Osteoporosis: What You Need to Know and What You Can Do to Protect Yourself

The statistics on osteoporosis are STAGGERING. Currently, there are 10 million Americans struggling with the disease and 8 million of those are women (Osteoporosis: causes, risk factors, diagnosis, and treatment). If the huge discrepancy between the sexes wasn’t enough to get your attention, it gets worse: for women over the age of 50, one in two will break a bone because of osteoporosis (Sims, Stacy. Next Level p. 245) Ladies! 1 in 2! Think of your best friend, or sister, or whatever other important woman you have in your life: one of the two of you will suffer a break because of a disease that we can prevent!

Between the two of you, the one who breaks the bone is more than 4 times as likely to sustain another break within the next year (Falls prevention | International Osteoporosis Foundation) has a 22% chance of dying within that year and, if she does survive, only has a 33% chance of ever completely regaining her independence ( Can osteoporosis kill you? Life expectancy and complications).

These statistics are unsettling and the fact that the loss of bone mineral density starts in our 30’s and isn’t even checked for until the age of 65 should, quite frankly, make you angry. I know it did me. According to the International Osteoporosis Foundation, the lack of education and the lack of interest in women’s health by the medical and insurance industries (only 3% of medical research funds are allocated to women’s health) means that osteoporosis is not discovered until after a woman’s first fracture (Falls prevention | International Osteoporosis Foundation) and by then it is too late to return her quality of life.

Risk Factors for Osteoporosis

It should come as no surprise that the number one risk factor for developing osteoporosis is sex. Women are 4 times more likely to develop osteoporosis than men. This is due in large part to hormonal shifts we experience during menopause but is also influenced by our having smaller bones and, whether Mayo Clinic wants to write about it or not, the extreme malnutrition brought about by diet culture and the social pressure to be thin. This, of course, is compounded by the medical community’s insistence that calorie restriction is the key to a healthy, happy life.

Other risk factors include age, race, family history, body frame size, and unbalanced hormones. For more information about each of those categories, you can visit the following article: Osteoporosis - Symptoms and causes - Mayo Clinic

Menopause and Osteoporosis

Most people know that development of osteoporosis skyrockets once a woman hits menopause. What most people don’t know, is why.

Let’s start with some very basic basics. Menopause is the name we give the stage of a woman’s life when she hasn’t menstruated in a year. What this means is that her body has stopped producing eggs. Between you and me, I’m totally down for this transition. I will absolutely NOT miss my period. However, I will undoubtedly miss the estrogen kick that comes along with the release of that egg because it has regulated my body for the last 40 years.

Women have three types of estrogen: estrone, estradiol, and estriol with estradiol being the strongest form and the most dominant during our reproductive years. However, when we reach menopause, that shit redlines and we’re left with the much weaker form: estrone. The third type is related to pregnancy and will be ignored for the purposes of this blog article…y’all, we’re complicated.

Why is this important? Because estrogen keeps the production of osteoclasts at bay. What are osteoclasts? They are the bone cells responsible for breaking down and recycling old bone in a process known as resorption. What that means is our osteoblasts-or bone builders-can’t keep up with our osteoclasts and we lose bone faster than we can replace it…and that sucks.

How to Save Yourself

1) Lift…heavy…shit

It’s not just a fun, slightly offensive T-shirt saying. It’s a proven way to prevent and treat osteoporosis. If you read the previous blog you’ll know that when I say “heavy”, I mean HEAVY. I mean 80% of your 1RM (see last month’s blog for more info).

Why does lifting work? Because bone is alive and it’s not that different from muscles. When we put stress on the skeletal system via high impact or heavy loading, it sustains the kind of damage that requires it to rebuild…it incites osteoblasts to do their job and create new bone. So, in effect, while the decrease in estrogen gets the osteoclasts mobilized, heavy weight training gets osteoblasts mobilized and gives us a fighting chance.

Not menopausal? Guurrrl…you will be. Develop the habit now. Over 30? You’ve already started losing bone mineral density and you need to get ahead of it. It only gets harder as you get older.

2) Fucking Eat

While Mayo Clinic doesn’t specifically call out diet culture, they do acknowledge that nutrition plays a key part in preventing and treating osteoporosis, “Severely restricting food intake and being underweight weakens bone in both men and women” (Osteoporosis - Symptoms and causes - Mayo Clinic).

Newsflash…1,200 calories a day is, for most women, severe calorie restriction. Beyond just calories, we need to take a look at malnutrition. Diets which include highly processed foods are usually extremely nutritient deficient. It doesn’t matter whether you’re eating pizza and potato chips or yoplait and 100 calorie packs, you are STARVING your body of the nutrients it needs to carry out its most basic functions, including bone remodeling. Put down the reduced fat dairy and the fortified orange juice and pick up some of the following:

MEAT-all meat. Not just chicken. Beef, pork, fish…it doesn’t matter (as long as you don’t have an allergy or intolerance). Also, do NOT be afraid of the fat that comes on real meat. Your body knows exactly what to do with it. What we should be afraid of is the fat that comes in the 100 calorie packs and the Snackwells cookies).

*If you happen to be a vegetarian, please make sure you are keeping track of how much protein you are getting and make sure you are getting a complete amino acid profile. Plants tend to be partial proteins so you will need to research which foods have what and prepare dishes that get you all nine essential amino acids. Here is a list of 13 plants that ARE complete proteins. Please utilize them in your diet: Vegan Complete Proteins: 13 Plant-Based Options

FRUITS and VEGGIES-Foods that are well known for bone health are dark leafy greens, sweet potatoes, grapefruit, figs, almonds, prunes, and blackstrap molasses (do watch the carbs here, especially if you are pre-diabetic or diabetic).

3) Defy the Insurance Company- go have a DEXA scan done. Remember, society is not going to save you. If you want to keep your bones strong and healthy and you want to stop the problem before it starts YOU are going to have to monitor for it. You can find a DEXA scanner here DEXA LOCATOR – DEXA SCAN NEAR ME. Here where I live, they cost $75. Ladies, $75/year to monitor for osteoporosis is a no brainer. If you’re not 100% on board with that, please refer to the statistics at the beginning of the article, clearly you missed that part :)

4) Get a REAL blood test- not just the tests approved by the insurance companies. Have them read by a functional medicine professional. Traditional doctors are only looking for disease, not decline. Even if they find decline, they’ll tell you just to wait for it to fully blossom into a debilitating disease before taking any kind of action. That’s complete bullshit. A qualified functional health professional can give you some amazing insights as to what the status of your nutrition is. For some people, even if they eat a healthy diet, damage to their stomach or intestinal lining or chronic inflammation in their body due to food intolerances can impede their ability to absorb the nutrients they’re taking in, including those responsible for increasing and maintaining bone health. These tests are usually more affordable through a functional health professional than they are through your insurance. Do some digging, ask around. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by what you find.

If you liked this article and want an easy way to review the material or send it to a friend, you can check out my podcast “Fuck It, I’m Done: A Health and Fitness Podcast for Grown-Ass Women” available just about everywhere podcasts are cast from.