BECAUSE the Philippines has a young population, most of whom are under 30 years old, the bone disease osteoporosis has not been given much attention.

But in many countries with aging populations, osteoporosis has been dubbed the “silent killer”, especially for women—although recent medical research have shown that men can also be afflicted by the disease.

I read up a lot about osteoporosis primarily because I live with my still-active 82-year-old mother. Also because, well, being 45, I must admit I do sometimes feel the wind whistling through my bones. There have also been a few times when getting up from a stationary position after a while can sometimes be, ahem, a bit taxing.

While Mama is still up and about, and can manage our stairs, albeit slowly, I make sure she holds on tightly to me whenever we negotiate certain areas in the mall or in dimly lit places. She has to take deliberate steps when she walks around so as not to slip.

I have nightmares about what happened to my grandmother happening to my mother. my lola, who was in her 70s, slipped and fell while going about the house, breaking her leg. She spent quite some time at the National Orthopedic Hospital, with her leg in traction, before we were able to bring her home. while she was always full of energy and fiercely went about her business in and out of the house, I was so surprised how quickly she deteriorated even though her leg was technically repaired. She never walked quite well again after that. Suddenly she was just bedridden, and then she was gone.

According to the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF), a nonprofit, nongovernment organization in Switzerland, osteoporosis, which literally means “porous bone”, is a disease “in which the density and quality of bone are reduced. As the bones become more porous and fragile, the risk of fracture is greatly increased. The loss of bone occurs ‘silently’ and progressively. Often there are no symptoms until the first fracture occurs.”

It has long been considered an old person’s disease, but what few people realize is that bone breakdown can begin as early as the age of 25.

While human bones are living tissues that naturally undergo a constant breakdown and renewal process, this changes during the mid-20s, when the deterioration of our bones begins. 

I wouldn’t have believed this until my gal pal Miggy, who is nowhere near senior citizenship, broke her little toe two years ago after someone accidentally stepped on her bare foot at the beach. As soon as we got back to Manila, she had her foot checked and mended, but was told she already had osteoporosis. (Which, of course, made her feel much older than her real age. I tell you, these doctors are depressing!)

Studies also show that smokers, those who ingest alcohol liberally, and people with low-calcium diets and generally sedentary lifestyles are susceptible to osteoporosis. (Miggy, lay off Facebook!) Owing to our hormones and petite frames, women are more prone to this disease than men.

Monthly periods and pregnancy also drain the body of calcium—the nutrient which builds and strengthens bones—while menopause accelerates bone loss even more, as the body produces less and less estrogen, which helps protect bones, according to experts.

While there are no exact figures on how many are afflicted with osteoporosis in the Philippines, population figures from the National Statistics Office show there are close to 4.8 million women aged 50 and older, and most, if not all, at risk for the bone disease. Deadly sa kababaihan, indeed. 

Some of the tell-tale signs of this “silent killer” are the following: the stooped back, loss of height, and the easy breakage of bones in the back, hips, wrists and ankles. Fractured bones, however, are not the end of it: according to the IOF, 30 percent of those who develop a hip fracture never walk again, while 20 percent die in a year’s time. Just like my lola.

To ensure optimum bone health, most doctors recommend calcium-laden products such as milk. A glass of Anlene, for instance, contains 500 mg of calcium, while Anlene Gold has 600 mg per glass. Anlene is not just ordinary milk, by the way; it is especially formulated for adults—enriched with the essential bone nutrients like calcium, vitamin D, magnesium, zinc and protein.

Anlene also recently published a breakthrough clinical study that showed women who drank two glasses of Anlene daily reduced their bone breakdown within four weeks (based on evidence from a 16-week bone-marker trial and additional Anlene research). Imagine that!

Of course, drinking milk alone won’t save your bones. It’s important for women to also engage in regular exercise such as running, walking, strength training, and yoga or Pilates. A diet rich in calcium is also recommended, and this can be found in soy-based foods like tofu, as well as dark, leafy green vegetables.

Another way to improve bone density is to increase one’s intake of vitamin D, which makes it easier for bones to absorb calcium. Vitamin D can be found in fatty fish like salmon and mackerel, fish liver oil and egg yolks. Recommended calcium intake for women between the ages of 25 and 50 years is 750 mg a day; and more for those who are older, pregnant or lactating. As for vitamin D, the Recommended Daily Allowance for women aged 19 to 50 is 600 IU (international units). 

