The Better Bones Blog
by Dr. Susan Brown, PhD.
A needless osteoporosis scare
Occasionally I like to share some of the interesting bone health cases I see at the Center for Better Bones. As the one-liner goes, “We should learn from the mistakes of others because we don’t have time to make all of them ourselves.” We can also learn from the wise choices of others. In this […]
Worried about osteopenia? A holiday gift from NPR
If you’ve heard the term osteopenia, and especially if you happen to be one of the millions who’ve been “diagnosed” with this “disease”, I urge you to listen to or read NPR’s noteworthy investigative report about Fosamax from December 21, 2009. I have noted in a prior post that osteopenia is not a disease, just a […]
New IOM vitamin D recommendations — baby steps and missteps
You may have heard recently all the news stories that talked about the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) new guidelines for vitamin D and calcium. These guidelines were updates from those issued in 1997, and the reason for this fuss was that people were surprised and confused by the recommendations related to vitamin D. The message […]
How do I know if I have a spinal fracture?
At the Center for Better Bones, I frequently see middle-aged women who have just received a bone density test and have been told they have the bones of an “80-year-old” or something equally frightening. Many become terrified, and some start to wonder if that lower back pain they experience from time to time could really […]
How to change your fracture risk
Someone recently sent me a New York Times article I’d missed about the controversy over WHO’s FRAX tool. The article makes the point that FRAX uses only a few risk factors and doesn’t account for many, many others — including vitamin D deficiency, use of bone-eroding medications, and amount of physical activity — in determining […]
Another great reason to look at Vitamin D – it protects against flu!
There’s been so much information this fall about flu, particularly swine flu, that it’s hard to make sense of it all. But one piece of information that I think gets missed in all the discussion is the importance of vitamin D in preventing influenza infections and boosting immunity. Research is accumulating about the relationship between […]