Urban women prone to osteoporosis

JAKARTA (JP): Urban women are more susceptible to osteoporosis than their counterparts in rural areas due to their modern lifestyles, experts warn.

"The tendency to smoking, avoiding sunlight and reducing physical activity, typical habits for women in urban areas, will increase vulnerability to osteoporosis," obstetric gynecologist Andon Hestiantoro told a press conference on Tuesday.

Andon quoted data compiled from osteoporosis centers across the country revealing that 26 percent of Indonesian women aged between 20 and 79 years old suffered from the disease. More than half of them live in the city, the data say.

The surge in the number of female smokers in the country gave Andon another scare.

"We rarely heard of osteoporosis cases some 10 years ago when smoking was not yet a rampant habit. Women should worry about it," Andon noted.

Recent data show that female smokers represent 10 percent of the country's total female population of about 105 million.

Andon said smoking hampers the body's production of estrogen, a hormone which stimulates the formation of calcium.

Calcium deficiency is widely known as the main cause of osteoporosis.

Women who enter their menopausal period are vulnerable to the disease because they no longer produce the hormone. The chance for a menopausal woman to suffer from osteoporosis is 80 percent.

The disease leads to bone fractures for around 40 percent of people suffering the disease.

A noted sports medicine expert, Sadoso Sumosardjuno, warned that young women in urban areas could obtain the disease from their eating habits and improper diets.

"Young women are obsessed with losing weight through a strict diet, which quite often coincides with reduced consumption of calcium. Fat people, therefore, have less probability of suffering from osteoporosis," Sadoso said.

Sadoso said the disease could be prevented through physical exercise such as running, jogging and aerobics. He also suggested that people do more activities outdoors and consume meals which contain sufficient calcium.

Andon said osteoporosis could also result from a reproductive surgery that affects the body's estrogen producing capability. (04)