Osteoporosis: It’s estimated that one out of two older women are at risk of developing this condition in which bones lose their density and their strength. This can lead to dangerous falls, among other problems. A doctor and her patient show us what can happen and the surest path to stronger bones.From Brooklyn Independent Television’s Healthbeat Brooklyn, episode 40.
Brooklyn independent television welcome to hell 3 brooklyn on brooklyn independent television i’m dr. monica sweeney when people talk about a beautiful woman you often hear the comment she has good bones but as a woman ages good bones shifts from good looks to good health we’re talking about osteoporosis the loss of bone strength it’s estimated that nearly three
Million new yorkers have osteoporosis or are at significant risk of developing it while it does affect older men many more older women suffer from the potentially dangerous condition here’s health beats kathy renown if i break my bones because of the disease that i have it would be very dangerous to my body i know james is 77 and she has asked your process a silent
Disease that causes the weakening of the bones making them prone to fracture so the bones we really worried about or your hip the bones you really walk with your spine and also the bones in your arm as well as in your hands and wrists if you have a low bone mass your bones will fracture fractures add more than 17 billion dollars a year to the national health care
Bill among elderly people who fracture a hip nearly twenty percent died within six months and many more spend the remainder of their lives needing full-time care so who’s at risk of developing osteoporosis if you have a family history of a lot of people in your family with who develop osteoporosis then you are probably more prone to it being postmenopausal is a
Big risk factor if you don’t drink a lot of milk or take vitamin d or calcium if you’re not getting enough calcium you’re likely to become osteo product we look at your risk factors if you’ve got several risk factors and that’s what all these kinds of tests do you really need to be screened we use a very easy screening test called a dexa scan and what the dexa
Scan does is to put some energy through the page since bone and it’s able to assess the bone mass itself the ideal score known as a t-score on a bone density test is 2.5 standard deviation or above certain medical conditions like kidney disease and problems with your thyroid can also result in drastic bone loss i visit dr. vincent very often once a month and she
Examined me then she let me know but that i you know need medication whenever i need medication to take care of the disease that was taken over my body dr. vincent met mrs. james 25 years ago mrs. james suffered from hypertension but soon dr. vincent discovered that she also had a benign tumor adjacent to her thyroid that was robbing her bones of calcium so we did
A dexa scan we showed miss james how really weak her bones were her bones look like glass mrs. james had full-blown osteoporosis but it took her seven years to muster the courage to undergo surgery to remove the tumor from her neck there are dozens of bone loss drugs the question is how do you know if or when to take them almost all of us to your process meds work
To keep you from resorting bone so you’re giving the ball in the calcium and vitamin d and you’re keeping it from being chewed up by those little pacman those osteoclasts now if you think about it if you are on that kind of medication and you have a fracture your fracture may not heal very often after fracture let’s keep the vitamin d in the calcium but take away
The medication for a few months maybe a month or two and then your osteoclasts will become active but they’ll be able to take away all the debris so your body can build new bone and then you give it back when she fell down the stairs at home several years ago mrs. james broke her breastbone into about a hundred piece fortunately for her none of those pieces went
Through her heart but she was in a lot of pain and we treated her and she’s been doing just fine and as we’ve treated her for her osteoporosis and she’s taken her calcium and vitamin d over the years her bones have gotten stronger and stronger and despite the fact that she’s postmenopausal i think pretty soon we may be able to stop her medicine but not her calcium
And vitamin d that she’s going to need mrs. james does a lot of walking she also follows a bone healthy diet sardines anything that’s going to contain some calcium and vitamin d will do you good for your bones i’m feeling great i think i am strong so for the hips walking is a great exercise in general aerobics anything that’s going to pull against the bone or even
For your spine in addition to walking swimming can be helpful osteoporosis medication should be your last resort doctors say because like all meds they can cause serious side effects studies have shown that drugs currently available on the market are far from perfect and they’re only about fifty percent effective at preventing fractures people who continue to take
In enough calcium and vitamin d and do their exercise guess what they don’t develop osteoporosis all these drugs cost money you shouldn’t take them unless you need them when i was happy that i did her to surgery because it helps a lot do you feel better you’re also make as much i think you’d keep me younger too you think so well something must be keeping you young
Cuz you look pretty good reporting for health beat brooklyn this is cathy right now about patients brooklyn independent television on the b cat tv network
Transcribed from video
Osteoporosis: Heathbeat Brooklyn By BRIC TV