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In This Issue:
Skeletal Health Across the Ages Symposium
The Surgeon General says that Americans need to do much more to protect their bone health at all ages. The 2004 Surgeon General’s Report on Bone Health and Osteoporosis is the guide that provides Americans with the very latest on skeletal health. It’s no wonder report planners called upon BWH’s Meryl LeBoff, MD, as an osteoporosis expert.
LeBoff, director of the Skeletal Health and Osteo-porosis Center and Bone Density Unit, served as a contributing writer, specifically focusing on vitamin D and how it relates to bone health. “Bone is built during adolescence and peaks before the age of 30,” she said. “Vitamin D deficiency can have skeletal effects and is associated with increased chance of fractures, falls, colorectal cancer, multiple sclerosis and muscle pain,” added LeBoff, who serves on the central Calcium Vitamin D and Osteoporosis Committee for the Women’s Health Initiative. In New England, deficiency is greatest in the fall and winter months because of the limited ultraviolet light (a common source of vitamin D) from the sun.
By 2020, half of all Americans over 50 years of age will have weak bones unless they make changes to their diet and lifestyle. According to LeBoff, 44 million Americans have osteoporosis or low bone mass that increases their chance of fractures and the number of affected Americans is expected to reach 52 million by the year 2010 .
To view the report, visit http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/bonehealth.