Four tips to prevent osteoporosisSUNLIGHT AND CALCIUM: The Health Promotion Administration offered four tips to help people slow the loss of bone mass in observance of World Osteoporosis DayBy Lee I-chia / Staff reporterAhead of World Osteoporosis Day, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) yesterday said that people reach their peak bone mass around age 30 and it might slowly begin to drop afterward, so it offered four tips for people to maintain bone mass and prevent osteoporosis. World Osteoporosis Day is marked on Oct. 20 each year and this year’s campaign theme is “Building Better Bones Throughout Life,” the HPA said, adding that developing a higher peak bone mass at a younger age provides better protection against osteoporosis. Osteoporosis is considered a “silent” disease, which causes bones to become weak and brittle with lower bone mass, and people are typically unaware that they have the disease until they break a bone, it said. The HPA offered four tips for maintaining bone mass: keeping a healthy diet with plenty of calcium, exercising, getting sufficient sunlight exposure and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. In addition, the HPA encouraged people to maintain a healthy body weight, avoid smoking and cut back on alcohol consumption to slow bone mass loss and reduce the risk of osteoporosis.
