Tips for Helping Your Elderly Loved One to Prevent Osteoporosis

Does your elderly loved one have osteoporosis? If so, they might be suffering. This disease causes a lot of pain. However, if your loved one doesn’t have osteoporosis yet, there are some tips that you can use to help your loved one to prevent osteoporosis in the first place. While they still might develop osteoporosis as they age, these tips can push the condition off for longer.

Increasing Protein Intake

Senior Care Spring Branch, TX: Seniors and Osteoporsis

One of the tips for helping your elderly loved one to prevent osteoporosis is by increasing their protein intake. Whether you or your loved one’s senior care providers are doing the shopping, there should be an increase in protein put into the card. There are far too many elderly adults that are being hospitalized due to fractures from weakened bones. This is caused by not getting enough protein. You can help to prevent this from happening by increasing your loved one’s protein intake.

Vitamin D and Calcium Levels

You should also have your elderly loved one’s Vitamin D and calcium levels checked. Both of these things help to keep your loved one’s bones strong. The problem is that many elderly adults aren’t getting enough Vitamin D or calcium. If you don’t know how much Vitamin D or calcium your loved one needs, there are resources such as the National Osteoporosis Foundation that can help.

Regular Physical Activity

If you want to help your elderly loved one to prevent osteoporosis you should make sure they are getting regular physical activity. Exercising helps the bone to regrow and it improves bone density, as well. You should make sure your loved one is exercising for a minimum of 30 minutes every day. They can walk, swim, or do resistance training to boost their bone health.

Weight Management

Another way to help prevent osteoporosis in your elderly loved one is through weight management. People who are overweight or obese feel much weaker. In addition, the excess weight on their bones is not healthy. It is important that your loved one maintains a healthy weight. You can help your loved one to manage their weight through exercise and nutritious eating.

Quit Smoking

If your elderly loved one is a smoker, this could be causing bone density loss. The reason for this is because smoking interferes with the absorption of calcium. If you can help your loved one to quit smoking, you can improve their bone health.

These are some of the tips for helping your elderly loved one to prevent osteoporosis. If you can help your loved one with these things, you can improve their bone health.

 

If you or an aging loved one are considering Senior Care in Spring Branch, TX, contact the caring staff at Personal Caregiving Services at 832-564-0338. Providing Care in Houston, Bellaire, West University Place, Katy, and Sugar Land and the surrounding areas.

 

Sources

Calcium and Vitamin D

https://www.bones.nih.gov/health-info/bone/bone-health/exercise/exercise-your-bone-health

https://www.bones.nih.gov/health-info/bone/osteoporosis/conditions-behaviors/bone-smoking

Sid Gerber