|
Media Releases
It Is Never Too Early to Start Caring for Your Bones: Lifetime tips on warding off osteoporosis
Columbia, Mo. (Sept. 27, 2005) - If you are a woman in your 20s or 30s, osteoporosis shouldn't be on your list of diseases-to-worry-about, right? If you are a man, osteoporosis shouldn't concern you because it's a woman's disease, right?
If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, you are wrong on both accounts.
Fact: Osteoporosis does strike mainly women over 50, but it is a silent disease that takes years to develop. Prevention should start as early as your teens.
Fact: Eight of the 10 million Americans over 50 who have osteoporosis are women, but some two million men have the condition, and as many as three million are on their way to develop it.
Osteoporosis develops gradually and silently. Often the first sign of the disease is a broken limb. Not only are osteoporosis-related fractures debilitating and expensive to treat, they can be downright deadly. One in five people over the age of 65 who suffers an osteoporosis-related fracture will die within a year, according to the Surgeon General's Office.
Women over 50 are at greatest risk for osteoporosis because they lose estrogen during menopause. Hormone replacement therapy, however, is no longer widely used to replace estrogen. In fact, a combination of the hormones estrogen and progesterone has been shown to cause more problems than benefits. Hormone replacement therapy increases the risk of blood clots, heart attacks, stroke and breast cancer, according to a watershed 15-year study by the National Institutes of Health.
Natural forms of estrogen, called phytoestrogens, found in soy, have shown some promise in maintaining bone density. However, since phytoestrogens mimic the properties of estrogen, they may have side effects that resemble naturally occurring estrogen, warns Sara E. Walker, a rheumatologist at the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Medicine and co-principal investigator of the Missouri Arthritis Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (MARRTC). In addition, soy and other plant sources of phytoestrogen are considered nutritional supplements, not drugs, and are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration.
Unfortunately, starting to take good care of one's bones at 50 or after a fracture may be a bit too late, Walker explains.
"It is important for young to promote their bone health in their teens and 20s," Walker says. "Bones don't get stronger as we age."
To prevent osteoporosis later in life, men and women of all ages, should:
Exercise and include at least 30 minutes of weight-bearing exercise a day, such as walking
Consume adequate amounts of calcium, at least 1,500 mg/day, and vitamin D, at least 400 IU (international units)/day
Skip alcohol
Don't smoke
Take steps to minimize the risk of falling
A bone density test is recommended for all women over 65 and for any woman who suffers a fracture before the age of 50. Men, however, do not enjoy the benefits of regular screening because there are no recommendations to do so.
"Men may be the 'forgotten sex' when it comes to osteoporosis," Walker says. "Men are clearly at risk as they grow older, and factors such as low testosterone levels and treatment with prednisone, a corticosteroid drug, will contribute to bone thinning in men."
Each year, roughly 1.5 million people suffer a bone fracture related to osteoporosis.
Hip fractures account for 300,000 hospitalizations a year, the Surgeon General's report says. The direct cost of care for osteoporosis-related fractures saps the nation's economy of $18 billion a year.
For more information on osteoporosis and arthritis and related conditions, go to www.marrtc.org/conditions/osteoporosis.html
To arrange an interview with a MARRTC expert on osteoporosis and vitamin D deficiency or any other arthritis related topic, contact Becky Woelfel, Senior Information Specialist, at (573) 882-2914 or by email at woelfelr@missouri.edu
The Missouri Arthritis Research Rehabilitation and Training Center (MARRTC) was established in 1971 at the University of Missouri-Columbia Arthritis Center. MARRTC is funded by the U.S. Department of Education's National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (H133B031120) and is the only federally funded arthritis rehabilitation research and training center in the country.
As part of the MU Health Communication Research Center (HCRC), MARRTC's mission is to become a national leader in the areas of disability management and communication, improve the quality of life and promote independent living among people who have arthritis and arthritic conditions. MARRTC's core message is "Disability is everyone's issue."
|
|
