Bone Health and Osteoporosis

By Jeffrey Pearson, MD

AS THE WEATHER WARMS UP AND EVERYONE STARTS to get a little more active, staying consistent with fitness is so very important. I wanted to give our women readers some tips and advice when it comes to staying active and maintaining healthy bone quality. As women age and go through menopause, they are at an increased risk for breaking bones, we call them osteoporotic fractures. Three areas most at risk for breaking, especially in women in their 50-70s are the wrist, spine and hip. Osteoporosis is a decrease in the bone mass that results from age, menopause and metabolic changes in your body. The treatment for osteoporosis involves a team approach with your medical providers to manage the building blocks of bone and most importantly- to help prevent them in the first place.

Osteopenia and osteoporosis are diagnosed with something called a dexa scan. This is a special x-ray that measures the density or “bone mineral density” of certain bones in your body, such as your pelvis. The results are given as a “T-score” which is a comparison of the bone mass in a 25-year-old. This test should be done on all women aged 65 and older, and certain women younger than 65 with risk factors for osteoporosis. The results of this test determine how often you should receive the next scan and this varies from patient to patient.

Like so many things, prevention is the best medicine for osteoporosis. It takes a lifestyle geared toward your health and staying active to maintain good bone quality. Smoking has been linked to decreased bone quality and osteoporosis. Kicking this bad habit is a great first step in bone health. Making sure you are taking in the proper building blocks for bone health is also very important. Without the right materials, you can’t maintain healthy bone quality. Vitamin D and calcium are essential nutrients for bone health, and it’s often very difficult to get adequate amounts in our regular diet. Calcium is one of the main building blocks of bone. All women over 50 should be consuming 1200mg of calcium every day. Vitamin D is used by our body to absorb calcium. We get this from food and sun exposure, but again, do not always get enough. The bone health and osteoporosis foundation recommend men and women over age 50 should get around 800-1000 international units (IU) of vitamin D per day. Taking these two nutrients as daily supplements can ensure your body has the materials it needs to maintain healthy bone.

Staying active with exercise is the last piece of the puzzle for preventing osteoporosis and fractures. Weight bearing exercises are important in increasing and maintaining bone density. These are exercises done while standing, working against gravity. Examples include brisk walking, hiking, jogging and tennis. Strength training exercises can also help with bone quality. These are exercises done either against your own body weight, with resistance bands or free weights. Activities like yoga and Pilates are not necessarily weight bearing and though not directly helpful to bone mass, they can improve balance which can help prevent falls and fractures.

In summary, maintaining bone health is a lifelong commitment and an investment in yourself. It takes an assortment of healthy lifestyle choices, supplemental intake and exercise to make sure osteoporosis never starts. In some cases, if this isn’t enough your medical doctor might discuss medications that can be used to help. As the old saying goes though, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Jeffrey Pearson, MD is a fellowship trained orthopedic surgeon specializing in hip and knee replacement. A fellowship-trained orthopedic surgeon elects to spend an extra year after their required five years of general orthopedic surgery training, focusing on a specific ‘specialty’ in orthopedics like total joints or sports medicine. Although Dr. Pearson primarily performs hip and knee replacements, he also practices general orthopedics and has a vast knowledge of the musculoskeletal system. Dr. Pearson sees patients at both our Shreveport and Bossier City clinics. If you would like to schedule an evaluation with Dr. Pearson or one of the nine fellowship trained orthopedic surgeons at Orthopedic Specialists of Louisiana, please call: (318)543-BONE(2663) or visit orthopedicspecialistsla.com. No referral is necessary and, in most cases, we can accommodate same day appointments.