Other risk factors include:. From a young age, both men and women can take steps to prevent osteoporosis by making sure that they:. Enjoying a healthy, balanced diet with a variety of foods and an adequate intake of calcium is a vital step to building and maintaining strong, healthy bones. If there is not enough calcium in the blood, your body will take calcium from your bones. Making sure you have enough calcium in your diet is an important way to preserve your bone density. It is recommended that the average Australian adult consumes 1, mg of calcium per day.
Postmenopausal women and men aged over 70 years are recommended to have 1, mg of calcium per day. Children, depending on their age, will need up to 1, mg of calcium per day. Dairy foods have the highest levels of calcium, but there are many other sources of calcium, including sardines, spinach and almonds.
If you are unable to get enough calcium from your diet alone, you may need to talk to a health professional about calcium supplements. Vitamin D and calcium promote bone density. Vitamin D is important because it helps your body absorb the calcium in your diet. We obtain most of our vitamin D from the sun, and there are recommendations for the amount of safe sun exposure for sufficient vitamin D production , depending on your skin type, geographical location in Australia and the season.
Vitamin D can also be found in small quantities in foods such as:. For most people, it is unlikely that adequate quantities of vitamin D will be obtained through diet alone. Talk with your health professional about vitamin D supplements if you are concerned that you are not getting enough vitamin D. Weight-bearing exercise encourages bone density and improves balance so falls are reduced.
It does not treat established osteoporosis. Consult your doctor before starting a new exercise program , especially if you have been sedentary, are over 75 years of age or have a medical condition.
General recommendations include:. If you have osteoporosis, the strategies listed to prevent osteoporosis will help to manage the condition, but you may also need to consider:.
If you have osteoporosis, the risk of a fracture break with high-intensity exercise and poorly performed strength training can outweigh the bone-building benefits of these exercises. The best approach is to have an exercise program put together specifically for you by a physiotherapist or exercise physiologist.
The program may include:. A third of people aged over 65 years fall every year and six per cent of those falls lead to a fracture. Reducing the risk of falls is important. Be guided by your doctor, but general recommendations include:. There is no standard treatment for osteoporosis. Your treatment will depend on your specific needs. Generally, your overall risk of fracture will help your doctor to decide on the best course of treatment for you.
As well as diet and lifestyle changes, your doctor may recommend medication. The options may include:. It is important to note that all medications have potential side effects.
If you are prescribed medication for osteoporosis, discuss the benefits and risks of treatment with your doctor. If you have osteoporosis, it is never too late to seek treatment, as age is one of the main risk factors for osteoporosis and breaks.
Treatment can halt bone loss and significantly reduce the risk of fractures. It is important that your doctor excludes other medical conditions that can cause osteoporosis, including vitamin D deficiency.
This page has been produced in consultation with and approved by:. The abdominal muscles support the trunk, allow movement and hold organs in place by regulating internal abdominal pressure. Acromegaly is caused by an excess of growth hormone in adults, which causes the overgrowth of bones in the face, hands, feet and internal organs.
Exercise can prevent age-related changes to muscles, bones and joints and can reverse these changes too. A person with amyloidosis produces aggregates of insoluble protein that cannot be eliminated from the body. Ankle sprain is a common sports injuries caused by overstretching and tearing the supporting ligaments. Content on this website is provided for information purposes only. Information about a therapy, service, product or treatment does not in any way endorse or support such therapy, service, product or treatment and is not intended to replace advice from your doctor or other registered health professional.
The information and materials contained on this website are not intended to constitute a comprehensive guide concerning all aspects of the therapy, product or treatment described on the website. All users are urged to always seek advice from a registered health care professional for diagnosis and answers to their medical questions and to ascertain whether the particular therapy, service, product or treatment described on the website is suitable in their circumstances.
The State of Victoria and the Department of Health shall not bear any liability for reliance by any user on the materials contained on this website. In women it lowers the oestrogen level and may cause early menopause. In men, smoking lowers testosterone activity and this can also weaken the bones.
It also increases the risk of breaking a bone as a result of a fall. Family history — Osteoporosis does run in families, probably because there are inherited factors that affect bone development. If a close relative has suffered a fracture linked to osteoporosis then your own risk of a fracture is likely to be greater than normal.
Any exercise where the bones are made to carry the weight of the body, such as walking, can speed up the process of new bone growing. The more weight-bearing exercise you do from a young age, the more this will reduce the risk of getting osteoporosis.
