2/5/2006 - Osteoporosis affects older men as well as women

Gut Feeling columnist Jeff Leech discusses the threat osteoporosis poses to elderly men, who often overlook their own vulnerability because of widespread belief that osteoporosis is a "woman's disease."

• If you are someone who thinks osteoporosis is a "women's disease," think again.
• Most folks are aware that osteoporosis is characterized by bone fragility and related to dietary intake of calcium, or the lack of.
• Simply put - calcium is used to build bones and to a lesser extent, teeth.
• Your peak bone mass - which again, you can only control until your mid twenties - will strongly influence your risk of osteoporosis later in life.
• While you are older and wiser, the efficiency at which your body absorbs calcium in later years, like some many things associated with aging, isn't what it used to be.
• Despite the fact that we are confronted daily with the "eat more calcium" message for "healthy bones" on TV, in newspapers and magazines, on annoying billboards, and along the isles of our favorite grocery store, nearly 70% of Americans consume less than the daily recommended allowance of 1,000 mg of calcium a day - give or take.
• Our daily intake may in fact be lower when you consider that, depending on our particular genetic makeup and the composition of a given meal, our bodies may in fact only absorb 30-35% of the total calcium advertised for a given serving.
• Calcium that is not absorbed is mostly excreted in our urine and feces, which brings up an important issue - and the point of why I am writing this column on osteoporosis - bioavailability.
• One way of doing this is to lower the pH of your gastrointestinal system by delivering food to the trillions of tiny bacteria that live in your colon.
• Once in the colon, fiber is broken down by the bacteria through a process called fermentation, which produces, among other things, short chain fatty acids and lactic acid.
  
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Two dietary supplements shown to relieve knee pain

At the annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology, research was presented that confirmed the effectiveness of dietary supplements glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate in relieving knee pains associated with osteoarthritis.

• It's official: Two dietary supplements that millions of senior citizens and baby boomers already swear by for creaky knees finally have some real science behind them.
• Glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate, taken together, may help reduce moderate to severe knee pain caused by osteoarthritis, the leading cause of disability in the United States, according to research to be presented this week at the American College of Rheumatology's annual meeting in San Diego.
• Manufacturers, who sold $734 million worth of glucosamine/chondroitin last year in this country, have eagerly awaited the results of the first large-scale, rigorously designed clinical trial of the supplements to be funded by the federal government rather than private industry.
• Many consumers and mainstream physicians likely will agree, at least for glucosamine/chondroitin, hyped as The Arthritis Cure in Jason Theodosakis' 1997 bestseller.
• Havertown orthopedic surgeon Nicholas A. DiNubile, a knee specialist, insists there is no cure for arthritis.
• But he takes glucosamine/chondroitin for a stubborn teenage football injury and recommends it for 1,000 of his patients.
• The typical daily dose is 1,500 milligrams of glucosamine and 1,200 milligrams of chondroitin sulfate.
• Schumacher, too, takes glucosamine/chondroitin - for knees battered by decades of basketball.
• The study showed that celecoxib reduced knee pain to a lesser extent, but Schumacher recommends the supplements over Celebrex, which carries warnings about possible cardiovascular and gastrointestinal problems.
• One somewhat surprising study result was that 60 percent of patients given a placebo reported pain relief, twice the typical placebo rate in most clinical trials.
• The disease is caused by the progressive breakdown of cartilage, the body's shock absorber, a slippery connective tissue that cushions the ends of bones within the joints.
• In an interview, Phillips said he had not noticed any difference in his knee pain during that time but that, given the study's results, he might start taking glucosamine/chondroitin.