Our topic is bone health. I’m here to share important information with you about what’s needed to keep your bones healthy and your bone density high.

To keep our bones strong and dense, we need certain hormonal combinations: growth hormone – secreted during sleep – thyroid hormone, estrogen, and testosterone. These hormones are essential for our bone health; as you know, bone density begins to decrease after menopause, when estrogen levels drop.

There’s also a hormone that’s bad for our bones, regardless of age: cortisol. Cortisol is the hormone we secrete when we’re stressed. We all experience increased stress throughout the day; this is normal and there’s nothing wrong with that. But we can reduce elevated cortisol levels and the effects of stress on the body through stress management. We should lower cortisol levels with relaxation exercises. Therefore, I think we absolutely need to learn breathing exercises, meditation, and mindfulness. Relaxation is not a luxury, it’s a necessity; let’s all learn this. That cortisol shouldn’t be constantly secreted.

Another essential element for bone health is vitamin D levels. Vitamin D is what holds the calcium that our body produces itself. Therefore, our vitamin D levels must always be high so that our body can continue to produce calcium on its own. For this reason, we should always strive to keep our vitamin D levels above 50.

So, what’s right for bone health isn’t eating kilos of yogurt or drinking liters of milk, but rather controlling our stress, paying attention to our vitamin D levels, and avoiding foods that increase inflammation.

What foods cause inflammation?

– Cow’s milk: Just because it contains calcium doesn’t mean you need to consume kilos of milk, yogurt, and cheese. You can still eat it as a hobby if you want; but don’t expect to get calcium from it. The things listed above are more important. Our bodies can’t utilize this calcium. In fact, many studies show an inverse relationship between consuming cow’s dairy products and osteoporosis. As dairy consumption increases, bone density decreases.

– Sugar, sweets, and all kinds of packaged wafers, carbonated drinks, biscuits, etc.

– Alcohol and cigarettes, first and foremost.

– Lots of pastries and flour-based foods.

Please don’t wait until menopause to think about this. If we can maintain high bone density beforehand, it will benefit us in later years.

With love to all,

Sema