Osteoporosis - A Disease Hounding Women

Osteoporosis, or the thinning of the bones, affects women more than men. It can lead to a humpback posture due to the collapse of the vertebra. A fractured hip is the most serious consequence of osteoporosis.

But did you know that more women in developed countries die from fracture of the neck of femur than from cancer of the breast, cervix, and uterus, combined? The link to osteoporosis here is that consumption of dairy products is higher in these nations than in underdeveloped or developing ones.

An elderly woman, or man, who suffers from fracture of the femur, is rendered immobile. Herein lies its danger, because this immobility increases the risk of catching pneumonia, which is the usual cause of death in this tragic situation.

We have long been told that osteoporosis is caused by lack of calcium. Spin doctors of milk manufacturers have been driving it to our minds for decades, quite successfully I should say, that we should be drinking calcium-rich milk regularly to fill up the deficiency.

However, this belief is being debunked by doctors who claim that our body is already awash with calcium. It is pointed out that calcium deposition is in fact a big factor in many aging conditions like the hardening of the arteries, brain plaques, arthritis, gallstones and kidney stones, and cataracts, among others. So, who needs more calcium?

And the most shocking revelation is the argument of these doctors that milk is the main cause of osteoporosis through malabsorption due to gut inflammation from milk. Milk consumption promotes osteoporosis instead of preventing it?

Bone loss is a natural result of the aging process. But women are more susceptible to this disease. Their rate of bone loss increases 10-fold after the onset of menopause due to a reduced production of estrogen. By age 70 to 80, women would have typically lost anywhere from 30% to 50% of their bone mass.

The single biggest factor in determining whether or not a woman will develop osteoporosis is her bone density. Those with dense bones at age 35 will unlikely suffer from severe osteoporotic conditions even in their seventh and eighth decade. 

Those with already thin bones even before the onset of menopause are likely to undergo the worst difficulties of osteoporosis, no matter what treatment is administered.

So, it is very important, especially for women, to know where they stand so that preventive measures can be initiated early on. There is a simple screening called bone densitometry, which you can probably request through your doctor. Avoiding osteoporosis, is by far, its best treatment.

In the next post, I'll outline the best course of action to prevent osteoporosis.