If you are post-menopause, or a woman/man over the age of 55 (this is not a magic number, as this condition can impact those younger and older) – please speak with your physician about having a baseline bone scan – it is quick, easy, non-invasive and accurate. Regardless of your respective physical health and exercise regime, osteoporosis does not discriminate. Women and men suffer from osteoporosis, it is a silent condition with significant consequences, but treatment is available and can include a combination of diet, exercise, supplements and medication.

Via Vox: “And it’s precisely the health care system’s failure to look for osteoporosis as often as it should — along with a parallel crisis in osteoporosis treatment — that is setting us up for the acceleration of a disturbing trend that was recently highlighted in an important study. Researchers writing in the journal Osteoporosis International found that hip fractures in women over 65 began increasing in 2013 among Medicare recipients (after plateauing for years), with an additional 11,000 estimated hip fractures between 2013 and 2015. There are two clues that point at the causes of this burgeoning crisis: There’s been a decrease in bone density screening tests and a decrease in prescriptions for osteoporosis medications (the biggest class of which are called bisphosphonates) because of patients’ fears of their side effects. So if doctors aren’t looking for osteoporosis, and many patients are turning down treatment, how can we prevent life-altering falls like those suffered by my grandparents?

More than 10 million Americans currently have osteoporosis, and another 44 million are at increased risk of developing it. By 2020, the number of Americans with low bone density is expected to rise to 64 million adults, or 20 percent of the population, with a proportional increase in the number of fractures…It’s no small wonder that a drop in osteoporosis screening and a decrease in the utilization of osteoporosis medications has caused hip fracture rates to rise. The biggest issue is that without screening, there is virtually no way to diagnose osteoporosis until a fracture occurs…”