Osteopenia - weak bones. Female Athlete Triad

Osteopenia is the condition which lets you know that you are going to have to change your ways if you want to avoid osteoporosis. Osteopenia means that your bones do not have as much mineral, mainly calcium, built in as they should have. This means that the bones are not as strong as they should be.

Osteoporosis possibly leads to bone breaks and fractures, you lose height and maybe start on round forward into a typical "old lady".

Consider this example, say you are late 20's to mid-30, run hard and long, maybe half or full marathons, good muscle definition, slim, body weight somewhat on the low side for your height. Sounds healthy ? What's the chance for osteoporosis in later life ?

The problem is that exercising really hard, not eating quite enough to support the energy expenditure, keeping your body weight low - so you look really cute - quite likely lead to loss of periods (or spotty periods). Amenorrhea in medical jargon which leads to loss of bone density. Your body does not pack enough mineral, particularly calcium, into the bones and maybe even leaches calcium out of healthy bones.

The jargon name is Female Athlete Triad with three components: not eating enough to support your exercise level; problems with periods; low bone density.

Is this a possibly serious issue for you personally?

Ask yourself these questions:

1. Does mother or grandmother have a stooped posture or has there been a loss in height over the years ?
YES and you definitely need to take this seriously as genetics is 60% to 80% of the issue.

2. What's your body weight.
A woman who weighs less than 127 pounds is 10 (TEN) times more likely to have osteopenia than a woman who weighs 150 pounds or more.

3. Periods.
Did you start periods late and/or did you enter menopause earlier.
Either indicates a possible problem.

4. Food.
Are you generally getting enough calories ?
Is there enough calcium in your diet ? Are you getting enough Vitamin D ?

5. Are you, or have you, taking corticosteroids e.g. prednisone, for things like asthma, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis ?
You have ?
Then you might have premature bone loss unless you've been taking additional drugs to stop bone loss.

6. Smoking ?
Bad news for bone health.


Want to know more ?

Try Reversing Osteopenia

Exercises for Osteoporosis