1. Low body weight. Your weight influences your bone density. Some women maintain a low body weight through low-calorie dieting in order to look thin and so put themselves at increased risk for bone loss. For example, a woman who weighs less than 127 pounds is 10 times more likely to have lower bone density than a woman who weighs 150 pounds or more. The risk of bone loss increases when the percent of body fat becomes low. Women who diet excessively to maintain a low body weight often eliminate dairy products from their diet, losing their primary source of calcium -- a vital source of bone strength.
2. Genetics. Did your mother or grandmother have stooped posture or height loss? This increases your risk of bone loss. Your risk of osteopenia and fractures is strong if your mother or grandmother had bone loss or fractures. The genetic predisposition may account for up to 60 to 80 percent of bone mass, while environmental factors account for the remaining 20 to 40 percent. That's why it's important to ask about your mother's and grandmother's bone health history. Families often share lifestyle habits such as diet, lack of exercise, or smoking cigarettes. You can change all of this and by doing so rewrite your bone health future.
3. Race. While non-Hispanic white and Asian women over fifty years old have a higher risk of bone loss and non-Hispanic black women over fifty have a lower incidence of bone loss, some recent findings are cause for concern for all women. When large numbers of women were tested, it was found that low bone mass is much more common than once believed in all ethnic groups, including African-Americans. It is estimated that about 50 percent of white women over age fifty have osteopenia. And studies now confirm that 55 percent of Hispanic women, 65 percent of Asian women, 58 percent of Native American women, and 38 percent of African-American women have low bone mass and are at greater risk for fractures.
4. Age. The risk for bone loss increases with age. An estimated 90 percent of women over the age of seventy-five have experienced a bone fracture.
Low bone mass appears in about 50 percent of women in their 50s, 66 percent of women in their 60s, 86 percent of women in their 70s, and 93 percent of women over eighty.
5. Early menopause. The longer your body is exposed to estrogen, the lower your risk of bone loss and fractures. For instance, if you started menstruating late in your teenage years or if you experience menopause before your late 40s, your body produces less estrogen, putting you at higher risk for osteopenia.
6. Previous fractures. If you have had a fracture as an adult, your risk of more fractures is much higher. If you have a fracture in the spine (vertebral fracture), the risk is about 1 in 5 that you will have another one within a year if you don't take action. And a spine fracture can double your risk of a hip fracture! This is enough reason to have a bone density test and take lifestyle measures to reverse osteopenia.
7. Certain medications. The use of corticosteroid medications, such as prednisone or other cortisone derivatives, often leads to premature bone loss (these medications are common treatments for chronic conditions such as asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, and psoriasis). In fact, if you take these medications for more than three months, your risk for bone loss is high enough that experts recommend taking medication to prevent bone loss as well.
In addition, diuretics, antacids, chemotherapy, hormone therapy for cancer, lithium, and some medications for seizures can also sap the bones of calcium.
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