HEALTH

‘Take milk, keep away osteoporosis’
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, February 23
“Osteoporosis is common among not only the poor, but also the affluent, due to sedantry lifestyle and wrong food habits,” said Dr S.C. Ahuja, Principal, Professor and Chief of Orthopaedics in Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, at the 33rd Health Lecturer on Osteoporosis here yesterday.

Dr Ahuja said the intake of junk food like cold drinks, noodles and chips was replacing the consumption of milk, a rich source of calcium, which was damaging the bones of children, who, later, suffered from osteoporosis. “Parents should inculcate among children the habit of taking two glasses of milk a day. Osteoporosis is a silent thief that aggravates old age, but has its foundations laid in the childhood,” he said.

“Oseoporosis is painless till there is a fracture and then there is backache, hunched back, gradual loss of height and brittle bones due to a low bone mass. Even from age 20 to 30, if one maintains an adequate bone mass by taking good diet, one can be free of osteoporosis in old age.”

“About 65 million Indians suffer from it and about 23 lakh are added to this figure each year. Asian women are more prone to it and 30 per cent menopausal women suffer from this,” said Dr Ahuja. “Calcium, Vitamin D, bone matrix, trace elements are important for healthy bones. There were two types of osteoporosis — ‘post menopausal’ that occurs in women from the age 50 to 70, and causes the fracture of the spine and estrogen disorder and ‘senile’ that is also common in women from the age 50 to 70 and causes the fracture of the hip and the spine.”

“Common causes of osteoporosis are smoking, alcohol, poor calcium intake, sedantry lifestyle, junk food, vitamin deficiency and excess of intake. Per day, a child and an adolescent require 1,200-1,500 mg of calcium, those between 20-30 years require 1,000 mg and pregnant and lactating females require 1,500 mg of it. Intake of green leafy vegetables, buffalo’s milk and its products, sardine fish, cheese, ‘methi’, salad, cod liver oil, exposure to the sun for 30 minutes a day and physical exercise from childhood can prevent osteoporosis.”

He also talked about the diagnosis and treatment of the disease, which he said was difficult to treat in old age.

Dr G.S. Wander, Chief Cardiologist of Hero DMC Heart Institute, had introduced Dr S.C. Ahuja to the audience.