Osteoporosis is increasingly being diagnosed in Americans over 50, fueled in large part by the millions of baby boomers reaching retirement age every year. But there are basic and effective steps individuals can take to prevent or treat this disease, which weakens bones and is a major cause of devastating falls among older adults.
The common components to effectively treating osteoporosis include a healthy diet, fall prevention counseling, addressing the patient's functional status, strengthening exercises and medication.
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[Transcript]
[Osteoporosis: Prevention or Treatment]
Natalie Regalado, M.D.:
We want to make sure that anyone at risk or with osteoporosis is on a good diet with calcium and vitamin D. We know that vitamin D is good even without osteoporosis in the elderly, because it prevents falls, which is a huge thing for osteoporosis, so that's a diet component. Then there is a full prevention component, because if you fall and you have osteoporosis that's a set up for a fracture. And that could mean a home evaluation, working with family members, working with a patient to make sure that there are no hazards like carpets that patients can trip over and things like that. The next thing that needs to happen is, you know, work on the patient functional status, make sure that the patient is fit, can walk, if they need a cane or another assisted device that we provide that for them, again, to prevent falls. And then we go into exercise. And there's data to support weight lifting. It doesn't have to be a lot of weight. It can just be like lightweight, but some form of resistance to improve bone health.
[Doctor discussing the health of the bones in one’s body.]
[Listing of risk factors for Osteoprosis]
Natalie Regalado, M.D.:
And then lastly, there are medications. There are several risk factors that are known for osteoporosis, age, female gender, and then there's other things. If you're smoking and you're worried about osteoporosis or you have [inaudible 00:01:25] it's very important that you do not smoke. There is a whole number of diseases, for example rheumatoid arthritis, hemochromatosis, and the list goes on, and on, and on, that can put people at increased risk of osteoporosis. There are medications, like if you're taking prednisone or other steroids for anything, also increases the risk of osteoporosis. And then genetics also. If your mom or dad had a fracture, that is one of the biggest risk factors for you, yourself having a hip fracture.
[BaptistHealth.net/OsteoScan]
[Baptist Health Medical Plaza]
[End Transcript]
