Factors to Consider When Determining Bone Health

A special section in today’s New York Times offers a “head-to-toe tour of the body” with expert information and advice on how to enhance our well-being as we age.   The articles cover fourteen areas including our brain, heart, muscles, breast, bones and feet.  I was particularly interested in an article by Tara Parker-Pope about bone health, and the medical community’s reliance on density scans to determine a woman’s risk for fractures. 

Apparently, bone density is not always the most reliable indicator of bone health since bone loss occurs naturally with aging.  It’s an important data point, to be sure. But the author points out that there are other factors that should be considered such as:

• Have you ever broken a bone as an adult? 
• Did your mother break any of her bones?
• Does a vision problem make you clumsy?
• How far will you fall? (tall women are a high risk for hip fracture)
• Have you packed on pounds since your 20s? (this is the case where weight loss is not good!)
• Can you get out of a chair (without using your arms?)

In an earlier blogpost, I wrote about an online calculator that you can use to test your risk for a hip fracture using a questionnaire developed for participants in the Womens Health Initiative Study. It covers 11 factors that together may predict hip fractures more accurately than bone density alone.

If you’re interested in the latest research findings about biphosphonates like Fosamax, Boniva and Actonel, drugs which are prescribed for women who show signs of osteopenia (early bone loss) or osteoporosis, be sure to read my most recent blogpost below.