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Osteoporosis prevention
The National Osteoporosis Foundation offers these tips to help prevent, or slow, osteoporosis:
- Reduce your risk factors. Quitting smoking is particularly important.
- Perform weight-bearing exercises - walking, dancing, lifting weights. (While swimming and cycling are great cardiovascular exercise, they're not weight-bearing.)
- Get 1,000-1,200 mg of calcium daily (adults). Food is the best source, but you might need calcium-fortified foods and/or calcium supplements. If you do take supplements, spread them out. Calcium is absorbed best when taken 500 mg or less at a time.
- Get 800-1,200 international units (IU) of vitamin D daily. Vitamin D is manufactured in the skin following direct sun exposure, so exposing the hands, arms and face to the sun 10-15 minutes three times a week (depending on your skin sensitivity) is enough to meet the body's vitamin D needs.
If you can't spend time in the sun, take supplements or get vitamin D through your diet (major sources include vitamin D-fortified dairy products, egg yolks, saltwater fish and liver).
- If you're over 65, menopausal or have any of the osteoporosis risk factors, get screened.
Hospital dietitians, exercise physiologists and other specialists can work with Bone Health & Osteoporosis patients to help them make these important lifestyle changes.
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