If you're a middle-aged woman looking for a cautionary tale, Deborah Copaken has it for you. She had a number of risk factors for osteoporosis: low vitamin D levels, a small frame (she's 5ft 2in), ethnicity (white and Asian women are more prone), a history of fractures, and family history. But she also doesn't smoke or drink, eats well, gets 10,000 steps a day, and does yoga regularly—and she's only 57. So she was floored when a Dexa scan revealed she had full-blown osteoporosis, she writes for the Guardian. As Copaken explains, osteoporosis "begins when the creation of new bone can no longer keep up with the loss of old bone. These hollowed-out bones are far more prone to breakage." That fragility is far more than an inconvenience.
"The survival rate for women, following a hip fracture, is worse than most cancers: half will be dead in five years," she writes. Treating it, therefore, was hugely important to Copaken—but figuring out how to do so has been no easy road. She recounts the steps she has taken in the last 15 months: consulting with a rheumatologist and endocrinologist, having her hyperparathyroidism verified, taking a daily 2000 IU Vitamin D3 supplement, eating more calcium-rich foods, working out with weights, researching drug options, buying a mini-trampoline to do rebound exercises on, and learning a lot more about estrogen, whose ability to promote bone flexibility is key. She's waiting to get a follow-up Dexa scan before she decides about drugs, and trying to heed the advice of a friend with osteoporosis: "Just don't fall!" (Read the full piece for much more.)
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