Strong Bones

Can menopause affect my bones?

Changes in hormones affect our bones, and after the menopause our bones can break more easily, such as breaking a wrist from a fall. The bones in our spines can also be affected which can make some women become shorter. Keeping active and having calcium in your diet is good for your bones. See the information beneath image below.

What can I do to keep my bones healthy?

Our bones keep changing throughout our lives trying to stay healthy. If you eat the right foods with enough calcium in your diet, stay active and lead a healthy lifestyle, you can help your body to build and maintain strong bones for as long as possible. Bones stay strong if you give them work to do. To keep your bones strong, you need to do both:

Weight-bearing exercise with impact. Impacts are felt when you are on your feet and you add force or a jolt through your body. This could be anything from walking, skipping, running or jumping. You are weight-bearing when you are standing, with the weight of your whole body helping your bones to stay strong.
Muscle strengthening exercise. When your muscles pull on your bones it gives your bones work to do. Then your bones keep their strength. As your muscles get stronger, they pull harder, meaning your bones are more likely to become stronger. To strengthen your muscles, you need to move them against some resistance. Increasing muscle resistance can be done by adding a load for the muscles to work against, such as lifting a weight in your hand above your head, or squatting down and standing up again. As your muscles get stronger and you find the movements easier, you can gradually increase the weight of what you lift.