Guidelines to include younger high-risk postmenopausal women
Article Source: msnbc.com
from:msnbc.comMore women urged to get osteoporosis tests
Seeded on Mon Jul 5, 2010 6:32 PM EDT (msnbc.com)
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I agree that younger women should be tested. I was 54 when it hit me. But I am white, had been a heavy smoker, runs in the family and slim built. Lucky it was just my foot and not a hip or worse. I took drugs for 4 years and the last two have just taken calcium everyday. Getting retested this summer to see if I can stay off the Boniva or if I need to start taking again.
Once again, women are being victimized by another scam that exploits women's concern about their body. Even before puberty, young women are told by Big Business to equal their physical appearance with self-worth. Promoting the forever-unattainable image of female beauty, the multi-billion dollar cosmetic industry thrives on the insecurity of many women. Is it any wonder that many women spend countless hours applying foundation, anti-wrinkle cream, eye shadow, mascara, blush, and lip-gloss? As the next exploiter of women, the apparel industry foists the notion that unless a woman is well dressed, she is of lesser stature. The proliferation of women clothing retailers is evidence of the success achieved by the apparel industry. As if that was not enough, let's not mention the time women spent coordinating various clothing style and color, and hours shopping at malls for that perfect fit Victoria Secret. At this point, it is redundant to discuss how the shoe industry has promoted women's shoe collection as sign of the well heeled.
As women age and their attention turns to health, the new exploiter is the medical business. Decades ago, medical test salespersons sold women on the idea of a regular annual mammogram. Only later did women discover that annual mammogram is indicated only for women who have a family history of breast cancer and that excessive mammogram may actual increase the chance of breast cancer.
For years the medical business extol the virtue of hormonal supplement for menopausal women until medical studies indicate that hormonal supplement may have serious adverse side effects, including blood clots and increase chance of cancer. Treating menopause as a disease rather than just another stage of life, the medical business invariably over medicated women needlessly..... for a profit, of course.
As men and women age, they all suffer various degree of osteoporosis. However, the medical business capitalizes on women's concern about weak bones. Naturally, their salesperson first trotted out osteoporosis test kits followed by calcium supplement, vitamin D, and other fancy scientific-sounding drugs as possible remedy. Nobody told the women that weight bearing exercise and a healthy balance diet would achieve the same or better result for fraction of the cost of drugs and less chance of medical complications. Even the American Dairy Association sought to join the play on women's concern about osteoporosis by recommending large dairy consumption even though the calcium in milk is not easily absorbed by the digestive tract.
Operating stealthily, America's new legal drug pushers are the pharmaceutical companies that exploit women's fear of growing old with fragile bones. Using soft-sell tactics masqueraded as news, the spin doctors of Madison Avenue hired by the medical business to promote drugs may actually cause more harm to women with osteoporosis than benefit.
Definitely and women need to take calcium plus Vit D routinely. I tripped and broke my hip at 49! I am a non smoker. However, my mother and aunt both fell and broke their hips too.
I am 54 (ex-smoker and had hysterectomy many years ago) and was diagnosed with Osteoarthritis over a year ago and was told to get on bone meds (boniva or whatever) but those are not good for you either so I have gone on my own regime. Calcium, D & K at night, Ultimate Bone Support by Advanced Bionutritionals in the morning. Exercise including investing in a whole body vibrating machine. I "feel" better and will be retesting in August to confirm my suspicions that my bones are stronger as I will have been on this for over 6 months.
Testing is very important to do tho they are not accurate, but it'll give you an idea of where you are at and the motivation to do something about it!
I hit menopause at 48, and a baseline screening also showed that I already had osteoporosis. I did not have any obvious risk factors. Doctor determined I was consuming enough vit. D, but it just wasn't being absorbed. I probably should have suspected something and asked for an earlier screening after bumping into a tile wall resulted in a fractured foot bone. Now, I've increased my weight-bearing exercise and am taking Boniva, but I sure would have liked to have known I was headed this way much sooner.
All women need to do is eat properly and exercise. And avoid dairy products. Calcium comes from vegetables, especially green leafy ones. Milk is acidic which tears down the skeletal system, yet the misguided medical industry still encourages it. The whole bone density scan/biphosphenate drug industry is a scam and those drugs are very dangerous. Avoid them.
always women never men even men suffer from this as they get older
If Aliens are picking up our TV signals they would think only women get sick
Sure wish they would offer more information for women who had hysterectomies at a young age and have not been on hormone replacement therapy (HRT). I had a hysterectomy at 35, smoke and already have pretty severe degenerative disc disease in the spine as well as bone spurs from the neck to the hip. I also smoke. Does this put me in the category of needing to be tested, I wonder? Hmmm, hate these stories that are only part of the news a person needs!!! C'mon, complete the stories for those of us that fall in between the cracks here!!!
I don't know if you need to be tested, but it is obvious that the first thing you need to do is STOP SMOKING! It is bad for your bones, your lungs, and your overall health. Not only are you putting your bones at risk, you run the risk of developing emphysema, chronic lung disease and/or cancer. I would quit smoking, cold turkey, and talk to your OB about your risks for osteoporosis.
Absolutely need to quit smoking!!! I had a hysterectomy at a young age too and have searched and searched for information and there just isn't much out there for ladies such as ourselves. Definitely get yourself tested to get an idea of where your bones are at. You can fight back with proper eating, supplements (the right supplements) and exercise!
