Bone Health: Can Lack Of Exercise Worsen The Health Of Your Bones?

As a person ages, osteoporosis causes their bones to become less solid and more prone to breaking. A person's lifetime bone health is influenced by the amount of bone mass they develop during their childhood and adolescence. Their bones will shatter as they age if they don't start practising healthy behaviours and getting enough exercise today.

Lack of exercise also known as a sedentary lifestyle has many downsides. These downsides also include its negative impact on our bone health. In this article, we list ways in which lack of exercise affects the health of our bones and overall body.

 Sedentary lifestyles increase risk because they interfere with the body's regulation. For instance, inactivity is associated with a body composition that is fattier than lean, higher glucose and inflammatory levels, and a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and various malignancies.

When you lead a sedentary lifestyle, it affects your health in many ways. Some of these ways are:

Obesity

Your basal metabolism decreases when there is a lack of physical movement. Your metabolism may be impacted, making it harder for your body to break down sweets and fats. You are more prone to put on weight as a result. This excess weight further puts pressure on your bone. This pressure fastens the deterioration of your bones.

Muscle loss

Due to the fact that you are not utilising your muscles as much, you risk losing muscle strength and endurance. Muscles support and impact the health of our bones. Lack of exercise reduces the level of muscles.

Bone deterioration

Lack of exercise also directly affects the health of our bones. Your bones could become less strong and contain fewer minerals. This also fastens the deterioration of our bones and makes them more prone to osteoporosis and various other bone-related diseases.

Besides these effects on our bones, lack of exercise might have other effects. Some of these are:

• Your immune system might not be as effective.
• You could have less effective blood flow.
• There may be greater inflammation in your body.
• An imbalance in your hormones could occur.
• Cardiovascular diseases such as stroke, diabetes, hypertension, and so on.
• Mood disorders
• High cholesterol
• Certain types of cancer

You can eliminate these risks by inculcating a better lifestyle and increasing your level of physical activity. Compared to the developing skeleton of an adult up to 30 years of age, the ability of the older adult to create new bones is reduced. The bone's structure hardens and becomes more fragile. However, it will still respond favourably to loading, making weight-bearing exercise crucial for preserving bone mass.

Exercise and loading on bone may result in increased bone creation, but there are other advantages such as the prevention or even slowing down of normal ageing-related bone loss. These are less ideal, but it's vital to understand that really strenuous activity carries a risk of harm, so a moderate exercise effect that doesn't result in injury is a reasonable practical objective.

Keep these points in mind if you have a sedentary lifestyle.

Disclaimer: This content including advice provides generic information only. It is in no way a substitute for a qualified medical opinion. Always consult a specialist or your own doctor for more information. NDTV does not claim responsibility for this information.