  These help repair the daily damage caused by life.  Your cells will love your new diet.
• Improve sleep. Without sleep, you cannot function at your best level.  When you get longer periods of deep, restful sleep, your body is working to repair damage by growing new cells that replace old ones.  Specifically in people with osteoporosis, the process of bone rebuilding or “bone remodeling” is slowed by many factors related to aging.  Increasing your sleep can help to balance the losses related to less estrogen production.  Experiment with bed times and naps to find the highest quality and quantity of sleep with 9 – 10 hours being the target.  If sleep has been a problem, seek out information on ways to improve your sleep hygiene to build good bedtime habits.
• Improve exercise. The importance and benefit can never be overstated.  If you are not exercising currently, change your routines.  If you are exercising, look for ways to diversify and build upon your routines.  Walking is a fantastic form of exercise, but doing only one type of exercise can diminish the helpful effects.  Work with your doctor to add to or modify your exercise habits.  Try new challenges while having awareness that some types of exercise might not be right for you.  Being active helps your body produce needed components that lower your stress and let you look and feel better.  Stretching, weight lifting, swimming, yoga are only a few of the options available to someone that is serious about exercise.  Forget the excuses, get moving and lower your stress.

Focus on the Mental

Now that physical changes to limit stress are a priority, you can focus on mental measures to reduce stress.  Spend a balanced amount of time working to improve you from the inside out as you do from the outside in.  This is especially beneficial since making psychological changes can be more within your control than trying to physical changes.  Here’s how:

• Like yourself. Whether this item sounds overly simplistic or too far out of reach, it is completely necessary.  Building self-esteem is a process that cannot be accomplished overnight so keep your efforts consistent for a period of months.  What do you like about yourself?  What are you good at?  What do other people like about you?  List as many as you can and review them often.  If you cannot like yourself, the aging process feels more negative and overly harsh.  This will worsen mood and perceptions that you have of yourself.  Improving your self-worth will cushion the blow of aging and reduce stress.

Next page: additional ways to reduce stress and improve mental health.