Diet and lifestyle changes key to protecting women against osteoporosis

Women may live longer than men but they may not necessarily be healthier. The International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) said during yesterday's World Osteoporosis Day the quality of life for women would be seriously jeopardised without action to protect their bone health.

Osteoporosis can strike anyone but post-menopausal women are most vulnerable. Worldwide, the IOF estimates that 200 million women are affected by osteoporosis and about one in three women older than 50 will suffer a fractured bone due to it.

The problem is more pronounced in Asia, not only because populations in the region are ageing rapidly, but also because of physical and lifestyle factors. Asian women tend to have lower bone mass and density, and smaller body frames than the worldwide averages.

A traditional Chinese diet also tends to be low in calcium, the key mineral for healthy bones. Average calcium intake in Chinese diets hovered around 400mg in the 1980s and 1990s, and was between about 500mg and 600mg in the 2000s, according to a report by the Osteoporosis Society of Hong Kong, Guidelines for Clinical Management of Postmenopausal Osteoporosis in Hong Kong, published in April. Average calcium intake is further reduced because lactose intolerance, an inability to digest a sugar found in milk and its products, is more common among Asians than Europeans, for example.

By 2050, the IOF estimates that half of the world's osteoporotic fractures will occur in Asia. In the mainland, almost 70 million people over the age of 50 suffer from osteoporosis and the disease causes about 687,000 hip fractures a year.

From 2002 to 2006, hip fractures among those over 50 year in Beijing increased by 58 per cent in women and 49 per cent in men, according to a study by the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences published last year in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research.