Healthy bones across a life

The strength of your skeleton in old age is being built, or lost, across your whole life, beginning far earlier than most people realise.

We tend to think about bones only when one breaks. But bone is living tissue, constantly rebuilt, and the strength it will have in later life is shaped by decisions made decades earlier.

A savings account of bone

Think of bone as a savings account. We build it up through youth, reaching peak bone mass, maximum strength and density, at around age 30, after which, from the mid-30s onward, it slowly begins to decline.¹ Two things then determine the risk of osteoporosis: how high that peak was, and how fast bone is lost afterward.¹

The role of calcium and vitamin D

Two nutrients are central. Calcium is the raw material of bone, and vitamin D is required to absorb it. When dietary calcium falls short, the body withdraws it from the skeleton to keep blood levels steady, quietly weakening the bones over time.¹²

The skeleton of your seventies is built in your teens, and defended every decade after.

A lifelong project

Because both the building and the protecting matter, bone health is genuinely a lifelong project: adequate calcium and vitamin D, regular weight-bearing and muscle-strengthening exercise, and avoiding smoking, at every stage of life.²

Why it matters

Osteoporosis is often called a silent disease, revealed only by a fracture. Seeing bone as something built early and maintained continuously turns it from an old-age worry into a lifelong opportunity.