What Doctors Tell Their Friends About Bones
REDBOOK|December/January 2017

They’re underneath everything—so treat them right and you’ll be healthy and spry for decades to come. These top bone doctors have the inside (ha) advice.

Stephanie Wood
What Doctors Tell Their Friends About Bones

YOU PROBABLY NEED A SUPPLEMENT

“Bone tissue grows in your skeleton until about age 30, when you reach what we call peak bone mass. Women often ask, ‘If I reached peak bone mass by age 30, what good will calcium do now?’ Here’s what I tell them: Calcium is important for your entire body—it helps your blood clot and so much more. But it’s also essential to bone remodeling. Over time, your bones develop tiny cracks, sort of like a concrete street that’s been driven over. Calcium—and also vitamin D, which allows you to absorb calcium efficiently— mobilizes the repair process that helps patch them up. So even after you’ve reached peak bone mass, you need these nutrients to keep your bones strong. Unless you have three to four servings of dairy or fortified juice daily, you’re not getting the calcium you need from your diet. So you should take at least a 500-milligram supplement. Get a physical, too—your doctor will check your vitamin D levels as part of the basic blood work.” —Robert Gagel, M.D., director of the Bone Disease Program of Texas, and immediate past president of the National Osteoporosis Foundation

GET THIS TEST WHEN YOU TURN 45

This story is from the December/January 2017 edition of REDBOOK.

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This story is from the December/January 2017 edition of REDBOOK.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.