Men should not underestimate their risk of osteoporosis

Women know that osteoporosis can lead to broken bones for a long time. What men do not know: at 70, they are as vulnerable as women at 60.

Degradative osteoporosis as a disease in women can be fatal for many men. On World Osteoporosis Day (20 October), experts urge older men and their doctors to take a possible bone reduction seriously. According to the International Foundation Against Osteoporosis (IOF), men are at a higher risk of developing osteoporosis than prostate cancer. One-third of hip fractures occur in humans. Osteroporosekranke was the assassinated United States President, John F. Kennedy, and the ex-commissioner of the crime scene who died in 2007, Hansjörg Felmy.

"Osteoporosis only hurts when you break something"

"In 2010, there were 725,000 osteoporotic fractures in Germany, including more than 95,000 hip fractures in women and 34,000 hip fractures in men," says Andreas Kurth, orthopedic surgeon and trauma surgeon, president of the Federation of Osteology (Bone Science). According to a study by IOF, one million men and four million women were affected by osteoporosis in Germany that year. "Men are only a little later, 70-year-old men have about the same risk of osteoporosis as women in their 60s," says Kurth.

"Osteoporosis only hurts when you break something," says Christian Hinz, chief physician at the Fürstenhof Clinic in Bad Pyrmont, specializing in osteoporosis. Many people thought the break was due to the fall. "But at a low drop height, the bones do not usually break." For example, if you slip on a chair and fall to the ground breaking a vertebra, osteoporosis can be the cause of the fracture. According to IOF estimates, one in five men out of five worldwide breaks a bone of osteoporosis. "For most of them, this silent disease is neither recognized nor treated, even after a fracture," writes the foundation.

Good nutrition can reduce the risk of osteoporosis

Risk factors in men include, for example, some treatments for rheumatism, prostate cancer or chronic intestinal diseases. Antihormonal therapies in particular inhibit the production of testosterone, which weakens the bones.

Hinz also points out the higher risks associated with lifestyle changes: "In fact, nature offers what we need in all seasons: for example, cabbage in autumn and fruits rich in trace elements, in vitamins and calcium, and in winter fats and fish containing vitamin D. But this is not what you eat today, so it is more likely that your diet will become deficient and that 39, he is suffering from osteoporosis. "

Doctors recommend that men and women stop eating healthy and exercising. "In severe cases, there are also medications that can prevent the majority of fractures," says Kurth. However, only 20% of patients who would need medication would actually be treated, says Hinz. Physicians also assume responsibility for home doctors and accidents as well as urologists. In men, they would very rarely clarify the presence of osteoporosis. Men should clarify their risk of osteoporosis from age 60 or older, says Hinz. This comes with a questionnaire on diseases, medications, frequency of falls, genetic predispositions and lifestyle.