Living longer, healthier lives depends on taking better care of all our body's systems. But while most of us work to improve our cardiovascular and muscular health, few of us think about maintaining the very foundation of a healthy physique and an active lifestyle: our bones. Bones form the framework for all the other systems in our body. Without strong bones, the simplest physical activities can lead to crippling fractures and breaks. Osteoporosis is responsible for 1.5 million fractures each year, most notably fractures of the vertebrae, forearms and wrists. So how can we maintain strong bones throughout our lifetime? And why do we need to supplement the most abundant mineral in our body? The answer is in our bones where nearly 99% of our body's calcium is permanently stored, keeping them strong and healthy. The other 1% needs to be constantly supplied to blood and tissues. This all-important 1% is supplied by either our diet, or our bones.

  Just about everyone knows that getting enough calcium helps protect against diseases such as osteoporosis, but how does calcium go about doing this? When you eat cheese or drink milk, the calcium in these foods is absorbed through your small intestine and into your blood. The amount of calcium in your blood is regulated by a substance called parathyroid hormone. When calcium intake is low, parathyroid hormone signals for bone to be broken down, releasing calcium into the bloodstream "Diets with adequate calcium intake produce less parathyroid hormone, so we conserve more calcium and more bone", says John Anderson, PLD, Professor of Nutrition, in the Schools of Public Health and Medicare at the University of North Carolina. You also need a stable level of blood calcium for normal heartbeat, muscle and nerve function and blood clotting. Living cells require calcium to act as a messenger and to help respond to hormones and neurotransmitters. In addition to calcium, the nutrients shown by research to have the best bone building potential include vitamin D and magnesium. Vitamin D is a must if you want all of that calcium to do any good - it helps your body to absorb calcium and build good bones. Unfortunately, your skin's ability to manufacture vitamins decreases with age, and it is well documented that vitamin D deficiency causes osteomalacia, or soft bones, in adults, which would contribute to fractures. Magnesium, an essential mineral used to treat almost everything from depression to heart attack, is also critical to bone health. Magnesium helps calcium get into the bones and also converts vitamin D to its active form in the body. Nearly half of the body's magnesium is found in the skeleton. But for most of us, eating multiple helpings of high calcium foods, such as dairy products, soy beans and nuts is either unappealing or impractical. What's more, much of the food we do eat is stripped of its natural calcium by modern processing methods.

  For these reasons, calcium, along with iron, is often cited as the mineral most deficient in the diets of today's adult women. Taking two Forever Calcium with breakfast and two with dinner is an easy, effective way to ensure you're getting the calcium you need for sturdy bones and an active lifestyle