Page 35 - Healthy (March - April 2020)

theCLINIC

IS YOUR is fat-soluble, but low-fat foods have HOW’S YOUR
‘HEALTHY’ DIET just as much calcium if not slightly BALANCE?
3 RESTRICTIVE? more, so get a balance. 8 ‘Postural sway’ – a measure
We tend to focus on calcium and of balance – is another risk factor. A
vitamin D, but our bones need a WHAT’S YOUR study measured postural sway in 1568
range of vitamins and minerals, so BOOZE INTAKE? women, followed up over a period
we need to eat a calcium-rich, well- 4 Drinking excessive alcohol of 15 years. Those with the highest
balanced diet that includes colourful afects your bone-building cells. It sway were found to have twice the
fruits and vegetables, proteins, fats seems to be toxic in some way, but the risk of fracture of women with the
and carbohydrates. Our bones store link is more complex than that because lowest sway. When high postural
calcium, and the body needs a steady people who drink excessively often have sway was combined with low bone
balance, so as this need increases, it poor nutrition, and are at increased mineral density, they had a ive times
could leach calcium from the bones if risk of falls. That’s not to say people higher overall fracture risk, and an
we haven’t eaten enough. We all need should worry and not drink at all, just 11 times higher risk of osteoporotic
700mg daily. More people are avoiding stay within recommended guidelines. fractures. A combination of ‘strength’
dairy, or going vegan, and if you (One study even found small amounts and ‘steadiness’ together can better
eliminate anything, you need to check of alcohol raised oestrogen levels, predict fracture risk. It’s why we
you’re getting enough calcium from which helps protect bones.) Also stop suggest things like brushing your
other sources. You also need some fat smoking, which impacts cells, and teeth while standing on one leg until
in your diet, because vitamin D is linked to reduced bone density. you wobble, because that’s when your
balance is being challenged and you
can really improve it.
DID YOUR GRANDPARENTS SHRINK? HAVE YOU
Did your parents, or their parents, lose height as they aged? It could BROKEN
5 be that their spinal discs got harder and latter, but sometimes when 9 A BONE?
people shrink it’s thanks to vertebral compression fractures, which are a Any fracture or break isn’t in itself
sign of osteoporosis. Research has also shown that if one of your parents has a risk factor for further fractures, but
broken a hip, that increases your risk of a hip fracture, too, and, of course, if fragility fractures are. Anyone will
either parent had osteoporosis that’s also a risk factor. It may simply be to break a bone with suicient force
do with bone size and frame, but there is a genetic link. put upon it, but if you’re breaking
a bone easily, from a standing height,
WHAT DO YOU SEE THE GP FOR? the classic reason, certainly in
Certain conditions can be risk factors. Rheumatoid arthritis comes top postmenopausal women, is that their
6 of the list, as the inlammation seems to afect bone health. Anything bones have thinned. According to the
that reduces sex hormones, such as an early menopause or anorexia nervosa, are Royal Osteoporosis Society, more than
other red lags. If your period has ever stopped for several months, other than as 270,000 people in Scotland currently
a result of pregnancy, contraception or polycystic ovary syndrome, the reduction have broken bones in their spine, but
in oestrogen levels may have weakened your bones. Certain medications also 178,000 of them don’t even know.
play a role. Glucocorticoidal steroids are brilliant for reducing inlammation, A bone can squash down on itself, so
but also afect bones. Anti-epileptic drugs, diabetic drugs and proton pump it becomes lattened, and although it
inhibitors (often prescribed to reduce stomach acid) may be problematic, too. heals, it stays in that squashed shape,
Over the last decade, drugs for breast and prostate cancer, called aromatase which is why you can get loss of height
inhibitors, have been researched, too. While they’re good at reducing cancer risk, or curvature of the spine. They can
as they suppress sex hormones, they don’t have a good efect on the bones. happen without us realising because
they can be painless. You may think if
HAVE YOU HAD A SEDENTARY STAGE? it doesn’t hurt it doesn’t matter, but
Immobility is bad for bone health, so if you’ve been on bed rest for once you’ve had one fracture you’re at
7 long periods, we know that’s an issue. Bones like to work, because greater risk of having another. It’s not
when you stress a bone, chemical changes happen that help stimulate it the case for everyone, but it is a good
to stay strong. You need to do a combination of weight-bearing exercises with indication bones have lost strength.
impact – so jogging, skipping, hopping – and muscle-strengthening exercises; Falling out of a tree and breaking your
anything from from gardening to sport. Exercise to look after your back arm at seven won’t have an impact on
is important too, so things like Pilates. You may need to use weights to push osteoporosis risk, but those easy
yourself harder, as we don’t always challenge our muscles in day-to-day life. breaks aged 50-plus can.

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