Your bones support your body, protect your organs, and store essential minerals.

It’s never too early or too late to start looking after your bones.

A healthy, balanced diet and regular exercise can help keep your bones strong at every stage of your life.

Keeping your bones strong helps reduce the chance of osteoporosis and broken bones (fractures).

Lifestyle changes to help prevent fractures

Eat a bone-healthy diet

• High in calcium (dairy products, leafy greens, tofu, nuts). 
• Rich in vitamin D (oily fish, egg yolks, fortified foods). 
• Stay hydrated and limit caffeine, salt, and processed foods. 
• Calcium and vitamin D are two nutrients that are well-known to be important for bones. But there are many other vitamins, minerals and nutrients that are vital to help your bones stay healthy and strong. 

Exercise regularly

• Exercise can help keep your bones and muscles strong. It can also help your balance so you’re less likely to fall over and break a bone. 
• Bones get stronger when you use them. The best way to help your bone strength is to do weight-bearing impact and muscle-strengthening exercise.
• Weight-bearing exercises examples - walking, hiking, dancing. 
• Resistance training examples - using your own body, weights or resistance bands. 
• Balance and flexibility examples - yoga or tai chi to improve balance and coordination, to reduce risk of tripping, slipping and falling.

Get enough sunlight

Aim for 10–30 minutes of safe sunlight exposure several times a week to help your body produce vitamin D.

Vitamin D helps your body absorb and use calcium, which gives bones their strength and hardness.

It also helps your muscles stay strong, which reduces your risk of breaking a bone in a fall. 

Quit smoking and limit alcohol 

Smoking and heavy alcohol use both accelerate bone loss. Reducing or quitting can significantly improve your bone health. 

Smoking slows down the cells that build bone in your body. This means smoking could reduce your bone strength and increase your risk of breaking a bone.

If you're a woman, smoking also increases your chances of an earlier menopause.

Postmenopausal women have an increased risk of osteoporosis and breaking a bone.

Rest assured, though, it’s not too late. If you give up smoking, your risk of breaking a bone begins to return to normal. 

Drinking a lot of alcohol increases your risk of osteoporosis. In the short term, it also makes you unsteady on your feet, making you more likely to trip, fall and break a bone. 

Fall-proof your environment 

Some ideas to help prevent falls at home may be using non-slip mats, reducing uneven surfaces, installing grab rails or improve lighting. 

Regular vision and hearing checks can also help prevent falls.