American Bone Health

Volunteer Interview with Christi Idavoy

Christi Idavoy is the Fitness and Wellness Manager at the Polestar Physical Therapy and Pilates Center in Coral Cables, Florida. Polestar teaches rehabilitation-based Pilates in over 50 countries worldwide. Christi learned about American Bone Health from Sherri Betz, who is encouraging Pilates studios across the country to help promote the mission of American Bone Health by teaching bone safe Pilates exercises.
Even though Christi is based in Florida and American Bone Health is headquartered in California, she finds that working with us is easy! “I’m able to get the support I need from across the country,” Christi explained. This is one of her favorite things about American Bone Health. She says that the support the organization gives individuals is amazing. She said that she gets a lot of marketing support to help spread the word about her American Bone Health events.
Christi and Polestar Pilates have several events coming up. Her studio is having two guest speakers: one is an acupuncturist presenting some research from China, and the other is going to speak on energy medicine and bone health.
Christi is one of our many volunteers across the country helping to fulfill the mission of American Bone Health one community at a time. Think about joining us!

Interview with Jenna Zaffino

Jenna Zaffino, one of our trained volunteers in Chicago owns a Pilates studio and has transformed her program to better help clients with osteoporosis and low bone mass.

Jenna came to American Bone Health because she had a client with osteoporosis who did not want to go on drug treatment and she wanted to better understand the disease and how Pilates could help.  Since her training, Jenna says that she has learned so much about osteoporosis and is able to have more informed conversations with her clients, saying  ”I’m now able to take better care of my clients with bone density issues in a safe manner.”

Jenna has been very active with American Bone Health once she learned how useful our information is to consumers.  She is working with her Pilates studio to create bone safe pilates workshops where they talk about exercise and nutrition.  Her next workshop is February 19th, 2012, so if you’re in the Chicago area, go out and support Jenna!  Aside from her Pilates work, Jenna is also raising awareness in Chicago.  She recently had an editorial done in the Chicago Sun-Times that claimed her studio to be one of the only “bone safe pilates studio” of Chicago.

When asked what she likes about our organization, she said that American Bone Health is very welcoming.  There were no hoops that she needed to jump through and that it is really easy to be a volunteer. She said, “The amount of professionalism is what makes the experience so valuable.”  Jenna is representative of American Bone Health in so many ways.  She not only took our information to help her clients in her own business, but is going beyond to her community.  It’s representatives like Jenna who are contributing to the prevention and ultimate end of osteoporosis. Thanks, Jenna!

Interview with a volunteer

Recently I talked to one of our most dedicated volunteers to understand why American
Bone Health is important to communities and how our volunteers help us fulfill
our mission.   Here’s what I learned.

Shelley was diagnosed with osteoporosis in 2005, and was first introduced to American
Bone Health when she consulted a physical therapist about safe exercise.
Shelley continues to work with us because she realized that not many people
know about osteoporosis and she wanted to educate others about prevention so
that they would not have to go through what she did.  There are many
organizations that advocate for disease prevention, but American Bone Health is
unique because not many people know of the seriousness of osteoporosis and how
common it is.

American Bone Health would not be able to fulfill our mission without
volunteers. When I asked why, Shelley said, “Our representatives are the
backbone of our education efforts since they are the ones who carry the message
about osteoporosis prevention and bone health to people of all ages in their
communities.”

In my opinion, Shelley could not be more right about our volunteers.  They are
the ones who advocate osteoporosis prevention at health fairs, in hospital
affiliated programs, community talks, and in programs for children, teens, and
young adults as well.  There are many others like Shelley who are the
lifeblood of this organization, and without her and so many others, we would
not be able to reach the millions of Americans with osteoporosis.

Osteoporosis Screening is NOT overused

Lately there have been concerns raised about the overuse of screening procedures, including bone densitometry. (Newsweek Aug 14, 2011). While there may be many screening tests that are expensive and overused, bone density testing (DXA) is quite the opposite. It is relatively inexpensive AND underutilized.

Osteoporosis is a seriously underdiagnosed and undertreated disease resulting in 2 billion fractures a year. What’s more, 70% of the people who have osteoporosis have never been screened . So what do we do?

Every woman over age 65 should get a DXA. It’s a benefit covered by Medicare with no co-pay as part of their preventive services package. All men over age 70 should also get a DXA.

Now, for those people under age 65, guidelines indicate that a DXA should be performed if any one of many clinical risk factors for osteoporosis is present. The most common risk factors are 1) having a family history of osteoporosis or fracture and 2) having had a fragility fracture after age 45 (defined as breaking a bone in a fall from a standing height.)

There are a number of other medical conditions that warrant a DXA, particularly those that require treatment with a steroid medication like prednisone. Some of the most common conditions are rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, autoimmune diseases like lupus or MS, some skin conditions and some kinds of cancer. These steroids help reduce inflammation, but also weaken bones.

To learn more about other factors that may increase your risk of osteoporosis and fractures, take our FORE Fracture Risk Calculator™. Print the results and take them with you to your next doctor appointment.

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