Osteoporosis?!
Question: At what age should a woman start taking an osteroporosis pill (Boniva etc.)? Do you have to wait until you are diagnosed with osteoporosis before you take something or can you take it before it develops?
Answers: At what age should a woman start taking an osteroporosis pill (Boniva etc.)? Do you have to wait until you are diagnosed with osteoporosis before you take something or can you take it before it develops?
Prevention for osteoporosis can begin as early as adolescence. Up until you turn 30, your body is developing its bone density, and the better it is, chances are you will have less problems with osteoporosis in later life (but it is not guaranteed).
Drugs such as Boniva are designed to be used specifically only after the menopause has occurred.
There are quite a few options available to help prevent osteoporosis (links are below). Of course, for more detailed advice, I'd recommend seeing your own doctor.
In osteoporosis, the inside of the bones becomes porous from a loss of calcium (see the picture below). This is called losing bone mass. Over time, this weakens the bones and makes them more likely to break.
Osteoporosis is much more common in women than in men. This is because women have less bone mass than men, tend to live longer and take in less calcium, and need the female hormone estrogen to keep their bones strong. If men live long enough, they are also at risk of getting osteoporosis later in life.
Once total bone mass has peaked