Are You Placing Yourself at Risk for Developing Osteoporosis?

Twenty million or more people in the U.S. experience the unfortunate effects of osteoporosis. Osteoporosis occurs when minerals, especially calcium, are depleted from the bones, leaving them porous, and vulnerable to collapse and fracture. Certain activities and behaviors place one at risk of developing this debilitating condition. While there are some factors one cannot manipulate, many things that predispose one to developing osteoporosis can be controlled. If you have several of the following risk factors, you may possess a special susceptibility to this disorder. The greater the number of risk factors possessed, the greater the risk involved.

Uncontrollable Risk Factors

1. Are you are female?
2. Do you have a family history of osteoporosis?
3. Do you have a small skeletal frame?
4. Are you fair-skinned?
5. Are you Caucasian or Asiatic in ancestry?
6. Are you thirty-five years of age or older?
7. Do you have an allergy to milk or milk products?
8. Are you a woman with early onset of menopause?

Partly Controllable Risk Factors

1. Are you a woman who has never had a baby?
2. Are you a woman who has had her ovaries removed?
3. Are you a woman who has breast-fed a baby?
4. Is your life stressful?

Controllable Risk Factors

1. Do you drink more than a moderate amount of alcohol?
2. Do you have a history of low dietary calcium intake?
3. Do you get little exercise?
4. Do you consume a lot of caffeine-containing drinks?
5. Is your diet high in protein?
6. Is your diet high in phosphates?
7. Is your diet high in sodium?
8. Are you a smoker?

Reprinted with permission from Robert Lindsay, "Managing Osteoporosis: Current Trends, Future Possibilities" in Geriatrics, 44(3):35-40, 1987. Copyright © by Avanstar Communications, Inc. Printed in U.S.A.