Women Ignorant of Bone Issues

75% of women are ignorant of bone issues and are not taking dietary supplements, said experts. The preliminary report emerged from a ’Bone Mineral Densitometry Osteoporosis Detection’ camp organised by the 88-year-old Mumbai Obstetric & Gynecological Society (MOGS) as part of the World Osteoporosis Day on Wednesday.

"This was the biggest-ever free camp of its kind in the country and we examined over 4,000 women patients for bone mineral density at 38 locations in Mumbai. A tentative analysis has thrown up some disturbing facts which the medical fraternity should take strong note of," MOGS President Dr. Niranjan Chavan told IANS.

What Every Woman Should Know About Bone Health

"The bigger concern was that a staggering 75 percent of all the women patients had virtually no knowledge of bone diseases or any dietary supplements to curb them, while the rest (25 percent) were partly aware and already taking Calcium and Vitamin D supplements, besides sticking to a proper and nutritional diet," said Dr. Chavan.

Surprisingly, a majority of the ignoramus patients (91.2 percent) were well-educated -- 41.2 percent are either graduates or pursuing a degree course, 28.9 are secondary school level pass-outs - while 17.3 percent had acquired primary education and only the remaining 8.8 percent were illiterates.

"In such a scenario of wide-spread ignorance even among the literate classes, it’s imperative for the general practitioners (family doctors) to step in, recommend bone mineral densitometry (BMD) tests -- at least every 3-4 years for people above 40 -- prescribe Calcium and Vitamin D supplements in addition to the regular B-Complex tablets," urged Dr. Chavan.

With the theme of ’Vision For HER - Heal Her, Educate Her & Respect Her’, the MOGS head said the aim of the camp was to screen the Vitamin D levels in the bones of women in all age groups, different academic, social and economic backgrounds to ascertain the calcium levels in their body which is critical for strong and healthy bones.

Department of Medical Education & Research Director Dr. Dilip Mhaisekar, who is also former Vice-Chancellor of Maharashtra University of Health Sciences felicitated the MOGS team and 38 centres convenors on Thursday where the findings of the camp were also shared.

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Dr. Komal Chavan added that the entire data collected will be thoroughly analyzed by expert teams and later submitted to national and international medical journals for the attention of the larger medical fraternity.

Source-IANS