Prevention is better than cure

THIS is a common daily routine: get up and gobble down some semblance of breakfast. Then spend the next hour or so trying to get to work on time. For the next eight hours, sit staring at your laptop. Before you know it, you are heading home. The day ends with a slouch on the couch with the promise of another equally long day tomorrow. We are the sedentary generation. Research has found that a majority of Malaysians spend 74% of their day performing sedentary activities, such as sitting, sleeping or lying down.

This alarming number can be attributed to a few factors surrounding the current lifestyle of a 21st century woman who works long hours with little time left to engage in physical activities or practise healthy dietary habits.

While there is a growing awareness of consuming and engaging in healthy choices, there is still a lack of effort to live an active lifestyle and practise good nutritional habits.

Most Malaysian women only get 50% of their daily calcium needs and about 9% of Malaysian women do adequate exercise.

What does this entail for the remaining 91%?

A sedentary lifestyle can lead to serious health problems: cardiovascular diseases, obesity and diabetes. However, do you know that a sedentary lifestyle may lead to poor bone health?

Many women in Malaysia are under the illusion that osteoporosis will not affect them as they are young, not realising that bones may start to deteriorate from as early as the age of 30.

Unfortunately, it is a “silent disease” as we do not realise, feel or see the effect. We are unaware that our bones break down everyday and thus, we need adequate physical activity and nutrition to protect our bone strength.

Many continue to believe that bone-related diseases are not fatal compared with cardiovascular diseases and cancer, but recent research has shown that women in their mid- to late-60s who break a hip are five times more likely to die within a year.

The statistics are scary and real: by 2050, over 50% of all hip fractures will occur in Asia. Osteoporosis is more likely to affect Asian women. This could be due to the lower body mass index and shorter height among the Asian population.

Due to the rising cost of treatment, the only method to combat bone deterioration is through a prevention strategy that includes getting a significant amount of Vitamin D, adopting an active lifestyle and consuming high-calcium food such as drinking high-calcium milk (such as Anlene) to fulfil the daily calcium requirement.

These steps should be taken now, in order to protect bone strength.

When it comes to bone health, prevention really is better than cure especially when bone deterioration may be happening as early as your 30s.

So, to women out there, it is crucial that you take charge of your bone health; start loading up on your calcium!

Look out for Anlene at The Star Health Fair.