Osteoporosis is not just a women’s disease

By Santa Ynez Valley Star Staff · Tue Mar 17 2020

By James Riley

Contributing Writer

Osteoporosis is a bone-thinning disease that weakens the skeleton, making bones more likely to break. It threatens millions of older women and men.

And, although women are about twice as likely to fall and break a bone, osteoporosis still poses a significant threat for men, especially as we progress into our eighties and nineties.

Osteoporosis and its precursor, osteopenia, are often considered a “women’s disease,” deflecting the focus of men from a debilitating disease that they also are susceptible to. Although it is true that older men get about half as many fractures as older women, the men are more likely to suffer a permanent disability and twice as likely to die within a year as women, according the Center for Disease Control.

What causes osteoporosis?

Throughout our lifespan our bones are constantly changing: old bone is removed and replaced by new bone. In our youth (birth to 20 years) the body produces more bone than is removed while our bones grow and become dense and the skeleton gets larger and stronger.

Bone growth and density peaks during the third decade of life. For both men and women, bone density very slowly declines because the removal of bone material exceeds the formation of new bone.

Men in their fifties do not experience the rapid loss of bone women typically experience following menopause. By age 65, both sexes experience bone loss at approximately the same rate, and the absorption of calcium and other minerals necessary for bone health decreases in both men and women.

Osteoporosis is age-related and is often referred to as the “silent disease,” because it is usually symptom free until a bone breaks and discloses the problem. Although osteoporosis is age related and some progressive bone loss will occur, other factors that we can control may contribute to a bone loss rate that is greater than what would naturally happen.

Some causes of loss of bone matter include excessive alcohol consumption, smoking, some common medications, immobilization, a sedentary lifestyle, poor dietary habits and genetic predispositions. Fortunately, many of those causes of bone loss can be abated by improving our lifestyle habits.

There is far less research compiled on osteoporosis in men than for women, but it is suggested that all people take a few steps to show a little love for their bones.