Evening Exchange; Bone Health and Baby Boomers

It's. Documented osteoporosis is a disease in which bones become fragile and more likely to break. Any bone can be affected. But of special concern are fractures of the hip and spine. Now why are a baby boomers across the nation being challenged by the National Osteoporosis Foundation to take better care of their bones. No to the meth the baby boom generation started in 1946 which would make its oldest members now around. Well we don't want you guessing my age so why not let Donna Landis owner and clinical director of the Women's Health Research Center and osteoporosis diagnostic and monitoring center just tell us what's going on here. Welcome back to this. Thank you Joe. Why baby boomers why the focus on baby boomers right now. Well baby boomers are just entering into as you alluded to their mid 50s their mid-50s.

Yes. And around age 50 is about the time that women are thought to go through menopause. Many Ponce is. The most drastic change in women's health life. And in terms of osteoporosis it's important because that's when a woman loses her source of estrogen estrogen is protective. Up until that time for her bones after she loses that source of estrogen she has to decide whether or not perhaps to use hormone replacement therapy she may or may not be able to or want to do that. And that puts her particular at risk with men. It's the same sort of thing that occurs about 10 years later. Men's testosterone levels start to decrease. And that puts them at risk. But as I said that happens in men about 10 years later and women then the proportion of women who are liable to develop osteoporosis tends to be slightly greater than the proportion of men.

Absolutely. About 80 percent of the people with osteoporosis are women but that's still 20 percent are men. And that's not an insignificant number. How many Americans right now or the diagnosed or at risk for osteoporosis. There's about the newest figures that I've seen are about 44. Million people. Any variation of that for African-Americans or other minority populations. Absolutely. We mostly hear about osteoporosis in terms of Caucasian. And. Females. And indeed that's the population where osteoporosis is most prevalent but it is not insignificant in all the other ethnic populations. Asians have about the same risk factors and incidence of osteoporosis as Caucasians. And Hispanics and African-Americans have about equal the risk of developing osteoporosis. What are the

implications perhaps that make this even more important for African-Americans. Is that an African-American who develops osteoporosis who may have a hip fracture is much more likely to die prematurely then a Caucasian woman who has a hip fracture from osteoporosis and the reasons given for some of that may be the more prevalent cardiovascular disease in the in the African-American community. Some of it is perhaps that there are lifestyle and health history may not be as good the prevention strategies typically have not been there over a lifetime for African-Americans so there are socioeconomic factors absolutely that have to be absolutely. What are the symptoms of osteoporosis if there are. That's very interesting. It's basically a silent disease. There are no symptoms as the disease is developing because the disease osteoporosis actually means. Thin bone

density or thin bone tissue and you don't really notice that you're losing bone mass. Something's going on insidiously inside of you. The first time that you really notice a symptom that you can become aware of is either when you have a fracture. Under circumstances that in the past you felt certainly would not have caused the fracture. Absolutely in we call the minimal trauma minimal trauma would be if you were standing and fell and the cause that fall caused you to have a fracture or you stepped off a curb. Many times we've heard about people that stepped off a curb fell down and they thought they broke their hip when indeed just the opposite was true. They were standing there their hip actually breaks so they don't have anything to support their body. And then they fall off. So a distinction has to be made I guess between the fractures that come as a

result of osteoporosis. And when individuals have hip replacement surgery which may not necessarily be the result of osteoporosis. Absolutely. The most common reason for hip replacement is actually for osteoarthritis. And in those instances the individuals who have osteoarthritis. Are really asked to wait until the pain is so great they can no longer walk. And it really impacts their lifestyle. It's at that point that a hip replacement may be put in. On the other hand someone who breaks their hip because of low bone mass has to have the hip replaced or it has to be pinned some help it has to be fixed again so that the individual can try to get back. To to some level of independence. One of the reasons it is my understanding that the baby boom generation is being targeted is not only because its members are now in their 50s. The because in

so many cases the baby boom generation is caring for its own parents. So you have often in the same household in the same circumstances two generations that could be at risk for osteoporosis so targeting the baby boom generation means really targeting a much larger percentage of the population. Absolutely. It's it's an intergenerational approach actually. Osteoporosis could be known as a pediatric disease with a geriatric outcome. So and that is if we if we paid attention to our children when they were young made sure they had adequate calcium intake make sure that they play outside make sure that they have adequate exercise and that isn't moving the mouse or the keyboard. And it's certainly not sitting there with the latest PlayStation. Exercising you two thumbs is just not going to do it.

