If you live in Western New York, you probably need to think about your bones more than you do.

Because, say local experts on bone health, this region presents us with some conditions that make it challenging to maintain strong skeletal systems throughout life.

For instance:

Our climate means most of us are not getting enough vitamin D each day from a primary natural source, sunlight.

Many of us in adulthood are not drinking enough milk or eating enough yogurt or dairy to be getting adequate calcium on a daily basis. Some children and teens also fall into this category.

And finally, lots of Western New Yorkers aren’t doing the weight-bearing exercise each day that is critical for bone health. Statistics on poverty and obesity here testify to that.

What can poor bone health mean? Some worrisome possibilities: osteoporosis and the loss of mobility that comes with bone breakages—which can be painful, debilitating and expensive to fix.

Moreover, unlike other health problems, weak bones are a silent problem until you break a brittle bone.

“There is no pain with this disease,” said Cathy Buyea, research coordinator at UBMD Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine in Amherst, of osteoporosis. “Unless you have had a bone scan, you don’t know you have it until you fracture a bone.”

The answer, said local health experts, is to focus on a few simple— and inexpensive—changes that can start making our undernourished, Northern-climate-dwelling bones healthier immediately.

“We need to be very concerned about this,” said Buyea, at the private practice group associated with the UB Medical School department of orthopaedic surgery. “But it’s an easy Bill Wippert/Buffalo News fix. In fact, it’s so easy that people just just ignore it.”

At the Bone Health Center at the UBMD office, bone specialists recommended a three-step plan to make bones healthier right away.

1.) Take a vitamin D supplement daily. Most of us are not getting the needed quantities of this vital vitamin through sunlight or food, said Buyea, who said a fair-skinned person would need to spend 49 minutes getting sun exposure at midday to get enough at this time of year (darker-skinned people need much more). Right now, 400 units a day is the goal recommended by the National Academy of Science, said Buyea, who added that target amount might be going up soon. An adult can take as much as 1,000 to 2,000 units a day, based on National Osteoporosis Foundation guidelines, she said.

“My guess is, there’s no one in Western New York getting enough vitamin D,” said Buyea. “There isn’t a downside to vitamin D.”

2.) Get enough calcium, either through more dairy in the diet or a supplement. At the UB-affiliated practice, health experts recommend 1,200 milligrams a day — check with your own doctor for your best dose.

Buyea cautioned that the body can only absorb about 500 milligrams of calcium at a time; so spread your doses out throughout the day, maybe having milk at breakfast, yogurt at lunch, and a supplement later in the day.

3.) Do weight-bearing exercise daily. That means exercises in which your bones must bear the weight of your body. Not swimming or biking — think walking, running, yoga, or the like.

“Walking would be outstanding,” said Buyea.

And lastly, for women over age 50 and men 65 and older, she said, it might be a good idea to consider having a bone scan, called a “DEXA” scan.

The simple 10-minute scan, a low-level X-ray, reads bone health and gives patients and doctors a good idea of what a person’s overall bone health is like.

Buyea said many local insurers cover such scans, so it’s best to inquire. And don’t forget to follow up on the scan with a conversation with your doctor, she said.

“It’s never too late” for good bone health, said Buyea, since the bones in the body are always changing and rebuilding themselves.

“You can start building better bones right away.”