SAN ANTONIO — Osteoporosis is considered a "silent disease" in the sense that most people don't know they have it until a bone breaks.
As we find out in our latest edition of Healthy SA, the fall season is the best time to bring attention to this bone-breaking condition with falls on the rise this time of year.
Every Oct. 20 is World Osteoporosis Day. The point is to raise awareness and promote bone health. Osteoporosis is a costly disease that costs the health care industry close to $20 billion a year, and some of it is preventable.
"As we age, typically, there are other reasons for bone loss, but osteoporosis is this thinning of bones that happens over time and it makes you more susceptible to fractures," said Annette Gantz, a nurse practitioner and fracture liaison certified specialist from The Bone Health & Osteoporosis Foundation.
About 10 million Americans have osteoporosis. One in two women and up to one in four men will break a bone in their life from osteoporosis.
For women, the odds are greater than that of heart attack, stroke and breast cancer combined. With spine and hip fractures being extremely dangerous, Gantz told us: "With a hip fracture, the average age is 80. And with that client with that population, there is a bigger increase of dying within a year of having a hip fracture."
The Mayo Clinic says to watch out for these common Osteoporosis symptoms:
- Back pain, caused by a broken or collapsed bone in the spine.
- Loss of height over time.
- A stooped posture.
- A bone that breaks more easily than expected.
"Knowing your bone density before any break can be a huge help in diagnosis. That's where you compare the amount of minerals in your bones to somebody with the perfect bone," Gantz added. "We do bone densities regularly for women, usually over 50, that have risk factors, men over 65 that have risk factors. And the bone density is a measurement of the minerals in the bone."
Gantz says people need to start taking care of our bones when we are as young as children by exercising and eating well with a diet including plenty of protein, calcium, vitamin D and veggies.