With Anlene, a proper diet and regular exercise, we girls may lick this silent killer yet.

For more information about osteoporosis, visit the IOF web site at iofbonehealth.org, or Anlene at anlene.com.au/default.asp?menuid=34 for more tips on how to help our bones.

There was a moment while shooting The loved Ones – a dementedly graphic Aussie horror set during a high school ball – when star Robin McLeavy developed a nervous twitch in her eye.

She was playing Lola, a shy, hormonal teen who takes bloody revenge on Xavier Samuel’s school stud after he spurns her invite to the dance. Everyone on set thought McLeavy was method acting. after all, she would listen to “a bit of Britney Spears just to get the party started” before each bloodthirsty take.

The twitch, however, was from exhaustion from playing a devil in a hot pink dress who kidnaps Xavier Samuel’s school stud and stages a grisly private ball in her family’s kitchen.

“It made me feel really crazy because I couldn’t control it,” says McLeavy, a 2004 NIDA graduate who’s done mostly stage shows until now. “I was really wired and manic every night when I went to bed, and felt a bit aggressive after we finished shooting.”

THE LOVED ONES REVIEW

“Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed being in that amazing pink dress, wearing high heels and wielding a drill.”

Physical and mental symptoms were standard for many on set of the nutty teen horror, which was dubbed an “instant cult hit and “Wolf Creek meets Pretty in Pink” ever since it won the people’s choice award at the Toronto Film Festival in 2009.

“Robin developed twitch,” says writer-director Sean Byrne. “Xavier said he was still depressed about five days afterwards because of all the grief and John [Brumpton, who plays Lola's father/accomplice] had nightmares.”

Shot in 27 days in the rural town of Kyneton, north of Melbourne, the comic horror was initially inspired by the most innocent of things.

“Strangely enough, it was inspired by my five-year-old niece,” Byrne smiles, “and I mean that in the cutest possible way. like most little girls, she was obsessed with the colour pink and in the middle of that magical stage of childhood where she believed her prince charming will come. I thought it would be exciting to transfer that innocent mindset into the body of an awkward, lonely teenager with raging hormones. I thought the sweet and the sour would make for a volatile combination.”

Byrne, who was raised on a steady diet of movies (his father is a film critic in Tasmania), said he was also inspired by Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead 2 “which is so gleefully demented” and Tarantino “in the way that he juxtaposes comedy and violence”.

After a switch from law school in Tasmania to AFTRS film school in Sydney, Byrne, 37, said he wanted the modest $4 million horror to be “a fun experience” for audiences.

“I wanted it to start in arch-typical John Hughes teen territory and then slide into Lynchian madness. I thought of the cabin-in-the-woods sub-genre, the prom night sub-genre and the love-gone-wrong sub-genre. I also thought of the iconic female villains, like Kathy Bates in Misery and Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction, and that whole obsessive love thing.”

Showing experience beyond his years, Byrne let his star run with the role.

“When I first read the script I thought what a wild opportunity to play this deeply disturbed yet playful sensual character,” says McLeavy. “I loved that she was the female character who was the villain yet in control of events rather than the screaming half-naked victim we so often see in horror films.”

“Then Sean passed on some books about real-life sickos like Jeffrey Dahmer, which was kind of him! I got really freaked out, but it led me to a book about how murderers can go on a huge high and then come crashing down. I thought that would be a good in-road for Lola when she has Xavier’s character in the kitchen. That room is her domain and she gets this rush of hormonal ecstasy. So I thought I’d go that playful way rather than the dark way, which would have left me a little psychologically disturbed by the end.”

Not that McLeavy isn’t up for disturbing others.

“I got to keep one of Lola’s hot pink dresses and I’m planning on wear it to a late Halloween party,” she smiles with glee.

Byrne, however, is simply relieved to finally see his vision come to life on screen.

“When I started The loved Ones I was 15 and now I’m 82,” he jokes. “It took so long to make it, so it’s nice to let it go of our baby and celebrate it. Now it’s all up to the box office, so please everyone go to see it!”

The loved Ones is now screening.