The skeleton provides the framework for muscles and enables humans to walk upright and protects our internal organs, and our brain, vital for life, is protected by the skull. Keeping our skeleton healthy offers us pain-free movement, range of motion and the ability to not only walk, but to run, jump, bend and type on the computer. Keeping the skeletal frame healthy and functioning at optimal levels involves a few simple steps that provide lifelong and lasting benefits.
Step 1
Drink plenty of calcium in the form of milk. Or, if you don't care for milk, take vitamin supplements, especially those that contain calcium and vitamin D. You can also obtain calcium from cheese, yogurt and other calcium-rich foods. Calcium also protects the bones from age-related conditions such as osteoporosis.
Step 2
Engage in weight-bearing exercise. Exercise is vital for the strength of bones and can involve anything from swimming to walking to dancing. However, weight-bearing exercise is also important to help strengthen not only muscles but bone structure and density as well. Walking is considered a weight-bearing exercise, so you don't have to go to the gym to pump iron to perform weight bearing exercises.
Step 3
Maintain a diet rich in calcium such as orange juice, broccoli, fish and pastas and rice. Maintain normal weight ranges to help keep excess weight off bone joints. Ingest adequate amounts of calcium on a daily basis throughout life for optimal bone strength and health. The Palo Alto Medical Foundation recommends 800 mg of calcium for 4- to 8-year-old children and about 1,200 mg of daily calcium intake for children and adolescents between 9 and 18 years of age. Individuals between 19 and 50 years old should get about 1,000 mg a day, while those over 50 should take at least 1,200 mg a day.
Step 4
Keep teeth clean and healthy. A cavity in a tooth may serve as a major point of entry for bacteria or may grow infected, allowing bacteria to spread into the body, slowly destroying the roots of teeth, the jawbone and even making its way into the sinus cavities.
Step 5
Wear protection when engaging in contact sports like football, rugby and hockey, just to name a few. Wearing a helmet when riding bikes or motorcycles may protect the skull and neck from serious injury in the event of an accident.
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