You can’t appreciate a strong bone until your experience a broken one. While overall bone growth stops in your twenties, you can count on them staying relatively strong and stable until your 50th birthday. After that milestone age, bone loss accelerates and rebuilding slows down. This is especially true for women who enter menopause.
You don’t have to accept that weak bones are part of aging. There are ways to change it. Although exercise and healthy eating habits can help, a supplement may be a better option to maintain strong bones after 50. The vitamin-D supplement is a great way to increase bone strength and reduce bone loss. Calcium is essential for bone growth. However, you don’t need to supplement calcium if your diet includes foods. Women need 1,200 mg of calcium per day after age 51. Men need 1,000 mg. You can easily meet your calcium requirements by eating a small amount of dairy, soy or canned fish, fortified foods and drinks, and consuming a few servings.
Vitamin D is necessary to absorb calcium, a crucial component of strong bones. “Our vitamin D levels decrease as we age, often due to reduced sun exposure,” states Amanda Lane, MS, RD, CDCES, founder of Healthful Lane Nutrition, LLC. Adults between the ages of 51 and 70 require at least 15 micrograms of vitamins daily.
Vitamin D supplementation may be necessary for you to get the best nutrition.
Vitamin D can be difficult to find in food. Only foods that naturally have vitamin D include fish, egg yolks, beef liver, egg yolks and mushrooms, which have been exposed to UV light. Vitamin D can be added to dairy products and other beverages.
Although your body can produce vitamin D from sun exposure, this process gets less efficient with age. Vitamin D deficiency can also be caused by dark skin and living in northern latitudes.
The best vitamin D supplements
Vitamin D supplements are available in D3 and D2. Studies show that vitamin D3 has higher effectiveness in raising vitamin D levels, so it is the best option.
Always consult your pharmacist or doctor before adding any supplement. Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin. This means that excess Vitamin D is stored in fat tissues. It is easier to overdose on vitamin D than on water-soluble vitamins, which your body can eliminate more quickly.