Experts warn of 'silent disease' affecting American men: Here's what it is
Tired of too many ads? go ad free now
Something similar seems to be happening right now with American men who according to experts are unaware of developing a 'silent disease' that makes their bones brittle and weak.
According to the National Spine Health Foundation, some 2 million US men are suffering from this slow-developing disease. Another 16 million have osteopenia, which is pre-osteoporosis or mild osteoporosis.
One may think that with such a widespread diagnosis of the disease, men would be aware of the disease and be concerned about its diagnosis.
But no, as per a survey commissioned by The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, only 1% of men are concerned about low bone density.
In men 65 years and older, falls are the leading cause of injuries and injury-related deaths. If bone density and strength are low, even a minor fall could result in fractures.
'Unfortunately, there are no warning signs before it presents with a fracture,' Dr Paul Lewis, an interventional radiologist at Wexner, told The Post about osteoporosis.
What is Osteoporosis?
Image credits: Getty Images
The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases defines
as a bone disease that develops when the mineral density and bone mass decrease or when the structure and strength of the bones change. This increases the risk of fractures. It is called a silent disease as it has no prominent symptoms for identification.
How to prevent Osteoporosis ?
Image credits: Getty Images
However, there are ways the expert suggests one can prevent the disease. As per Lewis, there are four ways to prevent osteoporosis.
Tired of too many ads? go ad free now
Firstly, men must begin discussing testosterone with their doctor from the age of 30. With age, testosterone decreases and that contributes to weaker bones and a higher risk of osteoporosis in men.
Secondly, physical exercise is a must as it improves balance. He recommends weight-bearing exercises like walking, hiking, stair climbing, resistance training with weights or bands or yoga.
'Some exercises can combine into helping your heart as well, such as pickleball, tennis or other sports,' said the associate professor at Ohio State's College of Medicine.
The third step to take is to make some lifestyle changes. The use of tobacco, consumption of more than two alcoholic drinks a day, physical inactivity, and poor nutrition pose a higher risk of osteoporosis.
Finally, he recommends getting a screening test, like a DEXA scan which is an X-ray that measures bone density to diagnose osteoporosis.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New Indian Express
4 hours ago
- New Indian Express
US plans to begin breeding billions of flies to fight a pest. Here is how it will work
Fly feeds on live flesh Most fly larvae feed on dead flesh, making the New World screwworm fly and its Old World counterpart in Asia and Africa outliers — and for the American beef industry, a serious threat. Females lay their eggs in wounds and, sometimes, exposed mucus. 'A thousand-pound bovine can be dead from this in two weeks,' said Michael Bailey, president elect of the American Veterinary Medicine Association. Veterinarians have effective treatments for infested animals, but an infestation can still be unpleasant — and cripple an animal with pain. Don Hineman, a retired western Kansas rancher, recalled infected cattle as a youngster on his family's farm. 'It smelled nasty,' he said. 'Like rotting meat.' How scientists will use fly's biology against it The New World screwworm fly is a tropical species, unable to survive Midwestern or Great Plains winters, so it was a seasonal scourge. Still, the US and Mexico bred and released more than 94 billion sterile flies from 1962 through 1975 to eradicate the pest, according to the USDA. The numbers need to be large enough that females in the wild can't help but hook up with sterile males for mating. One biological trait gives fly fighters a crucial wing up: Females mate only once in their weekslong adult lives. Why US wants to breed more flies Alarmed about the fly's migration north, the US temporarily closed its southern border in May to imports of live cattle, horses and bison and it won't be fully open again at least until mid-September. But female flies can lay their eggs in wounds on any warm-blooded animal, and that includes humans. Decades ago, the US had fly factories in Florida and Texas, but they closed as the pest was eradicated. The Panama fly factory can breed up to 117 million a week, but the USDA wants the capacity to breed at least 400 million a week. It plans to spend $8.5 million on the Texas site and $21 million to convert a facility in southern Mexico for breeding sterile fruit flies into one for screwworm flies. How to raise hundreds of millions of flies In one sense, raising a large colony of flies is relatively easy, said Cassandra Olds, an assistant professor of entomology at Kansas State University. But, she added, 'You've got to give the female the cues that she needs to lay her eggs, and