Strong at any age: Understanding bone health

Published July 25, 2026

As you age, your bones weaken.¹ You’ve probably been told at some point in your life to drink milk for the calcium to protect your bones. However, multiple factors work together, including calcium, vitamin D, exercise, and hormones to help keep your bones strong.

Bone health through your lifespan

Your bones play an important role in your body beyond giving your body structure and support. They protect your organs and store calcium. They’re also always changing. After your skeleton grows to its adult size, it continues to regenerate. About every 10 years your skeleton remodels itself, a process of removing old bone and replacing it with new bone tissue.¹

Until you’re about age 30, the amount of old bone being removed and amount of new bone replacing it are about even. However, as you age you may not replace all the old bone with new tissue. That causes your bones to become thinner and weaker.¹

What is osteoporosis?

For most people, bone mass starts to decrease after age 30. Over time, osteoporosis may develop. Osteoporosis is a disease that causes weak bones and increases the risk of fractures. Both men and women can develop the disease. However, it’s more common in women. The drop in estrogen during menopause is one of the main risk factors for osteoporosis.²

Osteoporosis is often considered a silent disease because it doesn’t have obvious symptoms. When bones weaken, it may cause back pain, loss of height, hunched posture, or fractures that happen easily.²

It’s estimated that nearly 13% of US adults older than 50 have osteoporosis; about 43% have low bone mass, putting them at risk of osteoporosis.³

Risk factors for osteoporosis

Factors that raise the risk for low bone mass and osteoporosis²,⁴

• Age: Bone loss happens faster and new bone growth happens slower as you get older
• Family history: Having a parent who has had osteoporosis or hip fracture raises your risk
• Body size: Thinner, small-boned people have less bone mass to lose, increasing their risk of brittle bones
• Hormones: Women may see faster bone loss after menopause when estrogen drops. In men, age-related drops in testosterone can also cause bone loss. Parathyroid hormone levels help control calcium levels in the blood. Too much of it causes your body to pull calcium from the bones, weakening them
• Diet: Low levels of calcium and vitamin D increase your risk
• Lifestyle factors: Smoking, drinking more than 2 alcoholic drinks daily, and spending a lot of time seated all increase risk

Bone loss in women

Women face a unique risk of bone loss and osteoporosis because of hormone changes. During perimenopause, bone loss for women increases about 2% per year. The largest amount of bone loss happens a few years before and after menopause.⁵ During this time, it’s especially important to exercise regularly and eat a balanced diet.

Young women who have low body weight and miss their periods can also have lower estrogen levels and increase their risk of bone loss. This can happen through extreme exercise, athletic training, or an eating disorder.⁵

How to protect your bones

About 2 million older Americans fracture a bone because of bone weakness. Having adequate levels of calcium and vitamin D and regularly exercising are the best ways to protect your bones.¹

Calcium is a mineral that supports your bones. Adults younger than 50 need about 1,000 mg per day. Women over age 50 and men over age 70 need about 1,200 mg.² In addition to milk, you can get calcium from dark leafy greens, broccoli, sardines with bones, tofu and other soy foods, and juice or cereal with added calcium.

Calcium doesn’t work alone. Vitamin D is needed to help your body absorb calcium. You can get vitamin D from spending time in the sun, as well as from eating trout, salmon, egg yolks, liver, and foods with vitamin D added. Adults need about 600 international units (IU) of vitamin D every day.²

About 35% of US adults do not get enough vitamin D. The best way to know whether you have enough vitamin D is to have your levels tested.⁶

Exercise is also key to keeping your bones strong

When you exercise, you put stress on the bones. This tells your body to build more bone, which makes them denser and stronger. Doing a mix of weight-bearing, strength, and balance exercises regularly is key.

Weight-bearing exercises are any activities you do on your feet. This includes walking, running, dancing, pickleball, tennis, team sports, climbing stairs, and more. Strength training means any workouts that involve carrying weights. Using machines at a gym, hand weights, resistance bands, kettlebells, or your own body weight are all ways to get strength training.5 Balance exercises, including yoga and tai chi, help you prevent falls, which also helps prevent broken bones.²

Aim for about 30 minutes a day of exercise, which can be split up throughout the day. As you exercise, it’s important to make sure you’re eating enough healthy foods to help your body build new bone.⁵

Testing for bone health factors can help you monitor your bone mass. Tests alone do not diagnose osteoporosis. Only your doctor can make a diagnosis of osteoporosis or any other bone health condition. Further testing may be needed for a diagnosis.