Good bones

[redbird]

Some days, there are free bagels or salads in the office dining room. Today, there were free bone density screenings.

It was a fairly simple procedure: a form with a handful of questions (including age, sex, whether you're taking three specific medications, whether you eat a lot of dairy, whether you regularly do aerobic exercise, and whether you have blue eyes*), and then an X-ray of your middle finger. The person doing the tests asked me for "the hand you don't use", which I translated as "your non-dominant hand", because of course I use both.

I have healthy bones: well above average, in fact. I commented that this was probably because I lift weights, and the screener said that was likely. (I was half-expecting to be advised to start taking more calcium, at least.) Afterwards, I realized: I lift weights, I walk a lot, and I'm fat**. Of course I have good bone density.

*I hadn't known this, but apparently blue eyes are a known risk factor for osteoporosis.
**The form didn't mention this, but lifelong thinness is also a risk factor for osteoporosis.

Comments

[crazysoph.livejournal.com]

Yup, I've also heard, the exercise stimulates the bones to absorb more calcium, and to also generate more cells that build more bone-structure.

I'm intrigued that they ask for a measurement from the off-hand. Just so the baseline is as close to "problem" as possible, so that the test errs on the side of caution?

I've wondered what those travelling "bone test clinics" do. (Talking past you kightp to our hostess, redbird, sorry!) A few years back, I ordered a bone scan for myself, for future reference. Quite a production, but with computers the images were available immediately after, so the consultant could discuss specifics of the two sites they X-rayed, the hip and the lower back.

Crazy(and when I go, surely won't be from a broken hip...)Soph