Something else that I learned about our bones is that they store toxins and as our bones get brittle or have osteoporosis is that those toxins will leach out then. Smoking is a toxin, so quit however you need to quit, you'll feel tons better! I quit 20 years ago and my lungs are up capacity which really surprised me but God made our bodies to heal itself over time if we take care of ourselves including our bones!
Stop smoking. It robs your body of vital vitamins and minerals. Plus, if you get COPD in addition to osteoporosis you will break your ribs with the coughing spells you have to clear your damaged lungs.
Unfortanetly most people think that calcium supplements are good to grow denser bones but in reality you are making matters worse. What you need to take is magnesium as it helps to put calcium in the bones and most people lack this nutrient and actually have too much calcium. Magnesium will also help you relax more and even sleep better and it's also good for your heart and arteries.
Another thing to keep in mind is that although drugs help bones retain more calcium it actually becomes more brittle over time. And let's not even talk about the side effects.
I think it is important to know that the drugs used to treat osteoperosis can help a person lay down bone but the bone is not necessarily strong bone. The drugs are very expensive. It is VITAL that women AND men take calcium daily and assure that they have a normal vitamin D level. If you live in a climate rich in sunlight, vitamin D should not be a problem for you. But if you live in a climate where sunlight is decreased such as the Northwest, you should have your vitamin D level checked regurally and your vitamin D dose adjusted appropriately. Also, there are some side effects associated with these medications that can be rather unplesant. I urger women to start calcium therapy early. And remember, we see men with the same types of problems as women. They develop the same fragile bones as women.
It's also important to have your blood calcium and vitamin D levels tested. Thanks to my family practice doctor, it was discovered I had hyperparatyroidism. My body was leeching calcium from my bones which caused osteopenia. The extremely high calcium level was discovered through routine blood work. I had a large growth on one of my parathyroids, once the gland was removed all my levels went back to normal. It's also important to make sure that you are taking your calcium correctly--unless you take Citracal, you need to take it with food. If your vitamin D levels are low, the calcium won't metabolize correctly.
The tests compare a woman's bones to that of a 30 year old. I am 46. I do not see how my bones will be the same as a 30 year old person, yet, I am strong, I walk at nearly 4mph at 30 minutes at a stretch, & bicycle nearly 20 miles with no problem. I would still be told I have a disease (osteopenia) which needs to be treated with drugs that run roughly $100 per pill once a month. I don't buy it.
Please take a minute to learn how the threshold for osteopenia was determined. First of all, the name was made up to distinguish it from osteoporosis. The threshold level for this new disease was not found in a lab, but rather in an over-heated conference room with a chart and the level was arbitrarily selected by tired, overheated bone doctors looking for a place to draw a line. To make matters better, a push for these diagnoses was not as a result of a health crisis, rather it was because the company that makes the drugs wants more women to be diagnosed so they can sell their drugs.
Yes, if you are said to have a disease, it is because you are unrealistically measured against a much younger body with an arbitrary threshold with sales of bone scanning equipment and pharmaceuticals as impetus. Read about it: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121609815
The bottom line here is whether we are screening to treat osteoporosis or to prevent its advance. I am a case in point of the importance of the latter, and would definitely advocate screening all women at the onset of menopause and most men at age 60. My own awareness was the result of a comment by a physical therapist, not any of my physicians. Although I have a serious family history of osteoporosis (my mother has lost 5 inches in height at age 86), I didn't think I had anything to worry about until my 70's. When a physical therapist asked me if I was doing weight bearing exercise, I had no idea what she meant. As a result of her comment, I've done a lot of research, and taken many preventative measures. I truly didn't understand the importance of vitamin D or the need to spread consumption of calcium. My own bone loss (at age 61) seems to have stabilized. I currently sit on the Board of Directors of a hospital, and am urging our management to create a bone health and ostoeporosis center, to be more proactive about prevention (even though it may not increase our profitability). Having led an educational program, I have two frustrations - the first is that most participants are women who are at such an advanced stage that they have very few options - primarily medication, which at best, can reduce the progress. If discovered earlier, lifestyle changes might have prevented the severity. The second is that most men haven't got a clue that this can impact them. At this point, about twenty percent of osteoporsosis occurs in men. Osteopoenia, the pre-osteoporosis condition that might be influenced by lifestyle changes, occurs at a rate of 1/3 or more in men. Until we stop viewing bone loss as "normal aging", we haven't got a chance of doing anything about it.
The risk of osteoporosis will decrease when the nutrition police and the media stop telling women that thin, bony bodies are normal. The biggest cause of thinning bones is dieting. Heavy women and African-American women rarely get osteoporosis regardless of age, but as long as young girls are convinced that a Size 2 is normal, there will continue to be millions of women who have 60 year old skeletons at 35 and as soon as they stop producing estrogen begin breaking. Osteoporosis can be prevented by maintaining a normal body weight, with some normal fat which God meant for women to have.
I am a 63 yr old woman. I have a family history of osteoporosis and I also have that malady. I have shrunk about 1-2 inches over the past 8-10 years. Bone density tests showed I had fractures in my spine. I thought any pain was just associated with "old age". Now, my dr. has perscribed a once-a-day easily injected shot of a medicine that actually 'grows' bone. Since I am of short stature and have COPD, my lung capacity was being compromised due to shrinkage in that lumbar area. I have been on this medication for 7 months. We will see soon if I have made any progress. This is a very serious condition internally as well as outward appearance. Young people, my advice to you is get the test, painless and necessary!