About eight million women and two million men in the United States have osteoporosis. Osteoporosis is a degenerative disease in which your bones can’t produce healthy new bone cells as quickly as they lose the old, dead ones. The result is bones that are more porous and fragile, which puts you at risk for fracture.
Even if you don’t have osteoporosis, you may have osteopenia, which means your bones are less dense than optimal. One of the mechanisms behind bone loss is the decline in hormone levels that occurs as people age.
For men, the main hormone for bone health is testosterone. For women, it’s estrogen. However, both hormones are important for both sexes.
At Enrich Family Practice, in Odessa, Texas, we’re dedicated to healthy aging. That’s why our nurse practitioners, Kelly Burrows, APRN FNP-C, and Lee Ann Garza, FNP, offer hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for women and men, when appropriate.
Can HRT keep your bones strong or even make them stronger? Read on to find out.
Perimenopause and menopause are triggered when your body stops producing optimal levels of the hormone estrogen, as well as other sex hormones. Estrogen not only helps regulate your menstrual cycle, but it also affects your bone health, due to the presence of estrogen receptors on your bones.
During youth and young adulthood, estrogen maintains your bone mass by replacing old bone cells as soon as they’re needed. Your body also uses this hormone to repair and remodel bones during times of stress, including the chosen stress of mechanical overload (e.g., weightlifting).
As you approach and enter menopause, the lack of estrogen can send your body into a panic mode, triggering hot flashes, insomnia, and forgetfulness. That lack also means your bones don’t get the stimulation they need to stay strong.
Since the drop in estrogen and declining bone remodeling go hand-in-hand, doctors often prescribe estrogen to help preserve bone mass as well as eliminate the other uncomfortable symptoms of menopause. Researchers have demonstrated that HRT reduces the risk of hip and spine fractures in women, as well as other types of fractures.
In men, estrogen also keeps their bones strong. When you enter a phase of life sometimes referred to as “andropause,” estrogen levels drop. So do the levels of a key “male” hormone called testosterone. In fact, one reason that estrogen drops is that men use testosterone to produce estrogen.
Plummeting testosterone accounts for many of the complaints that men have as they age, including low libido, erectile dysfunction (ED), and irritability. Plummeting testosterone also weakens your bones.
Men with low testosterone (i.e., hypogonadism) are at increased risk for bone fractures. When men with osteoporosis or osteopenia take testosterone HRT, their bones get stronger. However, the effect on fracture risk is not as clear as it is in women.
While HRT alone improves bone density in both sexes and reduces fracture risk in women, we encourage you to do more than come to us for an HRT pellet to optimize your hormones. If you want truly strong bones, a strong body and mind, and maximal health, you must adopt permanent lifestyle changes, too.
Weight lifting and other forms of resistance training are essential for healthy bones. When you subject your bones to mechanical overload by lifting heavy weights (including your own body weight), your body is stimulated to produce new bone cells to accommodate the extra stress.
In addition, weight lifting and resistance training make your muscles stronger and denser. Those muscles now put stress on your bones even when they’re at rest, helping to maintain muscle mass between workout sessions.
If you’ve been putting off changing your diet from quick, easy, palatable junk foods to whole foods, bone health may be just the incentive you need. Your body needs the calcium and other minerals that come from pastured meats and organic vegetables to build healthy bones.
You also need to get outside more to increase your levels of vitamin D. Improve your sleep, so your body can get rid of dead bone cells and build new ones, too. And of course, quit smoking and minimize alcohol.
If you’re ready to protect your bones and make them stronger with HRT and lifestyle interventions, call us today at 432-200-9052. You can also reach out to us with our online form.
