4 simple ways to prevent bone and joint disease

There are easy steps that people can do at any age to build stronger bones, stay mobile and active, and to help prevent joint diseases like osteoporosis and osteoarthritis.

Sara Shippee Wallace, MD, MPH, an orthopaedic surgeon at the University of Chicago Medicine, shared some tips to maintain healthy joints at any age.

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1. Maintain a healthy weight

This is the biggest single thing patients can do to prevent or slow the progression of arthritis.

The reason? "When patients gain weight, the additional stress on the joint is magnified," Wallace said. "Maintenance of a healthy weight is extremely important for lower extremity joint health and for weight-bearing joints.”

Weight management also can help prevent the development of osteoporosis — a weakening of the bones commonly associated with aging, which can lead to life-threatening fractures.

Read more: What’s the difference between osteoporosis and osteoarthritis?

Weight is impacted by a variety of factors, such as aging, diet, chronic health conditions, hormonal shifts and daily activity levels, so developing healthy habits early in life is important.

If you find yourself needing to lose weight, you should do so safely and slowly. This is especially important for women in perimenopause or menopause because losing weight too rapidly can also weaken bones.

2. Eat more plant-based meals and explore anti-inflammatory diets

These dietary approaches can help decrease the risk of joint problems as you age. Patients who have already developed mild arthritis may particularly benefit from an anti-inflammatory diet, Wallace said.

A Mediterranean diet may be a good starting point. With its focus on vegetables, whole grains and healthy fats like olive oil, a Mediterranean diet not only promotes good joint health but it can also boost your cardiovascular health, help you maintain a healthy weight and lower your risk of Type 2 diabetes.

Getting enough calcium and Vitamin D in your diet is also crucial for building strong bones. (It's important to note that these two vitamins are best absorbed together, rather than alone.)

While there isn’t enough evidence to say that diet alone slows the progression of arthritis, Wallace said a healthy, anti-inflammatory diet can help people feel better and suffer fewer symptoms.

3. Add weight-bearing exercise into your workouts

This can help long-term bone and joint health and can help prevent or delay the onset of osteoporosis.

“Weight-bearing exercise is particularly good for bone density and bone health and is actually good for your cartilage, too,” Wallace said.

Running, walking, dancing or playing sports can be all beneficial, as can weightlifting, pilates and yoga. Cross-training or varying your exercise routine is a good strategy, Wallace said. The important thing is to exercise safely and regularly, avoiding injury and overuse.

Some patients express concern about the risk of high-impact exercise on the joints over many years. But there isn't a lot of evidence suggesting that high-impact exercise damages joints over time, Wallace said.

“In fact, marathon runners have some of the healthiest cartilage of anybody we see," she said.

High-impact exercise may not be best for people with arthritis, or for people who previously injured ligaments and have developed some degree of osteoarthritis and cartilage loss related to those injuries. Once a joint is compromised, it’s better to stick to lower-impact forms of exercise. Talk to your doctor for advice.

4. Know your risk and consider a preventive screening

While there are no screenings available for arthritis, knowing your risk factors can be helpful in early detection.

“If someone in your family had any form of inflammatory arthritis — like rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, or even lupus — and then you start to develop joint pain, that could be something that warrants further investigation,” Wallace said. “Unlike osteoarthritis, there are medications that can slow the progression of inflammatory arthritis. So, being evaluated by a rheumatologist can be helpful.”

Osteoarthritis is a degenerative disease for which aging is the most significant risk factor. The older you get, the higher the likelihood that you develop some form of degenerative arthritis, Wallace said.

Like osteoarthritis, the biggest risk factor for osteoporosis is age. And there is no cure for either disease. However, there is an osteoporosis screening test called a DXA scan, recommended for all women over 65 years old and some higher-risk women under 65.

Osteoporosis is most commonly diagnosed after a fracture, but a DXA scan can tell someone if they have osteoporosis before they suffer an injury. That's especially important for older people, for whom a fall or fracture can be catastrophic.