If someone had asked you how to get a strong skeleton, what would you have answered?
Most people immediately think of calcium, vitamin D, or exercise. But research shows that bone density is influenced by many more factors than that.
Today we know that the skeleton is a living and active tissue that is constantly being built up and broken down. And what researchers are now delving into is how the body's other systems affect bone health.
What is examined is how the skeleton interacts with hormones, metabolism, muscle mass, nutritional status, and energy availability.
This is how bone density is affected by energy deficiency
Just like all other processes in the body, building and maintaining bone tissue requires some energy. If the body experiences a lack of energy over a longer period, it will affect more than just your mental and physical stamina.
With low energy availability, as it is called, the body reallocates its resources to focus on survival. Processes such as maintaining hormone balance, reproduction, and bone formation are in this case not as important.
If you want to ensure your skeleton has the opportunity to become stronger, it means you need to pay attention to:
- too low energy intake
- excessive exercise
- prolonged fasting
- too little recovery relative to strain
Hormones play a bigger role in the skeleton than many realize
You have probably heard hormones described as the body's internal communication system. They help different parts of the body work together – including the skeleton.
Estrogen is perhaps the hormone most often discussed in connection with bone density, as it helps regulate bone metabolism. It is also why many women begin to lose bone mass more rapidly during perimenopause and menopause.
But researchers today are also looking at how insulin, cortisol, and thyroid hormones interact with the skeleton. Insulin affects, among other things, how the body uses and stores energy, while thyroid hormones help regulate metabolism and bone turnover.
Even long-term elevated levels of cortisol seem to be able to affect the skeleton over time.
This means that bone health today is increasingly seen as a matter of wholeness and metabolism, rather than something that mainly concerns calcium.
That is why the skeleton needs loading
Muscles and skeleton work closely together, which is why we have learned that strength training also leads to strong bones. But how does it work in practice?
When muscles load the skeleton through strength training and movement, the body receives signals that the bone tissue needs maintenance and strengthening. The skeleton thus seems to adapt based on how much it is used.
So walks are all well and good – but for the skeleton, strength training, jumping, and other loading are especially important.
At the same time, the body needs enough energy and nutrients to be able to respond to this type of training in a sustainable way.
The skeleton is affected by the overall health of the body
Calcium is still important for the skeleton. However, it is far from the only nutrient that matters for bone health.
Among the nutrients that also play a major role are:
But the more we understand about bone density, the clearer it becomes, as mentioned, that the skeleton does not function in isolation from the rest of the body.
How you eat, exercise, recover, and take care of your hormone balance also affects the body's ability to build and maintain strong bone tissue over time.
And that is why bone health is about so much more than just calcium. When the body gets enough energy, nutrients, recovery, and load, the skeleton also has better conditions to stay strong.
