Preventing osteoporosis can be cheaper: Expert

YOGYAKARTA (JP): A health expert says women can prevent osteoporosis in ways cheaper than consuming the widely advertised calcium-rich milk products.

Ahmad Husain Asdie, a professor at the Gadjah Mada University's School of Medicine, was commenting on television commercials of milk products claiming to have the highest calcium content to prevent osteoporosis. These products are relatively more expensive than regular products.

"Is consuming additional calcium from such milk products necessary? I can say it is. But there are actually many other ways of doing it (preventing osteoporosis) which are much cheaper," he said recently.

The water that people drink everyday, for example, contains enough calcium, he said. "Water is the generic form of calcium while those advertised calcium-rich milk products are the branded ones. You can choose either one."

He said that osteoporosis -- the loss of bony matrix that causes brittle bones, due to injury, infection or old age -- was a natural condition that could happen to anyone, especially those over 60 years old.

"Human bones are not static. They are always regenerating and being damaged at the same time," said Asdie, who is also head internist at the state-run Sardjito Hospital here.

The damaging agent of the bones is called the osteoclast while the constructing agent is called the osteoblast. Calcium is needed for bones formation.

Asdie said that normally, the two agents have a balanced composition, and as such construction and damage take place in a parallel manner.

"A recent study in Surabaya found that between the ages of 20 and 60 years, the two agents that form and damage human bones are in a balanced composition," Asdie said.

When a person is over 60 years old, his or her osteoblast decreases while his or her osteoclast improves.

As a result, the number of damaging agents swells all the more while the number of constructing agents decreases.

What happens next, according to Asdie, is the so-called compression fracture -- a condition where a person's bones become smaller in size.

"When the compression fractures happen to the spine, it's the front part of the bone that shrinks much quicker than the back part. This explains why sufferers of osteoporosis are hunchbacked," Asdie said.

In some cases, osteoporosis can also cause tetra paresis or para paresis. Tetra paresis is a paralysis of both arms and both legs at the same time, while para paresis is that of the two legs only.

Severe osteoporosis may affect the legs and cripple the victims, he said.

"Osteoporosis is not a deadly disease. But it could be very disturbing especially if it comes earlier than it normally does," Asdie said, suggesting that women, among other things, exercise to help prevent osteoporosis. (swa)