But if you have an adequate intake of calcium and vitamin D adequate exercise for a lifetime it's much like your savings account for retirement. So you're putting that away you're building up healthy bones. When you enter puberty you then have the hormones that kick in. They become protective they help your body to better utilize the calcium and the vitamin D that are in there and you build healthier stronger bones and muscles. Then as you get up into your 40s and 50s your body starts to reverse that and it starts to actually Leach or pull away break down that bone tissue. So the higher bone tissue can build up when you're young the more you have to draw off. And that's why I liken it to a retirement savings account because once you retire you'd like to continue same standard of living but you have to have made provision for

that. But you have a professional interest in this but you also have a personal interest in osteoporosis tell us about that. I do. I have. When I first was involved in this field about 16 or 17 years ago and I had my first bone density test on myself I found out that I was last year product. And before that I knew from looking at the fact that I'm female I'm Caucasian Northern European ancestry. Small bones. That I had the look of someone who could develop osteoporosis. But then as over these past 15 years what has happened in my family is that my mother him has three sisters who are older than she is there were seven children in the family. The oldest daughter had had a hip fracture. It was in a nursing home recovered satisfactorily from that had that

wonderful attentive care. But about 10 years later fractured the other hip as well. The next sister in that family was actually about 92. Doing very well very independent woman. She was actually outside sweeping the alley. Because she didn't like it to be dirty. Of course she slipped and fell broke her hip. And actually she had never learned to drive so she is someone that you didn't have to talk to about weight bearing exercise she walked everywhere she wanted to go so she'd have a lifetime of that. She went through having her hip replaced went through rehabilitation came back to live by herself and that's that's pretty extraordinary. But that had a lot to do with her taking care of herself and I'd like my time downtime to be able to do that at night too.

That's exactly right and then the next sister has never broken a hip. But indeed when she rolls over in bed breaks ribs someone gives her a hug. Her ribs break now lifestyle. Calcium intake and vitamin D. What happens to people who are who cannot drink milk. People who are addicted to her heart like water that's still some tolerant people who happen to be lucky. That doesn't help. How do they intake health and could the bone structure. Well there are several ways people that are lactose intolerant have actually been shown that they could probably tolerate small amounts of milk. OK so if they like milk and many of them do they like milk or yogurt they could spread that out over a days time. In much smaller quantities put it in effect as you get older it's much harder to get your intake in diet if you are lactose intolerant. There are there are some drops that you can add to food. That will help your body. They replace the enzyme that's missing to digest that. If osteoporosis is a silent disease how can we know whether or not we

have it. Well there are a list of risk factors that people can gauge themselves against. And some of the ME can't do anything about such as advancing age. The longer you live the more your chances of getting osteoporosis if you are Caucasian or Asian. You have a much greater chance but I don't really know you're sure because there are such as there a test of something there. The way that you would tell is a combination of looking at an individual's risk factors as well as a bone density test. A bone density test and there are there are really two things that people often get confused. One is bone density screening. And that's looking at the heel of the forearm. It is meant to identify people at risk. We need more of a workout and we should point out to you that there is 40 osteoporosis screening that is now available to you if you simply look at your screen of the osteoporosis diagnostic and monitoring center. You can get it between May 22nd and May 29 12 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. there are

the numbers on your screen so go ahead and get your free diagnostic test for osteoporosis. Donna Landis thank you very much for joining thank you very much. Our thanks to all of our panelists for joining us most of all. Thanks to you for watching stay well. Good night. Lad.