Is there a fracture in your future?

Osteoporosis often is called the Rottweiler disease, because it chews up your bones fast. And it’s sneaky. You won’t have a clue that your bones have been quietly getting brittle until you trip over the dog’s water bowl and break your wrist or fracture your hip.

Getting a clue early enough to do something about it is the whole point of having something called a bone mineral density test: It checks out the sturdiness of your skeleton. Who should have one of these and when? Age, gender, family and “it depends” are parts of the answer. (Aren’t they always?)