Cure Your Hot Flashes, Strengthen Your Bones

Osteoporosis is the result of many factors, when combined with genetic factors is the end result on your bones potentially making you have chronic pain and fractures. Smoking, hot flashes, and even weight loss can cause bone loss. Many women at risk do not even know they are at risk for bone loss. It may be worse for your bones to have hot flashes than even to smoke! The more a woman had hot flashes the worse (lower) her bone mass was according to a journal of Clinical Endocrinology article written by Dr. Carolyn Crandall of UCLA. 85% of all women report night sweats, and they are due to reduced levels of estrogen.The reasons we should not ignore hot flashes based on bone health has been shown in other studies. Women who have night sweats and hot flashes are also at risk for low bone mass according to the research on 5600 women in the Eindhoven Perimenopausal Osteoporosis study as well as the SWAN study on over 2200 women. What we don't know yet is whether we have to also cure the hot flashes when addressing treatment for low bone mass. For women diagnosed with osteoporosis treatment usually meant taking a bisphosphonate. In fact about 85% of women with osteoporosis have been treating their bones with one of the drugs in this class of which Fosamax is the most commonly prescribed. Now the FDA has confirmed that the rare but specific atypical fractures of the thigh bone seen in these patients may not be due to bone disease, but to the use of these medicines. Read more at the FDA site. There are many ways to treat both your hot flashes can be successful in both preventing bone loss and preventing fractures according to the study of WHI and data on the new medication Duavee. Specifically the fewer numbers of hot flashes the better the bone density once treatment got started. Effective therapy could be shown over two years with their DXA results, and more immediately with markers of bone turnover. And those who responded quickly at 12 weeks were likely to have the best effects at 2 years, and this could be demonstrated by the biggest reduction in bone marker turnover in the urine. So your gyno no longer has to guess the effectiveness of your hormone treatments on your bones, but can test your urine to check effectiveness. Same too, those with very early menopausal hot flashes should see their gyno for preventative strategies against bone loss as they will be the women at most risk later in life. Weight loss can cause a woman to lose up to 10% of bone mass, as even a few lost pounds can result in a 1 loss of bone.