True or false? Breaking a bone after age 40 — even as a result of a fall — signals your bone strength is probably compromised.
True. Many people brush off such an event as an accident, but healthy bones rarely shatter under these circumstances. And bone health is a much bigger deal than you might think — for example, hip fracture is one of the leading causes of admission into long-term care.
That said, there are steps you can take to reduce your risk of developing osteoporosis — the condition that saps bone strength — and, if you already have it, to lower your risk of experiencing a potentially life-altering fracture.
While I’ve written about osteoporosis several times in the past, while researching my most recent piece on the topic for Good Times, I still learned a few facts that were new to me. As well, I learned that, since I last covered the topic, experts have refined methods of predicting the likelihood of fracture, and minimizing the risks of the medications used to prevent them.
You can read the story here.
For information and resources, including an on-line tool for gauging your calcium intake, and a link to the FRAX calculator (which estimates risk of an osteoporotic fracture, visit Osteoporosis Canada.
Thanks to all of the interviewees who gave so generously of their time: Dr. Emma Billington, Dr. Angela Cheung, Dr. Suzanne Morin, Dr. Alexandra Papaioannou, and Wendy Ward, PhD.
Photo by picjumbo_com, courtesy of Pixabay