We really can’t afford to ignore world osteoporosis day, even though MEPs’ calendars at this time of year are jam-packed with various commemorative events, not to mention our usual round of committee meetings and the heavy legislative timetable.
Each year, millions are debilitated by this chronic disease, maligned by severe pain or rendered disabled as a result of fractures. Osteoporosis affects an estimated 75 million people in Europe, the USA and Japan and, in women over 45 years of age, accounts for more days spent in hospital than diabetes, breast cancer and heart attacks.
As co-chair of the European Parliament’s Osteoporosis Interest Group I was asked to speak at the conference in the European Parliament organised by the International Osteoporosis Foundation to mark the 2010 world osteoporosis day. My aim is to raise awareness of the disease so that there is general understanding of the terrible facts of osteoporosis. I am very conscious that most people do not know too much about osteoporosis, with very worrying implications.
World Osteoporosis Day provides a valuable means of countering this silence, of alerting us to the graveness of the disease and what can be done to prevent its onset. The accompanying photographic exhibition, snap! the breaking spine, provided an especially vivid depiction of the effects of the disease, guaranteed to shock even those unmoved by the frightening statistics and push us all into thinking about what we can do to minimise the risk of fractures.
For more information about risk factors and the preventative measures we should be taking, visit the International Osteoporosis Foundation website.
