Brittle bone disease affects one in three women and one in five men over 50 in the UK. To reduce your risk there is a lot that you can do - childhood and early adulthood are the most important times for building strong bones. Eating foods rich in calcium and vitamin D and along with weight bearing exercise are the best ways young people can protect their bone for the future. After the age of 40 the bone mass starts to decline but diet and exercise can help to slow this loss. People who smoke, drink excessively have a very low body weight or don’t exercise have an increased risk of osteoporosis as do people who don’t get enough vitamin D and Calcium in their diet. Green leafy vegetable, low fat dairy products as well as nuts and seeds are all rich in calcium while sunlight and oily fish are good source of vitamin D.
