March is National Nutrition Month, an excellent opportunity to review how our diet affects our bone health. You can learn to make healthier meal choices every day by understanding how to incorporate foods that are rich in calcium, vitamin D and other essential nutrients into your diet.
Developing a Bone-Health Action Plan
After years of managing a consistent health regimen that included things like good nutrition, appropriate supplements and regular exercise, Theresa Reagan found out this past fall that she has osteoporosis. While she allowed herself the space to feel sad and upset, she also quickly made up her mind to take this challenge head on. As we start the new year, we can’t help but feel inspired by her optimism, focus and dedication to finding a positive path forward. Listen to how she dealt with her initial diagnosis and then developed an action plan for her bone health.
Exercise and Safe Movement for Bone Health
In this episode of Bone Talk, we are pleased to welcome Sherri Betz, a member of the NOF Ambassadors Leadership Council. Sherri is a physical therapist, Pilates teacher, and geriatric certified specialist. She specializes in exercise for older adults and teaches community-based classes for osteoporosis, balance, and fall prevention. In the beginning of her career, she became inspired by a physical therapist she worked with which led her to pursue a degree in physical therapy.
Surprising Ways Menopause Affects Your Body
Most women are familiar with the more common symptoms of menopause, like hot flashes, sleepless nights and mood swings, but it is so much more than that. It changes everything, often in surprising ways. Dr. Mary Jane Minkin, a women’s health expert, joins us for a deep dive on how menopause affects women, head to toe, inside and out, in ways that most women don’t even think about.
Your Brain and Your Body: How Menopause Can Change Everything
Menopause changes everything. Not only do many women experience some of the more common – but temporary – symptoms of menopause, like hot flashes and mood swings, but there are some surprising ways menopause impacts our bodies in much deeper ways. We know, for example, that bones can get thinner and weaker with the drops in estrogen, and just about everything gets drier. But menopause affects our brain health and functioning in ways we are only starting to understand.
World Osteoporosis Day 2020: Shining a Spotlight on Osteoporosis as a Family Affair
This podcast episode is created in support of World Osteoporosis Day, commemorated annually on October 20. The theme for World Osteoporosis Day 2020 will shine a spotlight on osteoporosis as a “family affair” with caregivers often providing the majority of care and the disease ultimately affecting multiple generations. We are thrilled to have a delightful and impressive mother/daughter team with us. Their story is engaging and inspiring indeed.
Bone Health and Menopause: What's the Connection?
October is National Menopause Awareness Month, an opportunity to educate women about changes that can occur in the body during this phase of life. The average age of menopause is 51 and can bring on hormonal fluctuations and hot flashes, among other things. During this time, declining estrogen levels can cause bone loss, in turn increasing your risk of osteoporosis. In this episode, we are pleased to be speaking with Dr. Sharon Allison-Ottey about the connection between bone health, menopause and osteoporosis.
Vertebral Compression Fractures: Pain Management and Treatment Options
Join Claire Gill, CEO of the National Osteoporosis Foundation, as she hosts Dr. Eric Wise and Karen Lake in this episode of Bone Talk. Dr. Wise is an expert in minimally invasive spine care and interventional pain management, as well as a board-certified Diplomat of the American Board of Anesthesiology. Dr. Wise currently practices at Northeast Pain Management in Bangor, Maine. Karen is a patient of Northeast Pain Management and resident of Maine.
Caregiving Challenges During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Available Resources and Support
More than 53 million Americans care for a friend or family member with a disability or health care need. The COVID-19 pandemic has magnified the fact that our institutions are not prepared to support family caregivers. Many caregivers are “sandwiched” between caring for an aging parent or older adult while also raising children. In this episode, we discuss caregiving challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and provide information on support and resources available.
Things You Should Know About Bone Strength and Spinal Health
Did you know that broken bones of the spine are the most common type of fractures in people with osteoporosis? In this episode, National Osteoporosis Foundation CEO Claire Gill interviews Dr. Tom Schuler, president of the National Spine Health Foundation and CEO and founder of the Virginia Spine Institute. They discuss the relationship between overall bone health and spinal health while offering useful tips on some of the most important things people can do at every stage of life to protect their spine.
Active Aging and the Critical Importance of Bone Health
The National Osteoporosis Foundation is excited to once again be named as an official charity partner of the 2020 TCS New York City Marathon – which will celebrate its 50th anniversary on November 1. To commemorate this milestone year, NOF has recruited dedicated women over the age of 50 to join its ‘Be Bone Strong’ team. The team is committed to showcasing the critical importance of bone health in active aging.
Top Research in the Field of Osteoporosis
How to Eat to Stay Bone Strong All Year Long
Recognizing and using the power of hope to cope with illness and help us heal
Osteoporosis and Parkinson’s
Menopause Part 3: Menopause and Sex
Every day, approximately 6,000 women in the U.S. reach menopause. By 2020, 50 million women will be postmenopausal, and because we are all living longer, most of us will spend over half our lives as a postmenopausal woman! In this third and final episode of our series on menopause and bone health, we discuss what happens to our bodies when we go through menopause, the impact it may have on your sexual life and why you may not need to put sex on the back burner after all.
Menopause Part 2: Menopause, hormone therapy, and bone health—what’s the deal?
Hormone therapy can help ease the symptoms of menopause, but it’s got a bad rap thanks to a study released in 2002. The flawed study caused many healthcare professionals to cease prescribing hormone treatment, but in recent years it has begun working its way back into the good graces of the medical community. With so much information (and mis-information) out there, it can be hard to know what’s right for you. In this episode—part two of our three part series on menopause and bone health—bone and women’s health expert Dr. Margaret Nachtigall explains what hormone therapy is, the current recommendations around it, and what questions you should be asking your healthcare provider to know what’s right for you.
Menopause Part 1: Protecting strong bones before, during and after menopause–what you need to know
Menopause: it’s a hot topic that’s about so much more than just hot flashes! In part one of this three part series, NOF bone health ambassador, Barbara Hannah Grufferman, sits down with Dr. Margaret Nachtigall, highly regarded reproductive endocrinologist, and Clinical Associate Professor within the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Division Reproductive Endocrine at NYU Langone Health, to discuss how women can create strong bones before, during and after menopause.
Improving the Treatment Pathway for Vertebral Compression Fractures
Is it a pulled muscle, or a vertebral compression fracture? Vertebral compression fractures can sometimes be painless, but are still a significant risk to overall health. So how do we diagnose and treat something we may not even know we have? In this episode, Dr. Douglas P. Beall, Chief of Radiology Services at Clinical Radiology of Oklahoma, sits down with NOF CEO, Elizabeth Thompson to discuss.
Strides in Osteoporosis Treatment and Medicine Part Two: A Focus on the Newest Treatment: Evenity™
In Part One of our two-part series on “Strides in Osteoporosis Treatment and Medicine,” Dr. Felicia Cosman shared information on the types of medications and treatments currently available to osteoporosis patients. In Part Two, Dr. Greenspan sits down with Dr. Cosman again -- this time to address Evenity™, (Romosozumab), a drug that has made headlines for doing what no other osteoporosis medication can do: build new bone while also slowing bone loss. But like all medications, it has its warnings and side effects. In this episode, Dr. Cosman helps us understand its risks and benefits, and how to work with your healthcare provider to know if Evenity™ is right for you.