HEALTH

Bad to the bone: The risk of osteoporosis

After halting hormone therapy, women may find it's not just hot flashes that plague them. Their bones may also be taking a hit.

By Susan J. Landers, AMNews staff. Jan. 19, 2004.

Estrogen plays an important undercover role in bone health, and in her first year after menopause, or after hormone therapy, a woman can lose several percentage points of bone mass. It happens without notice. That's why osteoporosis is sometimes called the silent disease. It doesn't hurt and it doesn't cause much trouble -- at first. But it can eventually wreak havoc in people's lives.

Osteoporosis is believed to be responsible for more than 1.5 million fractures each year, and many of those, especially hip and spine fractures, cause a lifetime of disability and can even hasten death.

One in two women and one in four men older than 50 will have an osteoporosis-related fracture at some point, according to the National Osteoporosis Foundation.

Although patients with osteoporosis can vary from a 45-year-old man who uses glucocorticoid to control his asthma, to a child with birth defects or a petite, 60-year-old grandmother, they will most commonly be older women. Eighty percent of those affected by the disease are women.

The prime time for bone health to begin its decline are the months and years surrounding menopause, and it is at this stage that a woman's bone health should receive attention, many physicians argue.

But what that attention should be -- beyond the traditional advice to consume sufficient calcium and get enough weight-bearing exercise -- is still a matter of some debate. And the discussion is further complicated by recent scientific evidence.

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