Originally published August 6 2005
Men are not safe from osteoporosis
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Men have a 30 percent chance of developing osteoporosis in their lifetimes and need to take certain measures to avoid the affliction.
Everyone knows that women need to fend off osteoporosis as they age.
But what is less well known is that 30 percent of elderly men who suffer a hip fracture will die within a year of that fracture --- double the rate for older female patients.
Too many doctors may also share that view: One recent U.S. study, published in the June issue of the journal Osteoporosis International, "validated what we thought --- that men who have fractures are woefully under treated.
Just one in every six men who had a spine or hip fracture was treated with osteoporosis medications" to strengthen ailing bones, said Dr. Thomas J. Weber, an assistant professor of medicine at Duke University Medical Center, Durham, N.C.
According to the same study, just 1.1 percent of men brought to the hospital for a serious fracture received a bone density test to evaluate their overall risk.
"Women have less bone to begin with, and then they get a big hit at menopause," said Dr. Joseph Lane, chief of the metabolic bone disease service at the Weill Cornell Medical College's Hospital for Special Surgery in New York.
"The overall rate of bone loss for men and women is the same, but because men start higher they don't get into trouble as quickly --- osteoporosis isn't an issue for men until 70 and beyond," he said.
But when a fracture occurs in the elderly, brittle bones can quickly become a life-or-death concern.
While menopause is a major cause of bone deterioration in women, factors such as smoking, alcohol consumption and the use of certain medicines increase fracture risks for men, Lane said.
All of these risk factors are preventable, either through quitting smoking and heavy drinking, or via pharmaceutical means, said Lane, who is also a spokesman for the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.
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