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Osteoporosis: For Men, Too
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This is an equal opportunity condition
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By Lois Levine
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REMEDY Winter 2007
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Osteoporosis, once considered largely a woman’s affliction, is a major health threat for half of all Americans aged 50 or older. According to the National Osteoporosis Foundation (NOF), about 25 percent of men over the age of 50 will suffer bone fracture. “Risk of fracture goes up quickly with age,“ warns Eric Orwoll, M.D., associate vice president for research at the Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine in Portland. “Some illnesses and medications, such as kidney disease and certain treatments for prostate cancer, can cause accelerated bone loss and fractures, as well.”
Largely because the male skeleton is more robust than the female—and because men don’t go through menopause—men seem to develop osteoporosis later in life than women do. Beginning around age 75, however, men are at increased risk of fracture. Unfortunately, these older men are often underdiagnosed and undertreated.
“A number of studies document that older men who suffer fractures rarely have their bone mineral density measured and so are not properly treated, probably because the general public and medical community don’t associate men with osteoporosis,” says Dr. Orwoll. “It’s still considered a disease of postmenopausal women.”
Men, take note: Get your daily dose of calcium and vitamin D (the NOF recommends 1,200 mg and 800 IU to 1,000 IU, respectively); don’t smoke; drink in moderation; and if you’re over 50 and have had a bone fracture (or have a medical condition associated with osteoporosis), have a bone mineral density test.
 According
to a 2007 study done at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and
Dentistry in New York, phthalates (pronounced THAL-ates)—a common
household chemical found in everything from plastics to shaving cream
to foods—might be linked to abdominal obesity and insulin resistance in
adult men. The study noted that those men with the most exposure to
phthalates were on average about three inches larger in waist
circumference than other men. Their insulin resistance levels were
sizeably higher, too. The good news, says Richard Stahlhut, M.D.,
doctor of preventive medicine at the university, is that if phthalates
constitute a problem, it can be addressed: if any chemical turns out to
be hazardous, we can try to avoid it—and hope that the government will
regulate or ban its use.
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