The Connection Between Osteoporosis and Eating Disorders in Vacaville

Osteoporosis in Vacaville is a condition that causes your bones to become brittle and weak. It happens because the bones are living tissues that break down but gets remade by the body. In fact, the skeleton regenerates itself on a decade by decade basis. But this regeneration slows down after the early 20s.

A person who has osteoporosis can't create new bones that fast once the old bone is lost. Before osteoporosis can happen, a person may have osteopenia, or weakened bones, otherwise known as brittle bone disease.

It is very common for a person to not know that he/she has osteopenia or osteoporosis. In fact, it is a "clinically silent" disease since it can cause no symptoms until a fracture happens. They often come to clinical attention after the patient gets an X-ray for something else. Hip and wrist fractures are also common.

How nutrition protects bone health in Vacaville

Proper nutrition is the best way to optimize bone health and prevent any issues later on.

It is important that you get the right nutrition as early as possible. This is applicable for athletic or very active kids, adolescents, and teens who aren't fueling enough as they should be. If you're not getting enough food, your body will start shutting down functions that are "non-essential". It can happen to adolescents and teens who have eating disorders, which can cause their bone-building capabilities to stop.

Between the age of 9 to 15 years old, children will build 80% of the bone density that they will have in their entire lifetime. If they neglect this, they'll have a lower threshold of bone mass.

How eating disorders can cause osteoporosis

Young women are more at risk of developing health issues along the way since men normally have two growth spurts in their teens while women have none. This means that young women have only one chance to optimize their bone health. However, the sad thing is that time overlaps with years when eating disorders are more frequent.

The estrogen in women plays an important role when it comes to bone formation. An osteoblast can help with bone formation, but when estrogen deficiency takes place, the osteoblast won't function as it should. This happens in menopausal women who lose estrogen naturally and even in young women with eating disorders. When a woman restricts food, it can make their period irregular or completely go away, which can lead to a loss in estrogen levels and in turn, can lead to bone loss.

Unfortunately, eating disorders can slow down a girl's chance to improve bone health from the get-go. According to the report of the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), in one study of 496 girls, up to 13.2% of them have eating disorders by age 20. Young people, between the age of 15 and 24, with anorexia, are 10 times more likely to die compared to other people of the same age. The sad part is that the incidence of eating disorders still continues to rise.