How Can Parents Keep Their Kids Away From Osteoporosis?

Dr Ajay Kumar S P shares seven tips to prevent osteoporosis in kids.

World Osteoporosis Day 2022: Most parents understand the importance of encouraging healthy eating habits in their children and the role of calcium in developing solid bones. But did you know that it's equally crucial to consume a lot of fruits and vegetables while limiting your intake of salt and animal protein? The majority of kids have no trouble growing normal, healthy bones. As living tissue, bone is constantly being formed, broken down, and rebuilt. A range of factors, such as nutrition, exercise routines, hormones, heredity, and specific disorders, can impact the calcium cycle and other minerals that bones absorb and release throughout life. Genetics, which determines between 60 and 80 per cent of the variations, has the most significant impact on this cycle, followed by hormones that control growth and puberty.

In children, bones tend to grow slightly faster than they break down. This cycle starts to change a little after adolescence, so bone formation and decomposition typically occur at the same rate. Unfortunately, bone remodelling often goes in the opposite direction later in life, with more bone being broken down than being rebuilt. Depending on various lifestyle and nutritional choices, the degree of this weakening can vary from hardly perceptible to a severe illness termed osteoporosis. Between childhood and age 55, the minerals in a child's skeleton are entirely replaced (or recycled) five times. It can significantly enhance bone health by concentrating on practices encouraging the bone formation and reducing bone breakdown.

DR. AJAY KUMAR S P, Consultant - Spine Care, Manipal Hospital Varthur, shares seven tips to prevent osteoporosis in kids

Promoting Bone Building

Collagen (the substance used to construct joints and other human tissues), magnesium, water, calcium, phosphorus, and other minerals form the matrix of bones. Alongside this, making new bone requires specialized cells. The most significant actions your child can take to support the activity of these bone-building cells are listed below:

1. Get moving! Play and exercise every day
2. Consume vitamin D supplements or get it from the sun
3. Consume plant-based foods and fortified foods to obtain calcium
4. Follow a healthy diet that includes vegetables and fruit

Exercise

• Exercise gives bones a reason to live. In addition, bones adapt to stress by growing stronger and denser, especially during weight-bearing activities like jogging, soccer, basketball, and weightlifting. So the most helpful thing your child can do to support their bone health is perhaps to be physically active.
• According to a study of women 45 years and older, teenagers who exercised four or more times per week were only one-fourth as likely to fracture a hip as those who exercised once or not at all per week. In addition, you may support your kids in developing solid bones by encouraging them to spend less time on the computer and get up off the couch to engage in more physical hobbies.

Fruits And Vegetables

Will a bowl of vegetarian chilli, a glass of orange juice, or a crisp salad aid in developing strong bones?

• Most studies show that consuming a diet high in veggies and fruits can help maintain bone health. For example, according to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition's research, increasing fruit and vegetable consumption throughout the teen years increases bone density in adults. In addition, it has been demonstrated that several minerals, including vitamin C, vitamin K, potassium, and magnesium, rich in fruits, vegetables, and other plant foods, support bone health.
• Citrus fruits, tomatoes, peppers, and other fruits and vegetables include vitamin C, which is necessary for producing collagen, the connective tissue to which minerals adhere when the bone is created.
• Vitamin K is thought to stimulate bone formation. It can be easily found in beans, soy products, and some fruits and vegetables, but it is most prevalent in dark leafy greens like kale and spinach.
• In addition to speeding up bone formation, potassium also reduces calcium loss from the body. Potassium is abundant in various fruits, vegetables, beans, oranges, and potatoes, among other foods.
• Magnesium, like calcium, is an essential bone mineral. According to studies, more muscular bones are related to higher magnesium consumption. Legumes and green leafy vegetables, "beans and greens," are great providers of magnesium.
• Fruits and vegetables are also essential for what they do. Some foods, especially meat, cheese, fish, and grains, make the blood more acidic when the digestion and metabolising. These foods add to the body's "acid load."

When this happens, bone minerals, especially calcium, are often pulled from the bones to neutralize the acids. The acid-base scales are tipped in the opposite direction by diets high in fruits and vegetables, making it simpler for bones to retain calcium.

Vitamin D

The hormone called vitamin D is created when sunlight hits the skin. It is crucial in forming bones and regulates how your body uses calcium.

Calcium From Plant Sources

Every day, children and adults lose calcium from their bodies, so it must be replenished. Greens and beans both are rich calcium sources. Also, numerous vegetables, such as broccoli, brussels sprouts, collards, kale, mustard greens, turnip greens, and others, are rich sources of highly absorbable calcium.

Avoiding Excess Bone Loss

Calcium and other minerals are broken and discharged into the bloodstream as part of the regular bone-recycling process. These minerals are excreted in urine after being filtered through the kidneys. The best way to safeguard bones is to keep this loss to a minimum. The following are crucial actions you and your child can take to prevent excessive bone loss:

1. Limit salty foods
2. Avoid protein from animal sources
3. Keep children away from smoking
4. Avoid caffeine

Putting It All Together

As a parent, you already have a lot of reasons to be concerned. However, bone health for your child does not have to be one of them. Children can stay on the right path with the help of a few rules, including a diet rich in grains, legumes, vegetables, and fruit, as well as regular exercise.