This new year, maybe you should resolve to eat more grapefruit. I know, it sounds like a bizarre request, but hear me out. Nutritionally speaking, grapefruit is a hero among fruits. Recent studies have found that eating this great fruit (get it? ha ha!) can slow down bone loss when eaten regularly. What, bone density doesn't interest you? Methinks it will when you break your hip doing the hustle.

Bone Density aside, here's an even more desirable reason to gobble up grapefruit -- it can help you lose weight. Eat it on a daily basis -- either in it's original or juice form -- and it will help you peel off those holiday pounds. Plus, with all the water and fiber, it's a great food to help you detox after New Year's Eve.

Just try to avoid piling on too much sugar -- that's just counter-productive.

Source

Calcium is a vital nutrient for strong bones and teeth. For women in particular, calcium is important to help ward off osteoporosis later in life. Osteoporosis causes bones to weaken and become brittle -- increasing the risk of breaking bones. Calcium works together with other nutrients -- such as vitamin D -- to build strong bones.

So is milk your best source of calcium? Contrary to what we always learned in our youth, it may not be. In fact a Harvard study concluded that there is no evidence that several glasses of milk each day contribute to stronger bones. There are other dietary sources of calcium beyond milk. Give some of these a try:

• Cheese
• Sardines
• Broccoli
• Dark, leafy greens such as kale and collard greens
  
• Almonds
• Yogurt
• Rhubarb

Some other foods, such as orange juice, can be fortified with calcium as well. Pair a calcium-rich diet with weight-bearing exercise and you've got a recipe for good bone health.

Source

For female runners, all those miles can eventually do a number on your bone-density levels, says a recent report from the Journal of Athletic Training.

To help remedy this issue, you can do two things. The first, which is the one people suggest most often for issues related to bone health, is to make sure that you're getting enough calcium in your diet. If you're not a milk drinker, there are a number of other foods that contain a good deal of this nutrient, as do supplements. The second step you can take to help protect your bones is to start lifting weights.

Research from the University of Connecticut shows that resistance training can increae bone-density levels, as well as keep them close to where they should be as women age.

Source

Researchers found that certain antidepressants, such as Lexapro and Prozac, can lead to bone density loss.

Great -- that will really lift people's spirits.

After analyzing data from a study following 2,722 older women (all of which had bone-density measurements taken five years apart), they uncovered a potential link between selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and bone density loss. The results from this study were published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

If you are taking antidepressants, you may want to talk to your doctor about this matter and, if he or she suggests taking a calcium supplement (or an increase in calcium-rich dietary choices), doing so may be a way to mitigate this potential risk.

Source

If you're over 65, now is the time to look after health, especially if haven't been doing so up until now. And the most important thing if to talk to your doctor, to be fully honest about your health history and to get the important tests done, no matter how unappealing they may seem. Want to know which are the most important? According to AOL Body, these are ones you can't miss; your life could depend on it:

• A hearing and eye exam
• A skin cancer screening
• A colonoscopy
• Regular blood pressure screenings
• A bone density test
• A blood sugar test
• Cholesterol screening

For more advice on tests and screening, click here.

Source

Women taking birth control pills may need to keep an eye on their calcium intake, as researchers have discovered that oral contraceptives can decrease bone density. This is especially problematic, because the time during which it's most effective for women to optimize bone mass is adolescence and young adulthood -- a time when women are most-likely to use birth control.

It's feared that a decrease in bone density during these years can lead to osteoporosis later in life.

Subsequently, it's important that women who are using birth control -- especially those under 18 -- meet or exceeding the Recommended Daily Allowance for calcium. (The RDA for women age 9-18 is 1,300 milligrams a day, and is 1,000 milligrams a day for women age 19-50.)

Some calcium-rich foods that you might try include: milk (300 mg of calcium in 1 cup), yogurt (150-200 mg in 1 cup), pinto beans (140 mg in 1 cup) and almonds (80 mg in 1 cup).

Source

If you want your kids to have stronger bones and avoid osteoporosis later in life, encouraging gymnastics and other high-impact sports activities before they hit puberty could really help. Research shows that girls who participate in gymnastics, particularly artistic gymnastics, have much greater bone density than girls who are active in other less strenuous activities.

The keys are jumping, sprinting, and rapid direction changes, which all put stress on the bones and encourage them to grow stronger. So some sports besides gymnastics can also be good for bone development such as basketball, soccer, and lacrosse to name a few.

Source

When you hear that lifting weights helps people look younger you probably think along the lines of exercise and toning equals weight loss and a younger physique. And while that's obviously true, it's not the whole story. Strength training in particular can actually help you look younger from the inside out by encouraging your body to produce more of a particular growth hormone that is linked with age-related muscle loss and bone density changes.

As we age our bodies slowly decrease the amount of growth hormone produced, but strength training is a natural and healthy way to counteract this process. Just one more reason not to skip the gym!

Source

If you don't get enough elemental calcium (hint: more than and from a better source than milk) and you've easily broken bones before, you may want to invest in a bone density test in the near future to see just how strong or brittle your bones are.

Osteoporosis is probably the best-known condition for weak bones, but you want to see if your bone condition is strong or weak before the damage has been done, and an easy bone density test can accomplish this.

If anything, a bone density test can point to lifestyle changes that need to be made, as in eating the correct foods and strengthening those bones through resistive exercises on a regular basis. After all, those bones will be holding you up for a lifetime.

Source