Good to Know
with Dr. Honaker
Bone Health: Osteoporosis
DR. RICHARD HONAKER
Family Medicine Physician
Dr. Honaker is featured on
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Houston and Nashville in the
Medical Minute segments, as
it’s trusted family medicine
physician discussing topics
ranging from eating healthy,
weight loss, and sleep problems to preventive care for
headaches, food poisoning
and sunburns.
Family Medicine
Associates
of Texas
(972) 394 - 8844
4333 N Josey Ln.
Carrollton, Texas
Bone health is important, especially in women. For example,
there is osteoporosis, which is very
thin bones, and there is osteopenia,
which is mildly thin bones.
Likelihood of developing osteoporosis. This depends partly on how
much bone mass you attained in your
youth. When you’re young, your body
makes new bone faster than it breaks
it down and your bone mass increases.
Peak bone mass is generally reached by
most people in their early 20s. As you
age, bone mass is lost faster than it’s
made.
Who’s at risk? Generally it’s females.
It is often seen in people with very thin
bones and low weight, usually under
126 pounds. People with red hair, blue
eyes, freckles and fair skin tend to get
osteoporosis and osteopenia. Females
who are past menopause are at highest
risk.
Dietary factors. Osteoporosis is more
likely to occur in people who have low
calcium intake, eating disorders, and
weight loss surgery due to the reduction in size of the stomach or bypassing
a part of the intestine which limits the
amount of surface area available to
absorb nutrients.
Lifestyle choices. Sedentary lifestyle,
excessive alcohol consumption, and
tobacco use can increase your risk of
osteoporosis.
When to see a doctor. The way it
is diagnosed is through a bone density
scan that can be done at your doctor’s
office. It is best to talk to your doctor
about osteoporosis if you’ve gone
through early menopause, experienced
a loss of height, had a bone break
much more easily than expected or
have a family history of osteoporosis.
Treatment and Prevention
Supplements. If you do have
osteoporosis or osteopenia you
need to be on Calcium or Vitamin D. Generally, 600 milligrams
of Calcium twice a day and 400
International Units of Vitamin D
twice a day. If you take it all at
once, that’s not going to do the
trick; half of it will go out in your
urine. You must take the daily
dose and split it in half. Take half
in the morning and half in the
evening, that way it will get into
your bones well.
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Exercise. Regular exercise is
recommended to keep your bones
healthy. Combine strength training exercises with weight bearing
exercises. Strength training
helps strengthen the muscles and
bones in your arms, upper spine,
and weight bearing exercises such
as walking, jogging, and running
mainly affect the bones in your
legs, hips and lower spine.
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