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From Exercise To Hormone Replacement Therapy For Women in Littleton, CO, You Can Slow Bone Loss As You Age.
Women’s bones are smaller than a man’s — and less dense, for that matter — to start with. And then perimenopause hits, making bone loss a prevalent concern for women because estrogen is critical for bone remodeling and maintaining bone strength.
According to the Mayo Clinic, fractures are the most common health concern for women during the aging process.
So what’s a woman to do?
You can help protect your bone health with hormone replacement therapy for women in Littleton, CO, and a few tips that support bone density.
Stand strong in the face of bone loss with hormone replacement therapy.
Why Bone Loss Happens to Women
Before getting into solutions, let’s take a moment to discuss why you’re at risk of bone loss as you age. While estrogen is touted as a hormone necessary for fertility and pregnancy, its effects in the body run much deeper. Estrogen is a double hitter for bone remodeling — the process of your body breaking down old bone and forming new. Specifically, it slows bone resorption and stimulates bone formation.
Not to mention, a majority of calcium in your body is in your bones, and estrogen promotes calcium absorption and plays a role in preventing you from losing it.
What You Can Do to Combat Bone Loss
Your lifestyle has a great deal to do with how much bone loss you’ll experience with age. That happens along with the inevitable estrogen decline. But you can take steps to prevent as much bone loss as possible and reduce your risk of fractures as you age.
Exercise Regularly
Exercise stresses the bones. Yeah, that doesn’t sound good, but it actually is. You don’t notice what it does to your bones, but it stimulates your body to rebuild the bone, making them stronger.
Any weight-bearing physical activity, such as walking, jogging, and dancing, is excellent for stimulating bone repair. When you combine it with resistance training, such as lifting weights or doing push-ups, you’re keeping your entire musculoskeletal system strong.
Because the muscles support your bones, you’ll be less likely to sustain a fall or other injury that could damage your bones. This type of exercise also builds your muscles to take away some of the burden from your bones.
Yoga and other core balance exercises can improve your stability and prevent falls from occurring, which can cause fractures.
Get Enough Calcium and Vitamin D
With calcium being the main component of bones, getting enough in your diet each day is essential. If you don’t receive enough, the bones weaken. Keep in mind that calcium is necessary for other functions in the body as well, including muscle function, nerve transmission, and blood clotting, so just getting a little isn’t enough for bone health.
Ideally, to support all these functions, you need at least 1,000 mg of it if you’re 50 or younger. Once you reach 50, you need at least 1,200 mg per day. You may take a supplement to help you reach this goal, but the most effective way to take in calcium is through diet. These foods are some examples of those rich in this mineral:
- Milk
- Cottage cheese
- Cheese
- Yogurt
- Kale
- Almonds
- Figs
- Oranges
- Blackberries
Calcium can’t work alone in the body; it has a co-dependent relationship with vitamin D. Your body can’t absorb calcium as efficiently without it. Vitamin D helps your digestive tract take in calcium that’ll then circulate through your bloodstream to support bone health.
While the primary source of vitamin D comes from the sun, stimulating its production, you can also take a supplement and consume foods that contain it. Not a lot of foods have it naturally besides egg yolk, fish, cheese, and mushrooms grown in the sun, but a variety of foods are often fortified with it, including:
- Orange juice
- Tofu
- Milk
- Cereal
- Yogurt
Stop Smoking if You Smoke
Although you hear more about the dangers of smoking to your lungs, it’s not good for your bones, either. It hinders calcium absorption, decreases vitamin D production, impairs bone remodeling, causes hormonal disruptions with estrogen, and contributes to inflammation and oxidative stress that break down bone.
Your bones will stay stronger for much longer if you give up this habit now. Fortunately, there are medications, support groups, and more that can help.
Limit Alcohol Intake
You’ve heard that a glass of red wine a day is good for your heart. However, drinking even red wine in excess has a negative impact on your bones. It interferes with calcium absorption, for one. Not to mention, it inhibits the cells that build new bone, while simultaneously stimulating the cells that break down bone tissue.
Look into Hormone Replacement Therapy
As a general recommendation, you may want to start hormone replacement therapy for women once you have signs of perimenopause, but for some women, starting a bit earlier is ideal. Don’t worry if you’re already in menopause; you can still receive treatment.
How it works is you usually receive both estrogen and progesterone therapy because you can’t have one without the other, kind of like the relationship with vitamin D and calcium. Only with progesterone and estrogen, if you take estrogen without progesterone and haven’t had a hysterectomy, your chances of endometrial cancer increase.
Learn more here: Anxiety Treatment Options: How Hormone Therapy for Women and Acupuncture Help
Hormone Replacement Therapy for Women in Littleton, CO
If you’re looking for more ways than just lifestyle changes to keep your bones healthy as you age, contact us at Ageless Expressions for hormone replacement therapy for women. You’ll receive the extra bone support you need along with relief of any perimenopause or menopause symptoms you’re having.
Besides this therapy, we also offer treatments like MonaLisa Touch to assist with unpleasant symptoms like vaginal dryness that can come along with menopause.
Not sure if we’re the right fit for you? Read our reviews to see how other women have regained comfort, confidence, and vitality with our care.
Ready to do more for your bone health? Contact us at (720) 864-1272 to book your appointment and discuss hormone replacement therapy for women. As a reference point, we’re not far from the Douglas H. Buck Community Recreation Center.
