|
|
 |
 |
|
Osteoporosis
HOST ON CAMERA INTRO
A recent study found that only 15-percent of women aged 45 and older believe they're at risk for Osteoporosis, despite the fact that they are likely to have two or more risk factors for the disease. Osteoporosis causes bones to become brittle making even the simplest daily tasks painful. The work to fight the effects of osteoporosis starts with a determination... to pursue a healthy lifestyle.
NAT SOUND - music
HOST VOICE OVER
The sound is Latin music, the class is for people over 50, the mission, for participants like Linda Schneider is to stay healthy and active. This is Zumba an aerobics class with a beat all its own.
LINDA SCHNEIDER, Patient
Dancing is something I've done all my life I was a dance major in college so I've just continued on with that. And I intend to be a dancer once a dancer always a dancer.
I have something called osteopenia, which is the step right before osteoporosis. You don't have as much bone loss but you can see the signs of bone loss.
HOST V/O
This Zumba class is sponsored by H2U an organization designed to help older people maintain a healthy and active lifestyle.
NAT BYTE
Come in.
HOST V/O
Dr. Andrew Krinsky is an OB-GYN at University Hospital in Tamarac, Florida. He says one of the first things to be explored during a patient exam is the status of skeletal bone health.
ANDREW KRINSKY, M.D./Obstetrics & Gynecology
Normal bone is a healthy living organ. And bone is constantly being built or rebuilding or being broken down or re-absorption and this process is called remodeling. Osteoporosis results when there is an abnormal balance meaning not enough bone is being built up or too much bone is being torn down.
HOST V/O
Michael Virga is a 56 year-old back packer with osteoporosis. As she walks along this scenic trail overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco with her daughter Kendall, you'd never guess that Michael recently broke her leg. It's a common injury for those with osteoporosis.
MICHAEL VIRGA, Patient
I love the solitude I love getting away from all the mechanism and it also gives a great sense of independence to be totally self-sustained.
HOST V/O
Michael has spent three decades traveling from her home in Bakersfield California to backpack the wilderness trails in state and national parks. It is a passion she's passed on to her daughter Kendall, who has been on the trails with her mother since she was an infant.
KENDALL WOOD, Patient's Daughter
I think it means a lot to her that I have something, that she's given me that. She can see a little bit of her in me when we back pack and go out and we both have a great time.
HOST V/O
Michael has been aware of the osteoporosis threat to her health most of her adult life. She watched her mother and grandmother suffer fractures and broken bones. It was on a visit to see her mother in Texas that Michael slipped on a step and broke her leg.
MICHAEL VIRGA, Patient
I had to fly across country in this full plaster leg cast to be back in California to get the bones set.
KENDALL WOOD, Patient's Daughter
It scares me a lot. It's hard for me to picture myself having a broken bone or it's really hard for me to even understand what osteoporosis is.
HOST V/O
Michael and Kendall live with the reality of osteoporosis and they're committed to educating others. With help from F.O.R.E. - the Foundation for Osteoporosis Research and Education in Oakland, California - the mission of getting information to women about the disease will be easier. Kathleen Cody is the executive director of FORE.
KATHLEEN CODY, Executive Director FORE
We find lots of women who are shocked when they finally get a bone density test and find out they are in fact at risk for osteoporosis and it doesn't have to be that way.
HOST V/O
At 51, Renea (Renée) Lacy of San Ramon, California never thought that osteoporosis could be a threat to her health. Her diet is high in calcium, she exercises regularly. But a bone density exam performed after a severe auto accident showed that she was at risk for fractures due to osteoporosis.
RENEA LACY, Patient
As far as I was concerned I should not have been a person that was at risk for osteoporosis.
There was a lot of information on the sheet but the one thing that I went to was the diagnosis that said severe osteoporosis and I wondered what in the heck happened.
HOST V/O
This is the bone density exam. The test is simple, painless, and a requirement to get the right answers about osteoporosis and bone health.
ANDREW KRINSKY, M.D./Obstetrics & Gynecology
A t-score compares a woman's, an individual patient's bone density to the average bone density of a healthy thirty-five year old. From this score we can determine what this woman's risk is of developing a hip fracture and determine what her degree of bone thinning is at this point in life.
KATHLEEN CODY, Executive Director FORE
And I go out and talk to women all the time who can tell me their blood pressure and who can tell me their cholesterol numbers but haven't got a clue about what their t-score is we'd like to see women know what their t-scores are.
HOST V/O
Michael Virga is organizing, "Hike for Osteoporosis", to raise awareness about the disease and highlight the benefits of knowing t-scores.
MICHAEL VIRGA, Patient
This idea of hike for osteoporosis in which women, especially women with osteoporosis or the potential, hike the national trails back pack and hike the national trails hoping it to be something like the walk for breast cancer, the ride for aids.
HOST V/O
Michael plans to take her message to women throughout the country. She believes bone health is too important to ignore.
HOST ON CAMERA TAG
Quality of life is what Osteo-prevention is all about. Postmenopausal women younger than 65 with one or more risk factors, and all women OVER the age of age of 65, should have a bone density exam, and they should get a printed report of their t-scores for their records. Also, if you or someone you know has osteoporosis, consider contacting a local health service agency. Most have a prevention program to help make homes safer from accidental falls. These are just some of the first steps to take in order to protect yourself from bone fractures due to osteoporosis.
|
|
|
