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Today, Camille is not feeling good but we still have our guest chiropractor, Dr. Ronnie Chan with us.
He is going to talk about osteoporosis. Good morning!
Good morning, Rodney!
When people have osteoporosis, I have heard they need to drink more milk and happen more often in women.
But rarely on men, could you explain osteoporosis to us?
We may have heard the term “osteoporosis” many times, and it actually means the decrease of bone density,
so that the bone is not functioning enough to bear weight, in which will increase the chance of fracture.
This is the definition of osteoporosis.
Oh, so the decrease of bone density will increase the chance of connection?
No, it increases the chance of fracture.
It is because the bone density has reduced and leads to a higher chance of fracture.
While bones are already there and it’s hard to change bone!
So why does the bone density decrease in the beginning?
Good question! The reason is because of aging and menopause.
Let’s take a look at the diagram.
It looks dense. Right, this diagram shows the difference in bone density.
Left panel shows a normal bone density. Right panel shows a decrease in bone density.
In reality, because the bone density on the right panel has reduced, it cannot effectively support the body weight.
Let’s take a look at the next diagram. It is a chart which shows the relationship between age and bone density.
The vertical axis is the bone density and the horizontal axis is the age.
Our bone density will start to increase at the time of puberty. At around teenage?
That’s right. And it will reach its maximum around 20s to 30s.
Then gradually, bone density will start to decrease. Menopause will show a decrease in bone density.
It is around what age will menopause begin? About 50s years of age and bone density will start to decrease.
As bone density decrease, we call this osteopenia, which it is not considered as osteoporosis.
Therefore, for that stage of time, we just call it osteopenia. Osteopenia.
And we don’t call it osteoporosis yet.
Is there anything we can do to avoid getting osteoporosis?
Good question. And this is what the medical field trying to do.
In my opinion, we should try not to treat at that stage but rather start earlier…
Earlier! Yes, for the purpose of prevention.
Starting around 20s to 30s. That is correct.
In a later time, I will talk more about prevention.
I’d like to use our bank account as a scenario to describe our bone density.
When we are young, it is the time to save money.
It is the same for bone density; we should accumulate more when we are young.
When we have reached menopause, it is like we are retired. We, then, start to use money in the account.
If we have accumulate a lot when we were young, we can use longer and still have reserves.
However, if we don’t have much when we were young, we can develop osteoporosis quite early when we age.
Also, when we are aged, we can still deposit money in the account but it will not…
That is right. It’s like you can still do some part-time job after you retired,
but no matter how much you do, you won’t be able to earn as much as you were young.
Therefore, it is important to accumulate enough bone density when we were young.
When we talk about osteoporosis, is diet going to affect it?
Many people say, for osteoporosis, we need to drink milk.
But we don’t drink any in the past; while some people also smokes. Are these going to affect osteoporosis?
Absolutely! Let’s talk about diet first. If we need to improve bone density, you will need 2 nutrients.
First, everybody has heard about it already, which is calcium.
And the other one is vitamin D.
In Canada, obtaining vitamin D naturally is quite difficult.
Calcium can be obtained from a number of food sources,
such as broccolis, fishes like sardine, milk or cereals.
For milk, it is quite special that milk may not have that much calcium.
But for fortified milk with calcium, it is what we have added artificially.
The difficulty is many people may not be able to drink milk.
If you are unable to drink milk, usually it is because of 2 reasons.
First, you are unable to digest milk sugar, lactose.
If you cannot digest lactose, we can still do something about it.
There is lactose-free milk on the market which has no milk sugar.
In fact, an enzyme has been added to the milk in which the milk sugar is broken down into 2 sugars.
The body then can digest these 2 sugars.
That means, it pre-digest the sugar? That is correct.
Therefore, the body can digest it. The drawback is the higher cost.
It is because there is extra processing? That is correct.
If you have sweet tooth, you will like it more because one sugar has become 2 sugars!
Haha! The milk will taste sweeter.
So, will that affect diabetes? Not much.
Secondly, if you cannot drink milk, you may not able to digest milk protein.
In this case, it is more difficult to resolve.
So, if you cannot digest milk protein, you may want to consider other alternatives to replace milk.
In other words, you don’t drink milk and drink something else instead? That is right.
For example? What is an example?
Soya bean drink. Oh, soya bean drink.
Soya bean drink is one of them, or you can also try orange juice. Usually, they have fortified with calcium.
Fortified food has advantage. Is vegetable juice ok?
Ok. But we need to pay attention to the correct amount.
If you are not eating enough, it can be helped minimally.
In terms of food, what can you eat to improve bone density, other than just keep drinking liquids?
Or any other exercise we can do?
Let me talk about vitamins first. It is actually quite important.
When we take calcium supplements, other than calcium, it also contains vitamin D.
There may be some difficulty in absorbing vitamin D in Canada.
Why? It is because people are afraid of the depletion of ozone layer and avoid the sun.
In fact, our body is capable to make our own vitamin D!
It is possible, but we need to be exposed under the sun.
If you are afraid of the ozone layer and avoid the sun …
Put on more sunblock!
That is the problem!
When your skin is exposed to sun, after absorbing the ultraviolet light and skin will turn dark.
Vitamin D can only be made when you go through this process.
However, if you apply sunblock… There is no ultraviolet light exposure …
That is right! That means if there is no exposure, no vitamin D will be made.
Therefore, in general, if we cover up ourselves, plus using sunblock; there is no darkening of skin after sun exposure.
Even you walk under the sun for one or even two hours, there is no vitamin D being made.
It is like having a suntan without the effect of getting a suntan.
That is correct! So why do you do suntan with sunblock?
Just don’t forget this is the situation during summer time, how about during winter?
There no sun exposure in winter time, the whole body is covered.
Therefore, it is difficult to absorb vitamin D naturally in Canada.
If we can’t make vitamin D on our own, we can resolve the problem by taking vitamin D supplements.
I know Dr. Ronnie Chan is going to come back again to talk to us more regarding calcium and vitamin D.
Thanks to Dr. Ronnie Chan for coming this morning.
If you want to contact Dr. Ronnie Chan, you can see his contact information on the screen.
See you later.