Osteoporosis is often seen as an inevitable part of aging, especially for postmenopausal women. Many of us grew up with the image of the little old lady, hunched over by kyphosis walking gingerly with a cane. We know older women have to be careful when walking, because a simple trip can cause a life-threatening fracture. We accepted, and even expected, that this was part of the normal and natural age progression for women.
Now is the time to think differently. Menopause may be the end of a woman’s reproductive years, but it doesn’t have to be the start of an irreversible decline in bone health. We have tools to prevent osteoporosis from being fated for most women.
Understanding the Science Behind Bone Density Loss
This isn’t to say that maintaining bone density after menopause is easy. It’s during this time in a woman’s life when hormones change drastically. Most notable is the loss of estrogen, which accelerates bone loss and significantly increases the risk of osteoporosis.
Bone remodeling is the process in which your body builds new bone and absorbs old bone. It consists primarily of two stages – bone formation, and bone resorption. As you grow as a child and through puberty, the rate of bone formation is far greater than resorption, resulting in a consistent net gain in new bone. In your thirties, this process evolved into a natural, more even balance. However as we get older, bone formation slows, and resorption speeds up.
Estrogen plays an important role in the bone remodeling process. When estrogen levels drop, the bone resorption process accelerates even more. This is why women often suffer from serious bone density issues before men, although eventually men face many of the same risks.
Today we know far more about the bone remodeling process and the impacts of estrogen than ever before. Menopause no longer needs to be a one-way ticket to osteoporosis.
The Osteoporosis Prevention Playbook
Preventing osteoporosis, and its also-dangerous but less-understood younger sibling osteopenia, requires a multi-faceted treatment and prevention approach. The best time to take action is before bone loss begins to accelerate. Yet today there are no single solutions, no one-pill-a-day magic cures, to prevent the loss of bone density from an inevitable decline.
Instead the best approach is a physician-formulated playbook, personalized based on your own risk factors, lab work, age, and current bone density status.
There are 5 tools that should be considered when creating your playbook:
- Vitamin D and Calcium: Calcium and vitamin D, both independently and together, play a critical role in bone building. Low levels can not only disrupt bone remodeling, but can actively leach calcium from the bones, making them brittle and prone to fracturing. But too high levels can be dangerous, so it’s important for your physician to know your natural baseline and identify how much calcium and vitamin D supplementation is ideal to put you in the optimal range.
- Weight-bearing exercise: Weight-bearing exercise is proven to build bone, even in old age. You don’t have to run miles or exercise to the point of exhaustion to gain bone benefits. Traditional resistance training, pilates, yoga, weight lifting are all great examples of exercise that helps stimulate bone growth all all ages.
- Hormone replacement therapy: HRT was once the go-to prescription for low bone density concerns. But cancer and heart disease scares put HRT on ice for many years. Now it’s making a comeback, in lower-dose forms that are safe for many women. Depending on your risk factors, this might or might not be one tool in your playbook.
- Medications: Unfortunately the pharmacological landscape for osteopenia and osteoporosis is seriously lacking in modern innovation. Today there are zero FDA-approved medications for treating osteopenia, and most of the options for osteoporosis are decades old and have notable side effects. However if your bone density scores are already in the osteoporosis phase of bone decline, medications may be indicated for you.
- Vibration plates: Vibration plates have proven to be one of the more resilient fitness fads. Every decade or so a new generation of vibration plates reemerge as a treatment for everything from poor circulation to weight loss to neuropathy. The reason vibration therapy continues to make periodic comebacks is this: it works. And vibration therapy is also proven to help with bone strength. So why is it still a fad? Mostly because standing on a vibration plate for any meaningful amount of time is no one’s idea of fun. And the lack of targeting makes the overall therapy less effective for specific concerns.
Over time, vibration therapy has gained attention for its ability to balance the bone remodeling process and slow the loss of bone density. NASA has even funded important research around vibration therapy to mitigate the effects of bone loss on astronauts due to gravity.
The Cost of Complacency and the Road Not Taken
The belief that osteoporosis is just part of getting older does more than discourage women from seeking treatment—it actively hampers the pursuit of new solutions. When a condition is deemed inevitable, both the motivation to seek innovative treatments and the funding to support such research dwindle.
But consider the possibilities if we refuse to accept this narrative. What if we approached osteoporosis with the same vigor with which we tackle other preventable health conditions? What if every woman knew she could influence her bone health and had the tools and support to do so?
It’s time to break the cycle of inevitability. Here’s how we can start:
1. Demand More Research and Innovation
We must advocate for more funding and research dedicated to preventing and treating osteoporosis. Medical research must continue to evolve, focusing not just on treatment but also on prevention and early intervention.
2. Change Health Policies
Screening for osteoporosis should be as routine as mammograms and cholesterol checks. Health policies must prioritize bone health as a key aspect of women’s health, especially as they approach menopause.
3. Educate and Empower
Knowledge is power. Women need to know the risks and the measures they can take to prevent bone density loss. Healthcare providers must also be proactive in educating patients about the importance of bone health and the effectiveness of early intervention.
4. Live a Bone-Healthy Lifestyle
Every woman has the power to influence her bone health. Engage in regular weight-bearing and muscle-strengthening exercises, maintain a diet rich in calcium and vitamin D, avoid smoking, and limit alcohol consumption. These are not just guidelines—they are powerful tools at your disposal.
5. Community Support
Building communities that support healthy aging and proactive health management can transform attitudes and behaviors. Whether it’s through local health groups, online forums, or national campaigns, community support can be incredibly effective.
If you’re approaching or have entered your postmenopausal years, it’s crucial to understand that osteoporosis is not a foregone conclusion. With the right actions, you can significantly influence your health outcomes.
Let’s change “inevitability” to prevention and empowerment. We must demand better research, better treatments, and better public health policies. Most importantly, we need to support each other in taking proactive steps to manage our health. The road to better bone health is one we can all travel together.
About Allison Wagda
Allison Wagda is a senior marketing executive with extensive experience leading GTM strategy, brand development, demand generation, and product marketing at startups and growth-stage companies. She is currently Vice President of Patient Marketing at Osteoboost Health and has previously held marketing leadership roles at Resilio, Issuu, Versal, and BitTorrent. Her sector expertise spans B2B SaaS, medtech, martech, edtech, and IT infrastructure.
