Osteoporosis can hit young women as well as older
Q: Hope you can help settle a friendly argument with my mother. She may have osteoporosis and it is upsetting her. I keep telling her that it is a natural part of aging and she doesn’t believe me. Who is right on this? A: Osteoporosis is a preventable disease, and young people get it, too.
According to the National Institutes of Health, more than 10 million Americans have osteoporosis, 80 percent of them women. The disease threatens a further 18 million. Osteoporosis gradually and almost imperceptibly robs victims of their mineral reserves, causing their bones to become more porous and leading to fractures, deformity and disability.
The disease causes 1.5 million fractures a year, and treatment costs are a staggering $13 billion, more than asthma or breast cancer. Twenty percent of women with osteoporosis-related hip fractures die within a year.
A University of Arkansas study shows that 2 percent of college-age women already have osteoporosis. A further 15 percent have sustained significant losses in bone density, and might be well on their way to developing the disease. The study also reveals some surprising risk factors, which might help explain why so many young women have dangerously low bone density – and provide them with the information they need to avoid problems in the future.
“I want women not just to live longer, but to live better,” says dietitian and health sciences professor Lori Turner at the University of Arkansas.
Turner thinks that millions of young women might be putting themselves at risk for developing osteoporosis up to 50 years before symptoms appear.
Some of Turner’s subjects had extremely low body weights, which they maintained almost exclusively through dieting. Wanting to look thin, they avoided exercise because it would increase their muscle mass. These women were at highest risk for reduced bone density. Their low body weights exerted less pressure on their bones, so their bodies had no reason to maintain bone strength. And they often eliminated dairy products from their diets, thus losing their primary source of calcium.
To prevent bone density loss, young women should get about 1,000 milligrams of calcium per day by eating foods such as dairy products and calcium-rich vegetables, or by taking calcium supplements.
Young women who had participated in high school athletics had the highest bone densities, a finding that underscores the importance of exercise and physical education during the school years. Weight-bearing exercises – activities like weight training, gardening, jogging, walking and aerobics – are the best overall way to strengthen bones.
Bones reach their peak mass around the age of 30. Estrogen protects bones and stimulates their growth, and the loss of estrogen at menopause causes bone density to decline more sharply. So Turner’s research has important implications for the young women in her study, who still have a few years to improve their bone mass if they need to do so. She compares bone density to saving money and putting it in the bank: “The more you save, the more you will have to draw on later if necessary.”
(Send your questions to Steve Infanti, A Fit Life Column, 801e BAB, University Park, PA 16802 or via e-mail to SCInfanti@compuserve.com.)