American Bone Health gives us the basics on Bones and Osteoporosis - Episode 160

In today’s episode, I interview Cheryl Hostinak, the Executive Director of American bone health. American Bone Health teaches people how to build and keep strong and healthy bones for life with practical and up-to-date information and resources to engage, educate and empower them to prevent bone loss, osteoporosis and fractures. They love bones and we should too! Bone health is something we should think about sooner rather than later. Many health conditions that women deal with, and treatments for those conditions, can cause bone loss and increase risk of broken bones. Everything from diabetes to breast cancer to lupus to mental health. People achieve peak bone mass by about age 30, so after that, you want to minimize net bone loss. Around menopause, bone loss increases significantly. “Primary osteoporosis” is a state of low bone mass related to age and loss of estrogen; “secondary osteoporosis” is low bone mass caused by something else, whether another disease or a medicine or factors such as smoking, alcoholism or an eating disorder. American Bone Health has a scientifically validated assessment tool called the American Bone Health Fracture Risk Calculator. This is a great tool for anyone over 45 to learn whether they are at low, moderate or high risk for weak bones. Take the quiz and learn more about bone health at www.americanbonehealth.org Enjoy the episode!