Osteoporosis Update
Dr Williams was in good form as usual. It is always such a pleasure to see him and he stays to answer questions long after giving his main talk.
He explained that as long as we are alive our bone is growing and there is always something you can do to improve bone strength. He commended the Group on our exercise classes, again saying how important it is to put stress through your bones to stimulate growth.
Dr Williams told members that by age 8 a child’s skull has finished growing but the length of all the other bones continues to grow until about 18 or 19. Then there is continual bone turnover throughout life.
The amount and strength of bone is affected, roughly ⅔ by genetics, which you can’t do anything about but ⅓ by the things you can affect through exercise and diet.
By the age of 70 bone turnover is happening more slowly than in early adulthood but still happening.
Regarding diet, Dr Williams emphasized the fact, as well as Calcium and Vitamin D protein is very important, particularly as a person gets older. Many older people are less bothered or able to cook a full meal, very often because they are on their own, so the protein intake becomes diminished. This is not good for the bones.
Dr Williams spoke about the different treatments particularly the very different way the newest treatment, Denosumab works. Rather than only encouraging cells to build more bone this is the only drug to stop those cells that break down bone from working.
He went on to talk about the services provided for people with osteoporosis. He felt that there was always a better service where a fracture liaison nurse was employed. He was delighted to hear that West Norfolk has its own Osteoporosis Nurse and mobile scanning unit now after such a long wait.
As always, a very interesting and helpful talk.