How Not to Age: The Scientific Approach to Getting Healthier as You Get Older

by Michael Greger

among women sixty-five and older, only 15 percent of low-trauma fractures (meaning from a fall from no more than standing height) are due to osteoporosis.3264 Between the ages of sixty and eighty, hip fracture risk increases thirteenfold in men and women, whereas the age-related decline in bone mineral density accounted only for a twofold increased risk.3265 So, 85 percent of the age-related rise in hip fracture risk has nothing to do with the measured density of your bones. Without a fall, even fragile hips don’t fracture. The primary cause of fractures—including vertebral fractures—are falls.3266 The disparity between men and women in hip fracture rates seems primarily not because men have stronger bones but because women fall more often.3267 Doctors simply asking the question “Do you have impaired balance?” can predict about 40 percent of all hip fractures,3268 which is more than a bone scan diagnosis of osteoporosis can.