While bone mass loss will happen as people get older, that doesn’t mean we should just let it get severe enough to lead to health issues. There are many things that your elderly loved one and home care services aides can do to prevent loss of bone mass.
Keep reading here for the top tips on how your senior and their home care services aides can start doing this today.
Nutritional Management
One of the top ways that your elderly loved one can prevent loss of bone mass is by managing their nutrition. This is actually one of the best ways to maintain bone health. The most important things for your elderly loved one to add to their diet include Vitamin D and calcium. This means that your elderly loved one should add more nuts, cheese, yogurt, whole milk, leafy greens, egg yolks, and tuna to their diet. They should spend some time every day outside, as well.
Exercising
Another way that your elderly loved one can prevent loss of bone mass is by exercising. In order to keep their bones strong, they need to do weight-bearing exercises, muscle-strengthening exercises, and flexibility exercises. In addition to doing these exercises, your elderly loved one should make sure they stretch before and after their workouts. This way, they don’t risk getting injured while exercising. You or a home care services provider may want to be with your elderly loved one when they are exercising to keep them from falling.
Making Other Lifestyle Adjustments
Your elderly loved one should start by making a nutritional plan and exercising regularly. However, there are some other lifestyle adjustments that can help them to prevent loss of bone mass, as well. The two best things they can do are to quit smoking and quit drinking alcohol – if they do these things. By making both of these changes, they can significantly lower their risk of loss of bone mass as they age.
Following These Tips with Home Care Services Help
The truth is that many elderly people believe that loss of bone mass is just going to happen no matter what. Sure, there is some loss of bone mass that may happen and there may not be anything that can be done about it. However, for the most part, there are some things that your elderly loved one can do to prevent loss of bone mass. If they start by managing their diet, exercising regularly, stop smoking, and quit drinking alcohol, they can make a huge impact on their risk of losing bone mass. If you are still concerned about your elderly loved one’s loss of bone mass, you can schedule an appointment with them and their doctor to talk about it further.
Sources: https://www.bones.nih.gov/health-info/bone/bone-health/exercise/exercise-your-bone-health
https://medlineplus.gov/bonedensity.html