Reversing Osteopenia

Book excerpt: Osteoporosis, which afflicts more than half of all American women over the age of fifty, is a widespread and all-too-familiar problem. Osteopenia, a milder bone-loss disease that is the forerunner of osteoporosis, is less well known but affects an estimated eighteen million young and middle-aged women-including women in their late teens and early twenties. Since many doctors associate low bone density exclusively with postmenopausal women, millions of women in their childbearing years suffer from undetected bone loss, putting them at risk for debilitating fractures down the road. In Reversing Osteopenia, Dr. Harris H. McIlwain and his two daughters, also rheumatologists, fill the knowledge gap about this easily diagnosable disease, help younger women recognize the risk factors for bone loss, and provide a five-step program for controlling and even preventing bone loss. Their age-specific recommendations for women in their twenties, thirties, forties, and fifties include - exercises that strengthen rather than threaten your bones - new information about foods that build bone density - ways to avoid medicines that rob bones of their strength - recommendations of natural dietary supplements.--from publisher description.