At age 53, Lisa Rustin slipped on a Del Mar, California, sidewalk and
fractured her arm. A bone-density scan, recommended by her gyne-
cologist because of her family history of thinning bones, revealed
osteoporosis. She threw away her high heels, quit downhill skiing,
overhauled her diet to include more calcium-rich foods, and started
walking with a backpack filled with books—weight-bearing exercise
is an important way to strengthen your bones. Rustin also began
taking calcium and vitamin D supplements and a bisphosphonate
drug, the most commonly prescribed osteoporosis treatment.Over a lifetime, 50 percent of all
women will have an osteoporosis-
related fracture—a risk greater than
the odds for heart attack, stroke, and
breast cancer combined. For men, the
odds are up to one in four; in fact, a
man over 50 is more
likely to have such
a break than he is
prostate cancer.
All told, of the
two million Ameri-
cans who have an
osteoporosis-related
fracture each year,
300,000 will break a
hip. Among them,
half will never walk
again without assis-
tance. One in four
will die within a year.
Osteoporosis doesn’t
just break bones. It
smashes lives.
What makes os-
teoporosis even
more tragic is thatShe considers her fracture to be—
well, something of a lucky break. “My
mother had broken her hip in the
past, when there was no treatment
for her osteoporosis,” says Rustin,
who is now 58. “After I broke my
arm, she fractured
her shoulder. By the
time I got the news
about my bone-
density test, my mom
had passed away
due to complications
from her shoulder
fracture. That was my
wake-up call.”
Osteoporosis—the
term literally means
“porous bone”—
arises when bone
cells that break down
are not replenished
by new ones. That
causes bones to break
more easily and take
longer to heal when
they do.300,000
AMERICANS
break a hip
every year as
a result of
osteoporosis.92 may 2019
Reader’s Digest