Coming to the Clinic – Part 10 – No Bones About It

Last month, I resurrected this series on how “you too can be the perfect patient.” I feel I’m at the point where I could change the title to “this is why you need to get those screenings that your health care provider recommends.” And you might be thinking, if you recall the whole colon screening blogs, that I share too much information. Guess what? I’m not finished yet.

Remember when you heard that one of your aging female relatives broke a hip? Auntie fell in the kitchen, no one knew why, and x-rays show a fracture that’s going to require surgery to repair, and with Auntie’s age, there’s still a chance that this isn’t going to heal. Next thing you know, Auntie’s in the hospital with a pneumonia that she doesn’t recover from. You’ve heard that story, right? You know someone who’s gone down that road, right?

Chances are Auntie had severe osteoporosis and that hip was actually fractured before she fell. Just the normal wear and tear of walking around on that hip caused it to break and that’s why she fell.

Osteoporosis, as you probably already know, is when the bones lose density or mass, making them weak, brittle and easy to break. If you are a postmenopausal woman, your health care provider will probably recommend a bone density. Being female puts you at risk of developing osteoporosis and broken bones. Here are some facts:

·       

        * 80% of Americans with osteoporosis are women.

·          * Nearly half of women over age 50 will break a bone because of osteoporosis.

·          * A woman’s risk of breaking a hip is equal to her combined risk of breast, uterine and ovarian cancer.

Why are us women targeted by this disease?

·          * Women tend to have smaller, thinner bones than men.

·         * Estrogen, a hormone in women that protects bones, decreases sharply when women reach menopause. This is why the chance of developing osteoporosis increases after menopause.

You can find out if you have osteoporosis or its precursor, osteopenia, by getting a bone density test. Also called a bone mass measurement test, it estimates the amount of bone in your hip, spine and sometimes other bones. It’s recommended having this done every two years.

When my health care provider suggested that I have this test, I agreed. Other than being a postmenopausal woman, my risk factors are close to nil. I don’t smoke, I don’t drink alcohol, I get plenty of exercise and I have a reasonable amount of bone-growing calcium in my diet.

So, when my provider said my test came back with osteopenia, I was floored. I thought, good thing I still have my mom’s wheeled walker, I’m gonna need it.

All I can do is take a daily calcium supplement with vitamin D and continue as much weight-bearing exercise as the bone spurs in my heels will allow. Oh, and one last thing – this is the only disease I know of where you are at higher risk if you are too thin. So, at least I do get to keep consuming the chocolate!