BONE SUPREMACY

Taking good care of your bones will take a big load off your old age

- PUJA AWASTHI

Dr Sandeep Kapoor calls himself a docpreneur. The orthopaedic surgeon specialises in trauma and joint replacement surgery. He did his MS from King George’s Medical University, Lucknow, and is a DNB, and the recipient of many prestigious fellowships. Dr Kapoor worked in the not-forprofit and the corporate sectors before co-founding the Health City Hospital in Lucknow, and is in the process of setting up another 300-bed hospital. An avid listener of podcasts, he is also a golf enthusiast.
Essentials about bone health: The human body is made up of the musculoskeletal system. The skeletal part is the bone, and the surrounding is the musculature. Bone health encompasses bones and muscles; and the point at which two bones join each other—joints. For an infant on mother’s milk, it is a sufficient diet that provides calcium for the growth and nutrition of bones. Adequate diet is important right from childhood. Drinking pasteurised milk (without boiling), using iodised salt are some of the habits we have always followed. It is also important to get adequate sunlight. The other important component is activity. Body movements with pressure stimulate growth.
As we grow: Medicines do not have a large part to play in bone growth and health, but habits, nutrition and lifestyle do. Alcohol will harm you. Red meat eaters could have high uric acid levels, which will in turn lead to joint pain and further harm the joints. Wrong posture can lead to head and neck pain. Till the age of 40, the calcium we intake and the calcium in the bones maintain a kind of equilibrium, but post that, calcium from the bones starts to deplete; and muscles begin to waste.