The importance of bone health

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Alive and Kicking with Clare McKenna 11 min 2 speakers 8 chapters transcribed 1 month ago

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Why is bone health becoming a hot topic for aging women?

Clare McKenna 0:01

Alive and kicking with Claire McKenna on News Talk. Now we hear a lot more these days about the importance of bone health, particularly as we age, and women are at a higher risk of osteopenia and osteoporosis. Annette Cashel is a bone health coach prescribing movement as one of our most powerful tools, and she joins me in studio now. Annette, you're very welcome.

Annette Cashel 0:26

Thanks, Claire. Thanks for having me.

Clare McKenna 0:28

And we should say from the outset, obviously when we say prescribing movement, that's alongside medical professionals and medication if that is what is needed. But tell us a little bit about you and and how you came to be a bone health coach.

Annette Cashel 0:41

Um, I guess it's a personal story. So, um my background is I worked in IT for ten years and then I became a Pilates teacher because of back problems that I had. I thought I had my knife sorted, I was a Platase teacher, I'd never have another health issue in my life. So when I was diagnosed with osteopenia, which is a form of bone loss, I was pretty shocked 'cause I thought I was doing everything right.

Clare McKenna 1:01

And what age were you in that diagnosis came?

Annette Cashel 1:04

Okay. Forty seven, yeah. But I thought I was doing everything right. I was, you know, a fitness instructor, I had a good diet, all these things. So it forced me to look into a little bit deeper into maybe what I was doing wrong and what had been my ki I guess the blind spots I had in my practice.

Clare McKenna 1:20

Okay. And what are the reasons?

How did Annette’s personal journey lead her to become a bone‑health coach?

Clare McKenna 1:23

What what can lead to bone loss?

Annette Cashel 1:25

There are lots of risk factors. You could um have history of anorexia or dieting, you could be on certain medications that are steroid based or thyroid medicine or maybe cancer treatments. So there's lots of different risk factors going on, but I had none of those. So it forced me to look at the bigger picture and I realised that even though I was exercising, I wasn't exercising smart, the way that really had an impact on my bones.

Clare McKenna 1:48

And what is the setup of our our bones and our our bone health?

Annette Cashel 1:53

Okay. So I guess if I define osteoporosis is to begin with, osteoporosis is a disease that makes your bones weak and brittle and prone to fracture. It doesn't mean they will fracture, but you're more likely to break a bone if you fall, for example. And we tend to focus on the bone density number, the number you get in your Dexus scan, your T score, but it also is a change in the architecture of your bone. So two people who could have the same DEX score, but have a very Different fracture risk depending on the risk factors in their life. For example, you might have minus two in your hip, and another person might have minus two on their hip. But that other person maybe has terrible balance, has a terrible diet, has smoked all their lives, is an alcoholic, their risk of breaking a bone is way higher than yours if you have great balance, good diet, moving, never smoked, you know?

Annette Cashel 2:40

So it's not as clear cut as focusing on that one number from your DEXA scan. And can you more nuance than that?

Clare McKenna 2:45

Can you explain to people who might not know what a DEXA scan is? Yes.

Annette Cashel 2:47

Yes, absolutely. So DEXA scan is an X-ray scan that looks at the quantity of your bone. It takes a picture of your bone and it gives you a number. And the numbers then what we focus on because that's the only data that we have. It doesn't tell us about the quality of the bone. So you get the quality of the bone information from another scan called REMS or EMS, which is not in Ireland as far as I know. Um but there there is a ways to get REM scans um in Ireland, but there's nothing nationwide available.

What are the main risk factors that can cause bone loss?

Annette Cashel 3:14

Um the REM scan is a three D picture and the DEX is a two D. So you can imagine that three D picture will be much better for your bones than two D. But at the moment the gold standard is DEXA. So when you do a DEXA scan, which is painless and takes a few minutes, you get a number. And we want to improve that number if you are in the osteoporosis or osteopenia range.

Clare McKenna 3:33

And a DEXA scan isn't necessarily available to everyone. It gives us very valuable information about our lean muscle mass and our bone health, but people only really get access to it later in life.