then the larvae have to have enough nutrients." Fly factories once fed larvae horse meat and honey and then moved to a mix of dried eggs and either honey or molasses, according to past USDA research. Later, the Panama factory used a mix that included egg powder and red blood cells and plasma from cattle. In the wild, larvae ready for the equivalent of a butterfly's cocoon stage drop off their hosts and onto the ground, burrow just below the surface and grow to adulthood inside a protective casing making them resemble a dark brown Tic Tac mint. In the Panama factory, workers drop them into trays of sawdust. Security is an issue. Sonja Swiger, an entomologist with Texas A&M University's Extension Service, said a breeding facility must prevent any fertile adults kept for breeding stock from escaping. How to drop flies from an airplane Dropping flies from the air can be dangerous. Last month, a plane freeing sterile flies crashed near Mexico's border with Guatemala, killing three people. In test runs in the 1950s, according to the USDA, scientists put the flies in paper cups and then dropped the cups out of planes using special chutes. Later, they loaded them into boxes with a machine known as a 'Whiz Packer.' The method is still much the same: Light planes with crates of flies drop those crates. Burgess called the development of sterile fly breeding and distribution in the 1950s and 1960s one of the USDA's 'crowning achievements.' Some agriculture officials argue now that new factories shouldn't be shuttered after another successful fight. 'Something we think we have complete control over — and we have declared a triumph and victory over — can always rear its ugly head again,' Burgess said.
Hindustan Times
9 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Does Donald Trump have dementia? Expert points out 4 signs of cognitive decline
Questions about Donald Trump's cognitive decline are a widespread topic now, with one mental health expert raising concerns that the 79-year-old U.S. president may be showing signs of early-stage dementia. U.S. President Donald Trump deplanes Air Force One on July 01, 2025 in Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)(Getty Images via AFP) Dr. John Gartner, a psychologist and long-time observer of presidential behaviour, during an interview on The Dean Obeidallah Show, suggested that Trump could be battling frontotemporal dementia, a condition that impacts both speech and motor functions. 'When we talk about deterioration from dementia, I was focusing on language because that's the thing we most observe, but also we always see deterioration in motor performance,' he said. ALSO READ| Elon Musk to be deported? Donald Trump responds amid feud Expert outlines four concerning signs in Trump Gartner's observations aren't based on just one incident or clip. He highlighted four specific red flags he believes point to deeper issues, per Irish Star Online. 1. Dr. Gartner has noticed Trump slowing down physically over the past few years. One particularly telling detail? The presence of what looked like a catheter tube beneath his right pant leg. 2. Trump's apparent struggle with stairs has not gone unnoticed. 'We found some of him doing athletic activities in the 80s. I have a film of him playing volleyball, diving to dig the ball and popping up and hitting a high shot, he was very coordinated,' Gartner recalled. 'And now, you know he really does have trouble getting up the stairs, he does trip and fall.' 'I hate to do a gotcha thing, 'Oh he tripped on the stairs,' but no, his gait is slow, he is falling,' he added. 3. Another alarming sign? Trump's odd walking pattern. Gartner claimed Trump swings his right leg in a semicircular motion. 'The other thing that's actually even more diagnostic, and I had a neurologist point this out and then several neurologists confirmed it, if you watch the way he walks, he has what they call a leg swing… like it's a dead weight, and he's just kind of swinging it around,' he explained. 'It's very apparent in some tape and not so much in others, but that right leg swing is considered to be very diagnostic of a specific type of dementia, frontotemporal dementia.' 4. Recently, Trump has been seen favouring his left leg, especially when walking up stairs. A video from Right Side Broadcasting Network caught him relying heavily on his left leg while boarding Air Force One after the NATO summit in the Netherlands. 'That left leg is doing all the heavy lifting. He's really making sure that it's firmly placed,' the caption noted. Other videos online have shown a similar limp or imbalance. ALSO READ| US halts some weapons pledged to Ukraine amid concerns of low stockpile What does the White House medical unit say? However, in April, White House doctors declared him in excellent health. 'President Trump exhibits excellent cognitive and physical health and is fully fit to execute the duties of the Commander-in-Chief and Head of State,' wrote Captain Sean Barbabella in an official memo. The POTUS scored a perfect 30 out of 30 in the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA).
