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PHOTO: D. SHUGAR
Fitness & Wellness
By Catherine Morisset
Strong Bones for Life!
Bone up on bone health for a healthier future
What is osteoporosis?
Very simply put, osteoporosis is a
slow decrease in bone strength (bone
density) that weakens bones and can
lead to multiple bone fractures, especially
of the spine and hip.
Bone is alive, ages
and gets replaced
Bone is a tissue that is alive and
constantly changing, like muscles or
skin. Since bone is a living tissue, it is
constantly remodeled (renewed and
repaired) through life.As we grow up,
our bones get longer, thicker and
denser.
As we get older, and more so if we
lead a sedentary life, our body
removes more bone than it replaces.
This slow bone loss tends to accelerate
around menopause for women,
which makes women more prone to
osteoporosis.
Bone strength tends to closely
link to muscle strength and muscle
mass. In other words, weak muscles
usually mean weak bones and strong
muscles usually mean strong bones.
And, of course, you need more bone
strength to support a larger body.
These two factors make women more
at risk than men,who tend to have bigger
bodies, stronger muscles and big-
ger, stronger bones. It is expected that
1 woman out of 4, and 1 man out of 8,
will develop osteoporosis.
The slow decrease is silent
There are no early symptoms, no
signs of bone loss in the beginning.
Then, as the disease progresses, you
might break bones, lose height or
develop severe back pain as vertebrae
collapse onto themselves. Unless you
get tested for bone density or break a
weakened bone, there is no way for
you to know your bones have weakened
dangerously.
Not a new disease
A woman’s life expectancy was
age 54 in 1900, so women didn’t have
much time to develop osteoporosis
after reaching the age of menopause.
Since then, our lifestyles have become
much more sedentary: we no longer
chop wood, beat carpets, scrub and
beat soiled clothes, etc. Instead, we
turn on the gas fireplace, vacuum carpets
and wash clothes at the touch of
a button. You need to replace this
physical work with physical activity.
Are you at a loss?
You don’t lose bone density
overnight and you are not too young
July/August 2008 • 17 • Fifty-Five Plus Magazine
to think about it. Osteoporosis doesn’t
only affect women in their late 60s
and 70s — it affects both men and
women. We start losing bone density
in our 30s,sometimes earlier,and bone
loss may be apparent by age 45. Many
of my clients are as young as 45 when
they first learn they have low bone
density. Other clients suddenly discover
“catastrophic” loss in bone density
when they finally get tested after a
bone fracture.
Losing bone density is a slow
process; generally speaking, bone is
lost at an average of one to two per
cent per year, from the age of 35
onward. An increasingly sedentary
lifestyle is blamed for the decrease in
bone density, and this progressive
decrease continues for life — unless
you do something about it.
Three methods of control
Bone strength and density is controlled
in three ways. Your genes:
whether or not our parents were tall
or short, big-boned or delicate. Your
gender: with women generally having
smaller bones than men. Life-long
habits: what we do, how much we
move and how we keep our muscles
strong, what we eat, whether or not
we smoke, drink alcohol or caffeinat-