ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, February 27, 1996 TAG: 9602270070
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 4 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Health Notes
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY
Doctors routinely peer into your eyes and learn things about your general health. Now, they can look at an X-ray of a heel and get a reading of the density of your bone structure.
The information makes it possible to predict who has the highest risks for bone fractures. It also gives the patient information early enough to try to offset bone loss, which can lead to crippling osteoporosis.
Women have a variety of ways, ranging from weightlifting to medication, to fight off bone loss, said Dr. Richard Eckert of the Orthopedic Surgery of Roanoke P.C.
The Orthopedic Surgery in Roanoke and The Arthritis Center at Columbia Lewis-Gale Clinic in Salem are advertising testing services for BMD, or Bone Mineral Density, as part of an effort by Merck Sharp and Dohme drug company to increase awareness of osteoporosis.
Merck makes a drug, Fosamax, that slows bone loss, so there's no mystery about why it is sponsoring the advertising. Participating medical groups stand to gain some business, too. But their interests don't negate the value of a woman's knowing her potential for late-life fractures so she can search for ways to prevent them.
Osteoporosis most often affects women and usually women who are post-menopausal.
But it doesn't strike all women.
The Orthopedic Surgery's BMD X-ray equipment is portable. When Eckert recently took it on a field trip to a local adult-care home, he found women in their 80s and 90s who had no signs of osteoporosis.
And some who did.
The testing procedure is simple, he said. You put your heel in water for five minutes while an X-ray source takes a picture of it. Information from that picture holds clues to your bone mineral density.
If bone loss is found, there are ways to slow it down, Eckert said.
In addition to Fosamax, there's a new medical treatment - Miacalcin nasal spray from Sandoz Pharmaceuticals Corp. - that is recommended for women who are more than five years post-menopausal and have low bone mass. It is a synthetic form of the hormone calcitonin. It previously was available only in injection form. The spray is to be used in conjunction with vitamin D and calcium supplements, according to Sandoz.
Exercise, especially weightlifting, also can be effective in warding off bone loss, said both Eckert and Dr. Garry Bayliss of The Arthritis Center.
"Too often, medications are seen as a solution," Bayliss said.
Bayliss and his colleagues at Lewis-Gale use a sophisticated dual energy X-ray absorptiopter to measure hip and lower-spine bone density and get a reading on a woman's, or man's, potential for osteoporosis.
The test is recommended especially for women who are near menopause age and are not comfortable with taking replacement hormone therapy, Bayliss said. Hormone therapy is the most frequent deterrent to bone loss in the early years after menopause.
But if a woman doesn't want or can't take hormones, a BMD test now can give doctors a base line from which to judge later tests as the woman ages. Doctors will be able to see if bone density is stable or deteriorating. If the bone starts to break down, then the woman can think about treatment options.
Bone is made up of osteoblasts, which build bone, and osteoclasts, which tear it down. Any treatment against osteoporosis is designed to slow down the osteoclasts, Bayliss explained.
If you want to know if the "blasts" or the "clasts" are winning, you should talk to your primary care physician about the possibility of a BMD test.
`Sandwich' problems
If you're caught in the middle - between elderly parents and your children - trying to meet the demands of everyone can bum you out. The Rev. Janet L. Ramsey, a counselor with the Center for Family Counseling, will discuss "The Sandwich Generation: Coping with the Stresses of Caregiving" Thursday at the Jefferson Center Training Theater, which is on the Luck Avenue side of the Jefferson Center on Campbell Avenue near downtown Roanoke.
Tickets to the 7 p.m. talk cost $5 and can be bought at the door. If you want more information on the event, call the Mental Health Association of Roanoke Valley at 344-0931.
You can reach Sandra Brown Kelly at 981-3393 or through electronic mail at sandrakinfi.net
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