What health problems are associated with menopause?
Osteoporosis (literally, porous bones) means the loss of bone mass and thinning and weakening of bone. Bone is a living tissue in a constant state of flux; the state of our bones at any time is a balance between the amount of bone being laid down and the amount of bone being re-absorbed into the body. Everybody has a slight imbalance after about the age of 30 due to the fact that the amount of bone being formed is not as much as the amount that is re-absorbed into the body. This leads to us slowly losing bone density. In women, however, at the menopause, bone turnover increases. This exacerbates the loss and the amount of bone formed cannot keep up with the amount lost and so the bones become thinner. Other factors that increase your risk of osteoporosis include low calcium intake (for example, if you do not eat much cheese, milk and green vegetables), smoking, drinking lots of alcohol, and a lack of weight-bearing exercise. Watching your diet and doing weight-bearing exercise such as