If you do have osteoporosis, doing weight-bearing exercise will minimise bone loss and strengthen muscles. However, all forms of exercise will help to improve co-ordination and keep up muscle strength. This is important because muscles can also become weaker as we get older, and this is a risk factor for falling and therefore for fractures.
T'ai Chi can be very effective in reducing the risk of falls. It also improves balance. Walking is a good exercise to improve bone strength and it is also good for keeping thigh and hip muscles strong, which is important to help people have good balance and prevent falls.
High-impact exercise such as skipping, aerobics, weight-training, running, jogging and tennis are thought to be useful for the prevention of osteoporosis. These exercises might not all be suitable if you have osteoporosis. For more support, motivation and advice talk to your doctor, a physiotherapist or a personal trainer at a gym about your condition and the best exercise for you. The best sources of calcium are:. If you don't eat many dairy products or calcium-enriched substitutes, then you may need a calcium supplement.
We recommend you discuss this with your doctor or a dietitian. Vitamin D is needed for the body to absorb and process calcium and there's some evidence that arthritis progresses more quickly in people who don't have enough vitamin D. Vitamin D is sometimes called the 'sunshine vitamin' because it's produced by the body when the skin is exposed to sunlight. A slight lack deficiency of vitamin D is quite common in the UK in winter.
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence NICE has issued guidance on safe sunlight exposure which aims to balance the benefits of vitamin D against the risks of skin cancer from too much exposure to sunlight.
Vitamin D can also be obtained from some foods, especially from oily fish, or from supplements such as fish liver oil. However, it's important not to take too much fish liver oil. Because we don't get enough sunshine all year round in the UK, and because it's difficult to guarantee getting enough vitamin D from what we eat, Public Health England recommends that everyone should take a 10 microgram supplement of vitamin D every day during the autumn and winter.
People in certain groups at risk of not having enough exposure to sunlight, or whose skin is not able to absorb enough vitamin D from the level of sunshine in the UK, are encouraged to take a daily supplement of 10 micrograms all year round.
For many people, calcium and vitamin D supplements are prescribed together with other osteoporosis treatments. Some hospitals also offer falls prevention clinics or support groups — ask your doctor if there's one in your area. Smoking can affect your hormones and so may increase your risk of osteoporosis. We strongly recommend you stop smoking. Support is available if you wish to stop. Drinking a lot of alcohol can affect the production of new bone, so we recommend keeping within the maximum amounts 14 units per week suggested by the government.
Find out more about exercising with arthritis and what types of exercises are beneficial for certain conditions. We explain which foods are most likely to help and how to lose weight if you need to.
There are no clear physical signs of osteoporosis and it may not cause any problems for some time. If your doctor thinks you may have osteoporosis, they may suggest you have a DEXA dual energy x-ray absorptiometry scan to measure the density of your bones.
The scan is readily available and involves lying on a couch, fully clothed, for about 15 minutes while your bones are x-rayed. The dose of x-rays is very small — about the same as spending a day out in the sun.
Osteoporotic bones have lost density or mass and contain abnormal tissue structure. As bones become less dense, they weaken and are more likely to break. About 54 million Americans have osteoporosis and low bone mass, placing them at increased risk for osteoporosis.
Studies suggest that approximately one in two women and up to one in four men age 50 and older will break a bone due to osteoporosis. Breaking a bone is a serious complication of osteoporosis, especially with older patients. Osteoporotic bone breaks are most likely to occur in the hip, spine or wrist, but other bones can break too. In addition to causing permanent pain, osteoporosis causes some patients to lose height.
When osteoporosis affects vertebrae, or the bones of the spine, it often leads to a stooped or hunched posture. Osteoporosis may limit mobility, which often leads to feelings of isolation or depression. Additionally, twenty percent of seniors who break a hip die within one year from either complications related to the broken bone itself or the surgery to repair it.
Many patients require long-term nursing home care. Breaking a bone is often the first sign of osteoporosis or a patient may notice that he or she is getting shorter or their upper back is curving forward.
If you are experiencing height loss or your spine is curving, be sure to consult your doctor or healthcare professional immediately. There are many health problems and a few medical procedures that increase the likelihood of osteoporosis.
If you have any of the following diseases or conditions, talk to your doctor or health care provider about what you can do to keep your bones healthy. Note: This list may not include all of the diseases and conditions that may cause bone loss.
Talk to your doctor and ask if any of the conditions you have may be causing bone loss.
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