Osteoporosis in young and old women

Osteoporosis in Women

Osteoporosis is a disease that relates to the loss of bone density, especially among women but men also suffer from Osteoporosis. According to the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF), one in three women over 50 (in the world) will experienced "osteoporotic fractures," and one in five men will also have osteoporotic fractures. Also, the IOF says that osteoporosis effects an estimated 75 million people in Japan, the U.S., and Europe. By the year 2050, the IOF projects, the incidence of hip fracture in men worldwide "is projected to increase by 310%, and in women it will increase by 240%. The Applied Clinical Trials journal also reports that according to the IOF, almost 75% of spine, hip, and "distal forearm factures" occur in patients that are 65 years or older. This paper reports some of the reasons why women get osteoporosis and what can be done to enhance women's chances of avoiding this disease.

The Literature: According to the Journal of International Women's Studies, osteoporosis (OP) is a "chronic complex health problems" for millions of women the world over. Of the women who are stricken with osteoporosis, eighty percent are postmenopausal (Lubna, 2010, p. 1). As women go through life and get older, into middle adulthood, they experience a "variety of physiological and psychological changes," Lubna writes, and those changes have a direct effect on her health. Osteoporosis -- a systemic disorder that causes a loss of bone mass and the "thinning of bone tissue" that lead to a risk of fractures to the spine, the wrist, and the hip, Lubna writes.

According to the Osteoporosis Society of Canada, one out of every four postmenopausal Canadian women have OP, Lubna continues. In the United Kingdom, there are 150,555 cases of OP annually, and the cost (medical expenses related to fractures) is about $75 million. In the United States there are an estimated 7 to 8 women currently with OP and about 17 million women have "low bone mass" putting them at risk of OP and the resulting broken bones that go along with OP, Lubna explains.

The study that is presented in the Journal of International Women's Studies' scholarly article reviews women and OP in Jordan, where women "gain status and security by bearing many children" and the social, economic and cultural factors in Jordan "…may negatively impact women's health throughout their lives," Lubna points out on page 1. Only 3% of Jordanian women are over 65 years of age, but the estimate that the author uses is that 25% of women over 60 in Jordan will suffer "an age-related fracture." Previously Jordanian healthcare resources were mainly director towards "acute care services" but lately the focus in Jordan has been more towards "chronic illnesses" like OP, Lubna explains.

What vitamins are known to be helpful to women in terms of lessening the chances of getting OP? A study in the peer-reviewed journal Alternative Medicine Review (Karkkainen, et al., 2010, p. 1) -- titled "The Osteoporosis Risk Factor and Prevention-Fracture Prevention Study" (OSTPRE-FPS) -- showed that taking vitamin D and calcium supplementation can help. This study was a "randomized population-based open trial."

The group in this study (287 women) received cholecalciferol 800 IU plus calcium 1,000 mg for 3 years. The women were all between the ages of 66 to 71 years. The "control group" (306 women) received nothing, no vitamins or calcium. The authors of this article assert in a "working hypothesis" that "daily vitamin D and calcium supplementation have a positive effect on the skeleton in ambulatory postmenopausal women" (Karkkainen, p. 1).

The total body bone density mass increased "significantly more in the intervention group than in the control group," the author conclude, and hence the evidence shows that by taking Vitamin D daily -- and by taking calcium as well -- can have a positive effect on the skeleton, for women who are postmenopausal.

Osteoporosis in Younger Women: In her book, Women's Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation, Nadya Swedan explains that some young females athletes struggle with osteoporosis due to "inadequate bone formation" or due do "premature los of bone mass" (Swedan, 2001, p. 289). Many amenorrheic female athletes (those who do not have menstrual periods) that are early twenties or late teens "are not building peak bone mass" during that time in their lives. They are considered potential sufferers of osteoporosis, Swedan explains. These young women have an increased risk for "stress fractures" and even more "devastating factures" of the spine or the hip (p. 289). If she has "secondary amenorrhea," she could actually have a decline in bone density that Swedan claims is very much like the lost of bone density in "postmenopausal women" (p. 289).