Gaining Wisdom About Porous Bones

~ by Carol Vartuli

Many things get better with age: Cabernet, Parmigiano-Reggiano and classic movies like Casablanca.

Similarly, people get better with age when their cache of life experience is distilled into fine wisdom. Of course, the flip side of human aging involves worn-down body parts.

Thinning hair and faces etched in wrinkles are telltale signs of aging. Less-obvious structural changes in muscles and bones diminish strength and agility, and they begin decades earlier. By age 35, for example, we start losing more bone than we build.

Porous Bones

Bone loss is the focus of Osteoporosis Awareness Month, celebrated in May. Although commonly associated with women and aging, it's important that people of all ages understand what osteoporosis is and how to prevent it, or deal with its effects.

Osteoporosis (porous bone) results in more than two million fractures each year, and that number is growing. About 54 million Americans have osteoporosis and low bone mass (osteopenia).

Startling statistic: After age 50, half of all women, and a quarter of all men will experience an osteoporosis-related bone fractures in their lifetimes.

Yet, many people are unaware they have osteoporosis until they fracture a bone with little trauma.

What are Risk Factors for Osteoporosis?

 There are several inherent risk factors:

• Being over 50 years old.
• Bone structure and body weight. Petite and thin people have less bone mass than larger people.
• Gender. Being female. The 10 years following the onset of menopause put women at the highest risk of bone loss.
• Caucasians and Asians are more prone to bone loss, although African-American and Hispanic women are also at risk.
• Family History: Having a grandparent or parent with osteoporosis, or who suffered a hip fracture after a minor fall, makes you more prone to thinning bones
• Conditions involving irregular hormone levels, certain blood diseases, celiac disease and inflammatory bowel syndrome, and organ transplantation
• Medications like steroids and anticonvulsives can negatively affect bone health and you should discuss their use with your physician.

Lifestyle choices increase the risk for osteoporosis in anyone:

• Eating habits that don't include adequate Calcium and Vitamin D
• Sitting more than you move
• Smoking tobacco in all forms
• Drinking two or more alcoholic beverages a day

Prevention and Treatment

With any disease, the best option is always prevention, starting early in life. According to American Bone Health.org, building bone depends on adequate amounts of calcium and Vitamin D, which also helps muscles work. As bones age, they continue to depend on sufficient calcium. They also require plenty of bone strengthening activities to "make {them} work against gravity--like running, jumping and dancing."

Older, porous bones continue to benefit from strengthening activities, like walking, as well as adequate intake of calcium and Vitamin D.

Bone-density testing is often recommended for menopausal women, when the steepest decline in bone mass occurs. With early diagnosis, the rate of bone loss can be slowed by using various medications.  

Since many people don't know they have osteoporosis until they suffer a bone fracture, the first line of 'treatment' for them is preventing further injury by making their environment 'fall proof.' There are many types of drug therapies to slow bone loss, and your physician will assess which is best for you.

Building Awareness for Future Health

 While a woman's risk of osteoporosis is double that of a man's, the Cleveland Clinic puts men's risk in perspective:

 According to the Bone Health and Osteoporosis Foundation, "men over the age of 50 are more likely to have an osteoporosis-induced bone break than to get prostate cancer. About 80,000 men per year are expected to break a hip, and men are more likely than women to die in the year after a hip fracture."

 The most valuable awareness might be for people under 30, whose bones are at their strongest. Knowing that bones, like most body parts, wear with age might influence more running, jumping and dancing in the present. Be smart, know your risk and the limits of you bones – you only get one set!

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The National Osteoporosis Foundation offers resources for people with osteoporosis.

See The Cleveland Clinic.org for explanations of how osteoporosis affects healthy adults.

The information in the above article is not intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.