Brandon Allen, BA, The Research Institute
College is a unique environment that provides an experience like no other. From academics to social life, there are many things to keep a student occupied. As a result, it is easy to deprioritize your health. Bone health is an important aspect of general health that most college students do not even know about, which this article aims to change. The most critical time for bone growth is before the age of 30, and if we don’t work on it now, low bone mineral density causes significant issues later on in life. There is a lot of research in bone health, and I am going to simplify it for you.
Bones are a dynamic living tissue that work similarly to a bank account where you make deposits and withdrawals throughout your life. With a savings account, the idea is that you save money while you are young so that when you are older, you have the liberty to enjoy retirement and live off of those savings. It is the same idea with your bone health.
The body has two sets of cells that contribute to the building and breakdown of bone, called osteoblasts and osteoclasts. When you are young, your body spends much more time building bone than it does breaking down old bone. This results in a net gain of bone and contributes to your bone density or bone savings “fund.” By the time you reach 30 years, your body is no longer able to continue making significant deposits to your bone mass and the process transitions to more of a maintenance program. Later in life, the process will transition to a net loss of bone where you will be withdrawing bone density faster than maintaining it.
Similar to your savings account, if you did not contribute enough to this “fund” early on, you will be limited later on in life. These limitations are far worse than not being able to take a vacation to Europe, but rather that you may develop osteoporosis which can lead to fractures as a direct consequence of low bone density. With this in mind, it is extremely important to optimize your peak bone mass before it is too late.
Peak bone mass is the maximum mass, strength, and density of your bones that you can achieve. By the age of eighteen, 90% of your peak bone mass has been acquired and you will reach peak bone mass by your late twenties.1 Achieving peak bone mass has been shown to significantly delay osteoporosis by 13 years. While genetics may determine up to 60-80% of your baseline peak bone mass, your lifestyle choices such as diet and exercise can significantly contribute to bone quality. That means there are good choices to be made!
Improving bone health through your diet is easy, you just need to be thinking about a few vitamins and minerals. For college students, the recommended daily intake of calcium is 1300 mg.2 Consuming enough calcium can be achieved by eating calcium rich foods such as dairy products, leafy green vegetables, fish, beans, nuts, and seeds. Adding some of these calcium-rich foods to your diet is an easy way to improve your bone health by helping your body make more deposits to your bone “fund.”
Having a calcium-rich snack in between classes or throughout your study sessions is simple and effective.
Exercise also plays a pivotal part in your bone health. Research has shown that resistance training and impact loading exercises can improve bone mineral density.3 Your body will work to strengthen your bone mineral density as a direct response to the repetitive loading of the bone. As college students, going to the gym may not be as easy as it sounds. Therefore, a few solutions to this problem could be doing a workout in your dorm room, taking a longer walk to class, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, or any combination of these three. For those that do take advantage of the free gym access at college, begin a simple weightlifting routine. Good habits learned in college are often maintained long after graduation.
Direct sunlight is a great source of Vitamin D, which contributes to the body’s ability to absorb the calcium from our diet. Study outside during nice weather rather than under the fluorescent lights of the library. While increasing your practice of healthy bone habits, avoiding bad ones is just as important. High levels of caffeine, sugar, salt, nicotine, and alcohol are all detrimental to your bone health as they hurt your body’s ability to build bone.
Incorporating healthy bone habits into your daily routine is simple! The secret to achieving peak bone mass and an ideal bone savings “fund” is to have this knowledge before it is too late. Now that you have the information, add these healthy habits to and remove the bad ones from your daily routine. If you are diligent with these good bone health habits, your future self will thank you for it.
