Why Winter Is So Tough on Your Bones: A Breakdown of Seasonal Bone Health Issues
Why Winter Is So Tough on Your Bones: A Breakdown of Seasonal Bone Health Issues
Blog Article
Introduction
With the winter season soon to set in, all of us begin to feel more bone pains, joint stiffness, and higher rates of fracture. While all of us associate winter with cold and flu, neither of these diseases impacts bone health. Winter tends to put some pressure on our bone structure because of a lifestyle change, sun, and body movement. When everyone realizes that the why bones in winter should be looked after, individuals can do as and when necessary so that bones would not weaken during winter.
The main cause of weakening of bones in winter is lack of exposure to sunshine. Sunshine is the natural source of vitamin D, a substance employed in calcium metabolism and bone construction. Daytime is short, but night hours are long, the bad weather keeping human beings indoors in winter. Thus, the skin is kept safely covered to prevent sunshine.
If the body lacks a balanced amount of vitamin D, then the body does not digest calcium and therefore becomes weak and vulnerable to diseases like osteopenia and osteoporosis. It may be a disease of old people as their physical capacity to synthesize vitamin D decreases with age.
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- Sedentary Lifestyle
Low temperature also decreases motivation to exercise and be outside. Lifestyle sedentary adaptation harms bone health because body-bearing actions like walking, running, and strengthening exercises must be done in order to have healthy bones. Immobilization posture also has as a secondary effect muscle stiffness and joint pain, resulting in decreased mobility and susceptibility to fracture and fall.
Children and teens, in their bone-forming years of life, will spend additional winter hours inside, deprived of sunlight and being sedentary—two prerequisites for strong bones.
- Winter Dietary Adjustments
Winter diets will primarily be convenience foods due to fat- and carbohydrate-dense and nutritionally poor with magnesium, calcium, and vitamin D. Winter diets will exclude dairy foods and fortified foods on diets to allow for as little weight gain as can be allowed to a lower limit on inactive winter months. Bones will not be able to provide minerals to keep themselves healthy and strong unless they are supplemented with nutrients.
Otherwise, younger fruits and vegetables recently matured are not readily available for intake in winter as causative reasons toward drained bone-saving types of nutritional factors such as vitamin K, phosphorus, and potassium.
- Fracture Risk and Falling
Snow and ice weather are less dangerous to sliding and falling onto the patients. Sliding and falling in patients with osteoporosis result in disabling fractures in the hip, wrist, and spine. It is most susceptible in the older age groups due to loss of stability due to thinning bone mass with aging.
Falls are not physical decline alone; they cause extreme recuperation, loss of independency, and avoidable risk of death among the elderly patients.
- Chronic Disease Complications
Chronic bone and joint disease like osteoporosis and arthritis are no less cruel to winter either. In winter, tissues tighten, pinching nerves, stiffening joints, and worsening the pain and suffering further. Winter is no less woeful an experience for the already ill.
- Psychological and Well-being of Bone
Winter blues, secondarily, and Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), cause loss of will to receive self-care therapy, i.e., diet overall and exercise. This secondary effect on lifestyle is of further dis-benefit to bones.
Physical and mental well-being of an individual has interdependence in one or more than one aspect, and neglecting one is sure to be harm to another.
How to Keep Your Bones Healthy This Winter
Despite all these, the following are what is done to keep bones healthy during winter:
Maximize Sunlight Exposure: Do your best as possible to go outside into sunlight for at least 10–30 minutes a day even on cloudy days.
Take Vitamin D Supplements: If sunlight exposure is not possible, take vitamin D supplements as advised by the doctor.
Eat Bone-Friendly Foods: Eat foods that contain lots of calcium such as milk, leafy greens, almonds, and cereals. Don't forget magnesium, zinc, and vitamin K.
Exercise At Home: Perform weight-bearing exercises such as yoga, resistance exercises, or walking exercises at home to make your bones stronger.
Home Prevention of Falling: Turn up the lights, remove anything that may trip you, and put in grab bars where needed to avoid falling.
Screen Bone Health: Bone loss or osteoporosis can be screened through periodic bone screening for density prior to the development of symptom or problem, especially among postmenopausal women and elderly age.
Conclusion:
Winter proves toughest for our bones owing to the synergism of environmental, behavioral, and physiological needs. But by foresight and together, it becomes extremely easy to possess healthy strong bones year around. With advanced sun, sufficient diet, ongoing exercise, and not falling down, seasonally increased risk could be eliminated and navigate through winter without any complications. Report this page