9 Nutrients That Support Healthy Bone Development
What are the nutrients you know of that help to support bone health? Did you know that supporting immune system function can also be beneficial for supporting bone health?
Supporting bone health is not an easy thing to do. We eat food. We exercise. We get stressed by work. We sleep. All these actions do contribute to the overall state of our immune system. I also do explore how the immune system affects the balance between our bone formation and bone dissolution rates at How Osteoporosis Ain’t Just About A Calcium Deficiency.
There are at least 4 nutrients that support the function of the nuclear respiratory factor 2 (nrf2) pathway in the body, which stimulates the cells in our body to produce glutathione from within the cell. Glutathione acts as an antioxidant to protect the body from oxidative stress. Nutrients in this list include resveratrol, curcumin, epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) and quercetin.
Omega-3 fatty acids, namely eicospentanoic acid (EPA) and docosahexanoic acid (DHA) aid in reducing the activity of the pro-inflammatory nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) pathway. NF-κB is the major pathway that regulates the intensity of the inflammation signal in the body. The nrf2 pathway helps to balance out any overshoot that is coming from NF-κB, and these two pathways are in a constant tug-of-war battle for maintaining the inflammatory signal.
Magnesium and calcium function in tandem. A large proportion of our bone content is calcium and magnesium in mineral form, hence these are the basic building blocks for supporting healthy bone growth.
Vitamin D3, which promotes calcium absorption in the human gut.
Vitamin K2, which directs the dissolved blood calcium into the bone, and which also prevents the deposition of mineral calcium onto our arteries.
Probiotics strains such as Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG have helped in reducing osteoclast activity, but I wouldn’t classify it as a “nutrient”, in this sense.
Most of these nutrients are similar to what supports the function of a healthy brain, which I do highlight at 12 Brain Boosting Nutrients and How They Work For Supporting Brain Health. Or a healthy heart, which I do highlight at 10 Nutrients That Support a Healthy Heart.
It’s not rocket science; it’s a holistic health management situation that we’re looking at here. The bones, the heart and the brain are organs that comprise multitudes of different cells, all humming along to the beat of a certain rhythm if and only if it is being supported with the provision of specific foundational nutrients for a healthy functioning. We tend to miss these in our daily diet, while being encompassed instead by the daily worries and stresses of life.
Supplementation might be a useful tool to use as a cheat code to provide nutritional support; however, one does have to know the criteria for choosing a good brand, which I outline in this article: Dietary Supplements- How Does One Choose A Good Brand for Consumption?
The list of supplements from the brand that I prefer to support bone health, which I do know meets the criteria set out in the article that I have mentioned.
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How are you supporting healthy bone development in your body today?
Holistic health management is a responsibility we all have to consider carefully since most health care systems focus on treating disease, not preventing it. The doctor treats the problems you should have avoided, in fact, and then it's just too late.
Prevention is the name of the game; if you get to the point where a doctor's intervention is necessary, it may be too late to avoid the consequences. Act now to prevent disease in the first place. Your health depends on it.