More and more young people are developing osteoporosis.
It is not uncommon for a menstruating 40-year-old woman to be diagnosed
with excessive bone loss. In fact, at the Osteoporosis Education
Project Dr. Susan Brown has seen women in their twenties who already
have a diagnosis of osteoporosis. In these cases there are two very
important questions to ask; (1) Are there any medical reasons for
this low bone density? And (2) "Is this person currently losing
excessive bone, or did she simply never develop adequate peak bone
mass?"
Many people who have low bone mass at an early age very likely
never developed adequate bone mass in their youth. They may, or
may not, be losing bone excessively at the time of testing. This
distinction is important in that a bone building program for one
who is actively losing bone might well differ from a program for
a person with low, but stable bone density. On-going bone loss
can be detected by urine markers of bone resorption or sequential
bone density tests, as detailed on our book, Better Bones, Better
Body.
Next: Osteoporosis is Not Bad
Bones
Extracted from our book, Better
Bones Better Body (Keats 2000) by our Director, Susan E. Brown,
Ph.D., CCN
