7 Ways to Enhance Your Bone Health

Encourage those you love to stop smoking.

Ask your loved ones to stop smoking for their own bone health — and yours. Harvard researchers studied bone health in more than 14,000 people in China and discovered that nonsmoking women who were exposed to secondhand smoke were three times more likely to develop osteoporosis than women who had no exposure to smoke. The theory is that cigarette smoke may affect levels of estrogen, a hormone that regulates bone turnover. If you can’t persuade the smoker in your life to quit the habit, try to establish house rules that will minimize your exposure, such as only smoking outdoors or by an open window.