Osteoporosis: epidemic in women

• May 1, 2024

In Mexico there are more than five million Mexican women who suffer from osteoporosis ... and do not necessarily know it. According to the health sector, one out of every three women over 50 years of age suffers from this disease and more than 70 percent do not know they have it.

Since osteoporosis does not present symptoms by itself, it has also been called the silent epidemic. Its manifestation is determined by the appearance of fractures caused by a fortuitous fall, the slightest blow or a simple twist.

Characterized by the reduction of bone strength, osteoporosis is a chronic, degenerative and detectable disease, starting at age 45, through bone densitometry. It is a specific study that indicates the probability of risk in the development of the disease and that should be done every year, such as the Pap smear or mammography.

When the decalcification is irremediable, the most obvious signs are the loss of height and the hunching of the spine.

Diet and exercise, recommended

According to the Mexican Association of Bone and Mineral Metabolism, if a woman is not treated during the climacteric, bone loss is accelerated, losing up to 5 percent per year.

"The risk is increased if the menopause occurs early, either naturally or by having a surgical extraction of the ovaries." Therefore, it is essential that women with or without symptoms of menopause, receive appropriate treatment and determined by a specialist.

There are numerous measures that we must follow from adolescence to reach maturity with sufficient mineral reserves to alleviate this pathology. A diet rich in calcium, especially dairy products, fish such as charales, anchovies and sardines, or vegetables such as spinach, onion or Swiss chard, and vitamin D, included in the egg yolk, salmon or cod.

Another recommendation is to regularly perform some type of exercise such as yoga, Tai-Chi or just walk daily for half an hour. The sedentary life, alcohol or tobacco should be eliminated from our life.