Dallas County Living Well Magazine Fall 2014 | Page 17

Why Bone Health Is Important

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By Crys Sory, MD

hen you think about staying healthy,
you probably think about making lifestyle changes to prevent conditions like
cancer and heart disease. Keeping your
bones healthy to prevent osteoporosis
may not be at the top of the wellness list. But it should be.
Osteoporosis, which means “porous bone,” is a
disease characterized by low bone mass (bone
thinning) that leads to bones becoming weak and
breaking more easily. Throughout your lifetime,
old bone is removed (a process called resorption) and new bone is added to the
skeleton (a process called formation).
As we age, the rate at which old bone
is removed and new bone is formed
changes. Bone resorption slowly begins
to exceed bone formation and, as a result, osteoporosis can occur.
Osteoporosis is much more common
than you might think. In fact, the National
Osteoporosis Foundation states that osteoporosis is a major public health threat for an
estimated 44 million Americans (80% of whom
are women). Of that total, it is estimated that
10 million already have the disease and nearly
34 million have abnormally low bone mass,
placing them at increased risk for osteoporosis.
Estimates also suggest that about half of all
women and one in four men older than 50 will
break a bone because of osteoporosis. The Surgeon General reported that by 2020, half of all
Americans over 50 will be at risk for fractures
from osteoporosis and low bone mass. With
the 50+ year old population growing, I believe
this disease will continue to be a significant medical issue.
Breaking a bone is serious, especially when you’re older.
Osteoporosis is responsible for more than two million fractures annually in the U.S. Broken bones due to osteoporosis
are most likely to occur in the hip, spine and wrist. Broken
bones can cause severe pain that may not go away. Some
people lose height and become shorter. It can also affect
your posture, causing you to become stoo