She's the author of two books of non-fiction: Getting Hooked: Fiction's Opening Sentences 1950's- 1990's
and
Living With Big Cats: The Story of Jungle Larry, Safari Jane, and David Tetzlaff
For ordering information, click here.

To read more about these books, participate in an ongoing joke contest, surf on over to
www.rendell-smock.com .
The author currently lives on Florida's Space Coast.

Shara is the Featured Author for October 1997
at Authorlink.com .

Osteoporosis leads to weakened bones and increased susceptibility to fractures of the hip, spine and wrist. Its main cause in postmenopausal women is a decline in estrogen, which can be dramatic--2% to 8% per year.

In the U.S. today, more than ten million Americans have osteoporosis. Another 18 million are at considerable risk. The dollar cost of this disease annually is currently $14 billion.

Each year more than a million fractures are attributed to osteoporosis. One quarter of these breaks are hip fractures, comprising the twelfth greatest cause of death in postmenopausal women. Annually nearly 50,000 hip fracture patients die from complications, usually due to blood clots that develop after hip replacement surgery.

With that astonishing fact, it's easy to panic when learning you have osteoporosis. The diagnosis implies that since the bone damage is done, it's too late to get help. Today this is not always the case. It is never too late to start taking medication to mend your bones. Whatever your age, you can begin now to improve your bone health for the rest of your life. Otherwise, the threat of this disease is like a walking time bomb.

We don't think of osteoporosis as a men's problem, but it can be. They have two advantages that protect them. Men do not undergo menopause. They also begin from a better standpoint: As youngsters, males generally produce more bone mass than females do.

Our bones normally regenerate. They are living tissues, much like skin. The reabsorption cycle consists of eating away the old and regenerating new. The cycle continues after menopause, but while the bones are being eaten away, they are replaced ten times slower after postmenopause.

Calcium is crucial to bone regeneration. The body will get its needed calcium one way or another. When we do not supply our bodies with adequate calcium, the body leeches this mineral from our bones.

Dangers

As bone density decreases, the weakened bones--most commonly the wrist, hip, and spine--can break easily. Compression fractures in the spine, another result of osteoporosis, may cause back pain, hump-back (Dowager hump), height loss, and curvature of the spine.

Osteoporosis's destruction is similar to that of termite-ridden wood. You don't see the damage coming. Called a silent disease, osteoporosis has no outward symptoms. The person is unaware of the damage taking place until a fracture occurs. And this may be triggered simply by stepping off a curb the wrong way.

Possible Consequences

• Permanent disability
• Curvature of the spine
• Hip fractures
• Bones fracture easily
• Restricted mobility/crippling
• Loss of height
• Death due to injury

  Next week: I'll present the risk factors of osteoporosis and some of our misconceptions about the disease.