Osteoporosis affects 200 million people, but early detection and treatment can ensure a healthy, active life, writes Michelle McDonagh
WHEN THE original Bond girl, Ursula Andress, was told she had osteoporosis, she thought there must have been some mistake. Like most people, she associated the bone-weakening disease with frail, hunched, elderly women.
"When I found out, I was shocked and refused to believe it. As far as I was concerned, osteoporosis was not for someone like me, a former Bond girl who travelled, swam, walked miles every day and has a big garden to look after."
However, Andress, now a vivacious 72 years, was fortunate that doctors caught her osteoporosis before too much irreversible damage had been done and the disease has not slowed the Golden Globe award winner's lust for life one whit.
Now the actress, who became famous as the first Bond girl, Honey Ryder (when she emerged from the sea in a white bikini in the 1962 film, Dr No) is supporting a new campaign for independent women who, like her, don't want to let osteoporosis slow them down.
The campaign, Timeless Women: The Campaign for Stronger Bones, recently launched by the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) and Medical Women's International Association (MWIA), aims to challenge outdated stereotypes and educate women about osteoporosis.
A survey of 500 doctors and 1,000 women in France, Germany, Mexico, Switzerland and the UK, which forms the cornerstone of the campaign, highlights a radical shift in women's attitudes towards a disease that affects more than 200 million people worldwide.
It reveals that the majority (93 per cent) of women with osteoporosis are determined not to let their condition prevent them from living life to the full.
Some 85 per cent of women with osteoporosis describe themselves as being active and only 23 per cent feel they are "frail and fragile", while 31 per cent think the disease had a negative impact on their lifestyle.
In contrast, the doctors surveyed appear to have more stereotypical views. More than half (58 per cent) described women with osteoporosis as "frail and fragile", while 75 per cent believed osteoporosis had a negative impact on women's outlook on life.
Ursula Andress says: "Osteoporosis is a silent thief that can take away the strength of your bones and your ability to keep active, without you even realising it. But with early diagnosis, a positive attitude and treatment that best suits your lifestyle, osteoporosis doesn't have to affect your everyday life."
It was during a general checkup in the US some years ago that Andress was warned that she was at risk of osteoporosis due to low bone density. She was told to take calcium and start a preventative treatment, but she did not take the advice seriously at that time.
She tells HEALTHplus: "I am terrible with pills, even if I have a cold or bronchitis I hate taking them. But, about two years ago, I was told that my osteoporosis would keep getting worse unless I started treatment. I realised I would have to do this otherwise I would have very fragile bones in another few years.
"The tragedy is that if women do not get treated early enough for osteoporosis, their condition gets worse and they don't even feel it often until it's too late."
Andress says she is fortunate to have found a very good treatment which she has to take only once a year to keep her disease at bay. She advises all women after menopause or the age of 55 to go for bone density tests.
"Then, if you've got osteoporosis, you need to maintain or adopt a healthy lifestyle and work with your doctor to find the right treatment for you."
The actress believes governments should make it mandatory for women to have bone density tests after a certain age as this could save a lot of expensive health problems such as bone breakage and immobility.
"I could not imagine not being active, it would be like a silent death for me. I run kilometres every day and spend hours in my garden. If I could not do this, I would be miserable," says Andress.
As a 1960s sex symbol, Andress dated many of Hollywood's leading men including Marlon Brando and James Dean. In 1980, she had a son, Dimitri, with American actor Harry Hamlin, her co-star in Clash of the Titans.
These days, she prefers to spend her time in the garden of her Swiss home to the hustle and bustle of city life. "There is too much traffic, confusion and noise in the city, everybody is rushing around. I love the beauty of nature in the country."
Alarmingly, 70 per cent of women involved in the Timeless Women survey confessed to accidentally or deliberately skipping a dose of their medication.
Reasons cited for deliberately not taking their medication included fear of side effects, inconvenient treatment that interfered with day-to-day life, and ineffectiveness of medication.
Dr Donncha O'Gradaigh, consultant rheumatologist at Waterford Regional Hospital, warns that although many treatments could be difficult or inconvenient to take, complete adherence to osteoporosis treatment is necessary at all times for maximum fracture protection.
He explains: "Patients who take their medication less than half of the time receive minimal or no fracture protection. It is important that doctors work with their patients to better understand the needs and lifestyles of women with the disease."
O'Gradaigh says the serious consequences of osteoporosis are often overlooked and that is why campaigns like Timeless Women are so important.
"Many people know that osteoporosis leads to broken bones, but hardly anyone realises that 25 per cent of men and women aged over 50 who suffer a hip fracture may die within one year of its consequences," he says.