BEATING OSTEOPOROSIS IF YOU ARE MENOPAUSAL

 

 

Dr Steven R. Goldstein is a Menopause Specialist NYC and was the Co Directory of Bone Densitometry and Body Composition at NYU Langone Medical Center from 1997 to 2016. He writes the Bone Health update for the OBG Management Journal and has worked with thousands of women to help them through the menopause stage of life where many experience issues with bone health. One of the ways to strengthen bone and improve your bone health during menopause is by weight bearing exercises.

 

Many patients ask if they need to worry about doing weight bearing exercises, watching their diet and general health while on hormone replacement therapy for menopause. In a word, yes. If you are smoking cigarettes, find a way to stop. If you are overeating, find a way to lose weight and keep your weight under control. There are hundreds of apps and other means of finding help to lose weight.

 

It’s old news that women can benefit from weight bearing exercise, especially during menopause. Chances are if you aren’t already doing it, it’s because you tried it and didn’t enjoy it or didn’t get the benefit you wanted in the time you gave it. Or your experience might have been like one of my patients who told me:

 

 “The weight room at my health club is filled with twenty year old muscled men pumping major iron in a testosterone feast. It’s pretty intimidating to walk in there. Even so, I’d give it a try again if it wasn’t for the fact that I need to lose twenty pounds, and have little time as it is to exercise. I understand about my bones and all, but given half an hour three times a week, I’m just more motivated to burn off the piece of pie I ate the night before than do weight training. So I go for the aerobic stuff. At least on the Stairmaster, I can read briefs etc. and burn calories.”

 

Many people confuse the suggestion to do weight bearing exercises with working out with weights. Weight bearing is not the same as weight training. The Stairmaster is weight bearing exercise. Your own weight is what you are bearing. There are certainly options beyond the weight room for women who want to gain strength, flexibility, and bone mineral density.

 

Dr Steven R. Goldstein MD is a Menopause Specialist NYC and a tenured Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at New York University School of Medicine. He is a past President of the International Menopause Society, a Certified Menopause Practitioner and a Past President of the North American Society.

 

ESTROGEN AND YOUR BONES PART 2

 

 

Dr Steven R. Goldstein is a leading Menopause Specialist in NYC who has helped his patients cope with the symptoms of menopause. This is a second part to the original article regarding “Estrogen and your Bones”. To recap – Menopause is a stage of life in women where the body stops producing estrogen (a female hormone). The tissues in a woman’s body, over 300 of them, rely on estrogen. Cholesterol levels, the brain, the heart, the bones and so on are all affected by estrogen. We also touched on bone health, that bone is living tissue, constantly having cells broken down and replaced. Calcium is vital to the body and bone, and estrogen plays a key part in the absorption of calcium and in keeping calcium levels normal. Thus, any deficiency in estrogen negatively impacts bone health.

 Which is why many women who are menopausal struggle with bone health, osteoporosis and osteopenia (wasting away of muscle). The bone disease of osteoporosis (weak or thin bones), or its precursor of low bone mass known as osteopenia, can lead to spine, wrist, and hip fracture in later years resulting from bones continually losing density and strength.

 Consider the following. The National Institutes of Health says roughly 4 in 10 white women age 50 or older in the United States will experience a hip, spine, or wrist fracture sometime during the remainder of their lives.

 More than 1.5 million bone fractures currently occur each year in US women.

 In terms of hip fractures, the rate for women is two to three times higher than that for men.

 One out of every six women will suffer a hip fracture in her lifetime, a risk equal to the combined risks of developing breast, uterine and ovarian cancer.

 Twenty percent of postmenopausal women who experience hip fractures die within one year of the injury, and fifty percent of those who survive will never walk independently again.

 Two hundred thousand women will experience a wrist fracture each year.

 Dr Steven R. Goldstein, a Menopause Specialist in NYC , is a Certified Menopause Practitioner with the North American Menopause Society and a past President of the International Menopause Society as well as a past President of the North American Menopause society. In private practice for over 25 years in New York City, Dr Goldstein has successfully helped thousands of women cope with the symptoms of menopause, osteoporosis and osteopenia.

 He also serves as the Co-Directory of Bone Densitometry and Body Composition at NYU Langone Medical Center and is an Osteoporosis Specialist in NYC where he combines his knowledge of menopause and bone density to help patients.

 If you are a woman in menopause or post-menopausal and have been told that you have osteoporosis, osteopenia or just concerned about menopause and bone health, then a consultation with Dr Goldstein may be appropriate.

 

ESTROGEN AND YOUR BONES

 

 

Dr Steven R. Goldstein is a leading Menopause Specialist in NYC who has helped thousands of women find relief from and cope with the symptoms of menopause. He also serves as the Co-Directory of Bone Densitometry and Body Composition at NYU Langone Medical Center and is an Osteoporosis Specialist in NYC where he combines his knowledge of menopause and bone density to help patients.

 It is important to remember that Menopause is not a disease, it is a stage of life that a woman will enter, during which the body stops producing estrogen. There are over 300 tissues in a woman’s body that rely on estrogen (a female hormone) so cholesterol levels, the heart, the brain, bones and more areas of the body are affected by Menopause. 

 There are 206 bones in your body. They give you support; they allow you to go about your daily activities, and they protect your vital organs. Bone marrow even manufactures new blood cells. Although we may think of bone as inert and unchanging, it is living tissue, and like all living tissue, its is constantly changing, breaking down old cells, and replacing them with new cells, resorbed as well as formed. Bone mass, which is the total amount of bone in the skeleton, is maintained in a delicate balance between the breakdown (resorption) of old bone and the formulation of new bone.

 Ninety-nine percent of the calcium in your body is stored in your bones. Calcium is vital to the body and bone. Estrogen plays a role in keeping blood calcium levels normal by aiding absorption of calcium from food as well as promoting the uptake of calcium from the blood into the bone. Therefore, after menopause, a woman’s body may lose bone faster than it can be replaced due to estrogen loss.

 Dr Goldstein, a Menopause Specialist in NYC notes that fifty percent of a woman’s bone loss occurs in the first three years following menopause. Some women lose one third of the bone mass in their spine in as little as six years after menopause. This bone loss defines osteopenia and osteoporosis. Osteoporosis affects about eight million women in America.

 Dr Steven R. Goldstein, a Menopause Specialist in NYC , is a Certified Menopause Practitioner with the North American Menopause Society and a past President of the International Menopause Society as well as a past President of the North American Menopause society. In private practice for over 25 years in New York City, Dr Goldstein has successfully helped thousands of women cope with the symptoms of menopause, osteoporosis and osteopenia.