HOUSTON — When women go through menopause, that's when they should start thinking about bone health. Men should start their bone screenings around the age of 70.
Osteoporosis is a silent condition that doesn't cause soreness or stiffness, but it can easily cause fractures.
Just ask Adela Alvarez.
"I lost my ability to walk by just that small fracture because it was really painful," she said.
Alvarez is an avid walker, racking up five miles a day, but a stress fracture in her ankle brought her daily walks to a halt.
After two months of investigating, Adela learned she had the chronic disease osteoporosis.
"I had a lot of loss of bone density in my hips, in my spinal cord, which is very dangerous," she said.
"There's a higher mortality rate with certain fractures, like hip fractures and spine fractures, so it's really important that people be screened for this," said UT Physicians bone health specialist Cristina Yazdani.
After the age of 30, everyone begins to lose bone density. While it becomes more of a concern around menopause, the official screening age for women is 65. It's 70 years old for men, as long as there's no family history of osteoporosis or risk factors like diabetes, celiac disease or weight loss surgeries.
If a trip and fall results in a broken bone, that should raise a red flag.
"If you have a ground level fall, it doesn't matter why you fell per say, but the fact that there was a fall and you broke a bone is what's concerning," said Yazdani.
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