It’s time to get these skeletons out of the closet
Osteoporosis is a National Health Priority that affects more than 1.2 million Australians. A further 6.3 million Australians have low bone density*. The burden of poor bone health is enormous both in terms of its impact on quality of life and costs to the health care system.
- 1 in 3 Aussie skeletons have poor bone health
- In Australia there is currently 1 bone broken every 3.6 minutes due to poor bone health. That’s 395 broken bones per day.
- 1 in 3 people with osteoporosis are men
At the moment there is no known cure for Osteoporosis but it can be treated and in many cases prevented. The problem is that most people don’t know enough about bone health. A recent study found that 1 in 4 respondents could not mention a single risk factor for Osteoporosis, only 1 in 3 people surveyed recognised the need for regular exercise, and just 7% were able to cite vitamin D/sunshine as an important factor**. Less than half of all Australia adults get their daily recommended intake of calcium.
Awareness and prevention is extremely important and continued research is necessary. The time that you can make the biggest impact on whether you develop osteoporosis later in life is while you are young.