Time of India
10 hours ago
- Time of India
Black coffee can lower the risk of death, but there's a catch
Coffee lovers, rejoice! A recent study reveals that your daily coffee might be more beneficial than you think, potentially lowering the risk of all-cause mortality. Researchers at Tufts University discovered that black coffee, or coffee with minimal additives, is linked to a reduced risk of death. Coffee lovers, we have good news for you. Your daily indulgence might actually be doing more than just waking you up - it might be saving you, quite literally. Drinking coffee can lower the risk of all-cause mortality; however, a recent study suggests that making it a certain way could kill its benefits. A new study by researchers from the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University found that drinking black coffee or coffee reduced the risk of death from all causes. However, those benefits may be lost when the beverage is consumed with certain additives. The study is published in The Journal of Nutrition . Coffee, but no additives Coffee may bring some benefits; however, you may want to hold the cream and sugar. The researchers found that the association between coffee consumption and mortality risk changes with the amount of sweeteners and saturated fat added to the beverage. They found that drinking 1-2 cups of caffeinated coffee per day was linked to a lower risk of death from all causes, including cardiovascular disease. Black coffee with low levels of added sugar and saturated fat is linked to a 14% lower risk of all-cause mortality compared to no coffee consumption. The researchers noticed that these benefits were, however, slashed when the coffee was added with high amounts of added sugar and saturated fat. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Glicemia acima de 100? Insira essa fruta na sua dieta Saúde Nacional Undo ' Coffee is among the most-consumed beverages in the world, and with nearly half of American adults reporting drinking at least one cup per day, it's important for us to know what it might mean for health. The health benefits of coffee might be attributable to its bioactive compounds, but our results suggest that the addition of sugar and saturated fat may reduce the mortality benefits,' Fang Fang Zhang, senior author and the Neely Family Professor at the Friedman School, said, in a statement. The study The researchers analyzed data from nine consecutive cycles of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) conducted between 1999 and 2018. The study included a nationally representative sample of 46,000 adults aged 20 years and older who completed valid first-day 24-hour dietary recalls. This data was then linked to the National Death Index Mortality Data. Ronnie Coleman Hospitalised: Fans Alarmed Over Sudden Medical Emergency The researchers categorized the coffee consumption by type (caffeinated or decaffeinated), sugar, and saturated fat content. They also included mortality outcomes such as all-cause, cancer, and cardiovascular disease. The amount of low added sugar (from granulated sugar, honey, and syrup) was defined as under 5% of the Daily Value, which is 2.5 grams per 8-ounce cup or approximately half a teaspoon of sugar. The low saturated fat (from milk, cream, and half-and-half) was defined as 5% of the Daily Value, or 1 gram per 8-ounce cup or the equivalent of 5 tablespoons of 2% milk, 1 tablespoon of light cream, or 1 tablespoon of half-and-half. The findings The findings were striking. The researchers found that drinking at least one cup per day was linked with a 16% lower risk of all-cause mortality. When the coffee consumption was increased to 2-3 cups per day, the link rose to 17%. No benefits were found beyond three cups. 'Few studies have examined how coffee additives could impact the link between coffee consumption and mortality risk, and our study is among the first to quantify how much sweetener and saturated fat are being added. Our results align with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans which recommend limiting added sugar and saturated fat' first author Bingjie Zhou, a Ph.D. graduate from the nutrition epidemiology and data science program at the Friedman School added. Get the latest lifestyle updates on Times of India, along with Doctor's Day 2025 , messages and quotes!
