Osteoporosis and Bone health part 2 – This article focuses on other lifestyle factors and the role they play in bone health for youth.

Bone Health and Youth.

Our last blog spoke of the importance of nutrition to maximise Bone Health and help prevent Osteoporosis or Metabolic bone disease. Today we will outline other factors such as lifestyle and activity, especially for youth.

Building bones in early life.

For optimal Bone Health, the most crucial time to lay down the foundations of our bones is in the years before we reach our mid-twenties. As outlined by the International Osteoporosis foundation “Approximately half of our bone mass is accumulated during adolescence.” Our genetics will determine up to 80% of the variability in individuals peak bone mass. Factors such as nutritional intake and physical activity will help develop optimal bone strength.

Calcium and protein-rich nutrition boost bone development.

Getting adequate calcium and protein especially between 9 – 18 years old will help reach adequate Bone Health.

The peak age for bone building for girls in 12.5 years and boys is 14 years.

Getting enough of the sunshine vitamin.

Due to an increasingly indoor lifestyle, young people often will not get adequate amounts of vitamin D. Parents can help children maintain a healthy level of this key vitamin. This is done by ensuring children spend more time outdoors playing and being physical, rather than inside on screens. The recommended daily dose of Vit D is 800-1000IU daily.

According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM)USA, the recommended daily intake of key nutrients is as follows:

1 – 3 years

700mg calcium and 13g of protein

4 – 8 years

1000mg calcium and 19g of protein

9 – 13 years

1300mg calcium and 34g of protein

14 – 18 years

1300mg calcium and 46g of protein for girls and 52g of protein for boys

Exercise and lifestyle matter.

Physical activity is most important for youth to enhance bone density as young people who exercise regularly show a significant increase in bone mass. However physical activity and diet work hand in hand for people of all ages to enhance bone development.

All information from this information article was sourced from the International Osteoporosis Foundation. You can find more details on the below link. If you have questions about your child’s bone health please contact your local general practitioner or chiropractor for more information.

http://www.iofbonehealth.org/

January 21, 2013December 16, 2023

Give Your Kids Good Posture

Do you remember your parents telling you to sit up straight and to stop slouching?

Well you were lucky if they did!

Good posture starts from before you are even born! The way that you are carried in the womb, the way you are held as a baby, and then progressively by the habits you form with the activities you undertake.

So why is our society in a slow decline to poor posture? We are forming bad habits from a young age and it carries though to adulthood. And don’t forget the daily mini-traumas that have more impact than you’d think!

If we adults suffer traumas (a bicycle crash, fall off a ladder, have a car accident etc.) we are checked out by our local chiropractor and supportive health professionals. So who don’t we do this for our children? Our kids are just finding their feet, learning the ways of the world, and they have accidents! They fall out of trees, fall off their bikes, get dunked by waves at the beach, and are swung around but their arms… Being a kid is full on! It is important to experience these mini traumas, but it is also important to make sure they have not affected your child’s posture.

Children are less physically active these days with the invention of the computer game, PlayStation and so forth. This means that our children sit on the school bus, sit at school, sit in front of the TV, sit in front of the computer. SIT, SIT SIT! Our kids are forming poor habits because we are allowing them to sit, and sit poorly, all the time!

We all know how important it is to have our work-station ergonomics set up to your ideal height as to alleviate the pressure on your adult spine, so why aren’t we doing it for our kids?

Tips for good posture.

– Make sure that your kids have good work-stations at home. Computers should be at eye level, feet firmly placed on the ground, and sit up straight!

– Minimize computer and TV time! It will not only help your kids’ posture, but will also improve your family connection.

– Be more physically active – Go to the park, run around, join a sporting team! An active spine is a healthy spine.

– Get your kids walk to school!

– NAG! We are giving you permission to nag! If your kids slouch, pull them up on it and make them aware of it. They might find it annoying now but they will thank you in the long run

Your local chiropractor at Spine and Health in Crows Nest and North Sydney are the experts in Pain and Posture.

The chiro’s here at Spine and Health can conduct a digital postural analysis of your children and discuss the results with you. If it is decided that chiropractic care can help your kids then a personalised treatment plan will be created. Your kids will receive gentle and effective adjustments that are designed for their level of development.

To ensure that your babies, kids, teenagers are on a path to good posture please call us today.

Your kids can look better, move better and feel better too.

Crows Nest Ph 9460 8459

North Sydney Ph 9955 8055

November 5, 2012December 21, 2023

Chiropractic and your Family

A common and yet ironic situation is that parents come in to have chiropractic treatment and their children sit and watch.

The question we ask is that why do we believe it is important for us adults to be under chiropractic care and not our children? Children have spines too! and are generally more active and susceptible to falls than us adults so perhaps it is equally if not more important for our children to have their posture checked?

The position of an unborn child’s spine in utero is often overlooked. If your unborn child is in breech, transverse, posterior and so on, it can impact immensely on your child’s posture and therefore health. It is also no surprise that a baby who has not been carried in an ideal position will more than likely struggle down the birth canal because it is still not in the optimal position. Both the position it is held in over the 40 week period and the position it is in when it travels the birth canal, and subsequent interventions that may need to be used, can all affect the baby’s spine and health.

Furthermore our children are far more susceptible to mini traumas. Our kids climb trees, they run on the road, they fall off their bikes, get pushed over in a sporting match. Our children throw their bodies around, and we applaud them for doing so and assume that their flexible bodies bounce back – only a very small proportion of us actually check that there has not been any effect on their spine and posture!

We are aware that back pain, for example, is generally a sign of something else within our bodies.

Chiropractic care is based on the realignment of subluxations and thus the correction of posture in order to allow our nervous system to function effectively and efficiently. Any misalignment of any joint can impinge that communication between our brain, spinal cord and effector tissue and thus affect our health.

Your local chiropractors in Crows Nest, North Sydney, Mosman and Gladesville are the experts in pain and posture and care about your family. The Spine and Health Chiros ensure that they tailor each individual’s treatment to their level of development. Babies and children receive gentle and effective adjustments that are designed specifically for them. We have implemented a new family rate (see details here) to help you help your family.

We can assist with your family’s path to looking better, feeling better and moving better.