Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Cold Hard Facts About Men and Osteoporosis

Men often think that osteoporosis is a woman's disease. So, they go on about their lives believing that they have one less disease to worry about. But the truth about osteoporosis is that it can also strike men, particularly in their forties or fifties. And having osteoporosis can be very problematic for men as almost all of them are used to an active and energetic lifestyle.

Statistics show that around 13% of men aged fifty or above are at risk of having bone fracture as a result of osteoporosis. A man's susceptibility to have fractured bones increases as he becomes older; this is due to the fact that older people, including women, tend to have a bad fall more frequently. And here's the rub; between the two sexes, men are more likely to die from bone fractures on vital areas like the hips.

While it is true that the incidence of osteoporosis in men is much less than in women, men still experience a dramatic decline in their bone mass density as they age. Even the fact that men have considerably larger and more compact bone structure can not be an assurance that osteoporosis will not be their problem. Being a man, you should not be complacent about being spared from this disease.

Your risk of having osteoporosis may be brought about by certain factors in your body and the way you live your life. For instance, the levels of important hormones in your body like testosterone begin to decline as you age; testosterone is important for bone health in men just like estrogen is in women. And very much like women, your body's ability to absorb and process bone-enhancing calcium also deteriorates as the years go by.

Your very active and strenuous lifestyle in your younger days could have hastened the wear and tear of your bones and may also take its toll on them as you reach the age of fifty. If you are a smoker or an alcoholic, your chances of getting osteoporosis also increases. It is the same if you are overweight for most of your life.

The good news is that you can lower your risk of bone loss and actually improve the health of your bones. By adopting a lifestyle that promotes good health and clean living, you can prevent osteoporosis from ever happening to you. You can begin by throwing out the cigarettes and avoiding alcohol. Doing your best to avoid bad falls as you get older will also prevent injuries to your bones. And if all these preventive steps are not enough, you can always make use of calcitonin and testosterone replacement therapy.

Calcitonin

Basically, this is a hormone produced by your body naturally. It is secreted in the thyroid glands and has been proven to have an important function in bone-building. Calcitonin is responsible for delaying the process that leads to the breakdown of bones brought by bone-destroying cells known as osteoclasts. By doing so, calcitonin buys more precious time for bone-building cells called osteoblasts to, well, rebuild bone structures.

But as mentioned, age will make it harder for your system to produce hormones. Fortunately, synthetic forms of this hormone are now available as a nasal spray or injectible.

Testosterone Replacement Therapy

Hypogonadism or low levels of testosterone in the body can bring about osteoporosis in men. If this is the case, you can always choose to have a hormone replacement therapy just like in menopausal women; only this time you boost the levels of testosterone and not estrogen. This process aims to increase the levels of testosterone in your body via injection, oral medication in tablet form, implants, or patches on the skin.

Special bone supplements like Osteozyne can also help in making your bones stronger and more compact even as you age. Click on www.osteozyne.com/ to know more about this product.

Sharon Bell is an avid health and fitness enthusiast and published author. Many of her insightful articles can be found at the premiere online news magazine http://www.healthnfitnesszone.com.


Work at Home Freelance
In Celebration of Older Women
Pro Aging
Beautiful Forever
Living With Food Related Diseases

No comments: