National Charity Urges People to ‘Love Your Bones’ this Halloween

As skeleton outfits fly off the shelves this Halloween, the Royal Osteoporosis Society (ROS) warns that if you don’t pledge to ‘Love Your Bones’ now, they can become scary.

Our skeleton is a living tissue with a blood supply, and it continuously works to keep our bodies functioning well. Made up of 206 individual bones, it supports the body, protects our vital organs, helps the body move and makes blood cells.

But for most people, the only familiarity we have with skeletons are the decorative fancy-dress ones we see once a year at Halloween. When it comes to thinking about our own skeletons, most of us take them for granted and give them little thought unless we break a bone.

Osteoporosis is a condition that causes bones to lose strength and break more easily. Every day, someone suffers a broken bone (a fracture) every minute due to osteoporosis,¹ yet it is often referred to as ‘the silent disease’ because of under-diagnosis, under-treatment and low public awareness.

The actions we take throughout our life can have a direct impact on our bone health as we get older. By taking positive action to improve our bone health now, we can work towards avoiding the debilitating consequences of the condition and decrease the financial burden on the NHS – currently £4.5bn and projected to rise steeply as the population ages.

Chief Executive of the ROS, Craig Jones, said:

“Half of women and one in five men over 50 will break a bone because of osteoporosis, but it doesn’t need to be this way. Whatever our age, we can all pay attention to our bone health and transform the experience of later life for millions of people.

“Low awareness of osteoporosis, and bone health in general, is a major barrier to ageing well. This Halloween is a perfect opportunity to champion our bone health and challenge the spooky stereotype associated with skeletons. By pledging to ‘Love Your Bones’ we can prevent the distress, social isolation, broken connections and spiralling NHS costs caused by osteoporosis.²”

The ROS is asking people to pledge to ‘Love Your Bones’ and challenge their friends and family to do the same, by dressing as a skeleton this Halloween (31 October 2021) and sharing it on social media. Download and print our ‘Love Your Bones’ pledge card.³

The ROS is also sharing five positive steps we can take to love our bones this Halloween, to reduce our risk of osteoporosis and breaking bones in the future:

1. Maintain a healthy body weight

Your risk of osteoporosis and broken bones increases if you’re underweight or overweight, so you should aim to keep your body weight in the range that is healthy.

2. Exercise – the weight bearing and muscle strengthening kind

Bones stay strong if you give them work to do. For exercise to be most effective at keeping bones strong, you need to combine:

• weight-bearing exercise with impact
• muscle strengthening exercise

You can find how to exercise with osteoporosis on the ROS website: theros.org.uk/exercise-for-osteoporosis/

3. Vitamin D

Vitamin D helps your body absorb and use calcium, which gives your bones their strength and hardness. Low levels of vitamin D could increase your risk of osteoporosis and broken bones.

Between April and September in the UK, we are usually able to get enough vitamin D by spending 10 minutes a day with our skin exposed to the sunlight – being sure not to burn. Between the end of September and April however, this is not the case.

Public health advice is that people consider taking a daily supplement of 10 micrograms (sometimes called 400 units) of vitamin D during these months, when we are unable to absorb enough vitamin D from sunlight. Some people may even find it beneficial to take vitamin D all year round, for example those who cover up their skin when they are outside.

4. Nutrition

Eating and drinking the right things can help support your bone health at every stage of your life.

Calcium and vitamin D are two nutrients well-known to be important for bones. But there are many other vitamins, minerals and nutrients that are vital to help your bones stay healthy and strong. Eating a healthy, balanced diet that have foods from the four main food groups is key: fruit and vegetables, carbohydrates (bread, potatoes, pasta and cereals) dairy and protein (beans, eggs, fish and meat)

5. Lifestyle

Drinking a lot of alcohol increases your risk of osteoporosis and government advice is to drink no more than 14 units of alcohol a week.

Smoking slows down the cells that build bone in your body, which means that smoking could reduce your bone strength and increase your risk of breaking a bone. Rest assured, though, it’s not too late. If you give up smoking, your risk of breaking a bone begins to return to normal.

You can find out more about how to look after your bones and complete a bone health checklist on the ROS website: theros.org.uk/bone-checklist/

References

1. Svedbom A, Hernlund E, Ivergård M, Compston J, Cooper C, Stenmark J, McCloskey EV, Jönsson B, Kanis JA, EU Review Panel of IOF. (2013). Osteoporosis in the European Union: a compendium of country-specific reports. Arch Osteoporos. 8(1-2):137.
2. Life with Osteoporosis 2021 report: https://strwebprdmedia.blob.core.windows.net/media/h3wnxvdq/ros-life-with-osteoporosis-report-2021.pdf
3. https://strwebprdmedia.blob.core.windows.net/media/zxmaz1n1/halloween-poster.png