{"id":86361,"date":"2025-10-18T13:00:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T13:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/86361\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T13:00:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T13:00:15","slug":"osteoporosis-rotorua-woman-receives-surprise-diagnosis-at-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/86361\/","title":{"rendered":"Osteoporosis: Rotorua woman receives surprise diagnosis at work"},"content":{"rendered":"

This increases the risk of fracturing or breaking a bone, even after a minor fall or bump.<\/p>\n

Osteoporosis New Zealand estimates New Zealanders aged over 50 suffer 22,300 fragility fractures every year, accounting for 191,000 hospital bed days.<\/p>\n

Laing said her paperwork was sent to a GP after her diagnosis, but said she was not initially offered any treatment.<\/p>\n

Then about 18 months ago, Laing was putting a trailer on the back of a car when \u201csomething snapped\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought: \u2018Oh my god I\u2019ve paralysed myself\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Laing said she was in \u201cabsolute agony\u201d.<\/p>\n

An X-ray confirmed she had two fractures in her spine.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a bit of a shock because I wasn\u2019t expecting that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another bone density scan revealed her bone density was \u201cpretty bad\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"QEQE Health in Rotorua offers bone density scans in the Health New Zealand Lakes district. Photo \/ Megan Wilson<\/p>\n

Her GP prescribed her hormone replacement therapy, vitamin D, and annual intravenous infusions for three years.<\/p>\n

Regular exercise also helped. Every week, she walked between 20km and 30km, did pilates three times, and yoga once.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019d probably be in a lot more pain if I didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said she was \u201cconstantly trying to make my body stronger\u201d and eating more whole foods.<\/p>\n

Laing said her diagnosis made her \u201cmore conscious of my weaknesses\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t rush in and lift things anymore \u2026 because I\u2019m afraid of hurting myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

At work in a tyre shop, she would not lift a tyre out of a customer\u2019s car boot.<\/p>\n

Laing said if someone had an injury they could not recover from, \u201cit\u2019s probably a good investment to go and have the scan\u201d.<\/p>\n

Reducing the risk of osteoporosis <\/p>\n

QE Health rheumatology nurse Sara Kelly said osteoporosis was often called a \u201csilent disease\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s often not until somebody does, say, have a fall and a fracture that that\u2019s picked up.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are often no signs or symptoms other than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kelly said people sometimes thought osteoporosis was an \u201celderly person\u2019s disease\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it can happen in younger people as well, particularly women \u2026 \u201d<\/p>\n

Kelly said it was important people had enough calcium and Vitamin D daily.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbout 20 minutes of sun exposure every day – Vitamin D helps the calcium get absorbed into the bones.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"QEQE Health rheumatologist Dr Thomas Armingeat. Photo \/ Megan Wilson<\/p>\n

QE Health rheumatologist Dr Thomas Armingeat said osteoporosis was \u201cstrongly associated\u201d with low quality of life, dependence, and death.<\/p>\n

A neck or femur fracture would \u201clikely\u201d lead to someone becoming wheelchair-bound or bedridden, he said.<\/p>\n

Spinal fractures could also trigger a \u201chuge loss\u201d of quality of life, he said.<\/p>\n

Armingeat said bones were \u201calways renewing\u201d and staying active was \u201cgood for your bones\u201d.<\/p>\n

For people with osteoporosis, he suggested stimulation with weight-bearing activity, calcium and potentially medication to build up their bones and skeleton to maintain the strength.<\/p>\n

QE Health bone density technician Liz Harding said getting a diagnosis before suffering a fracture could help improve quality of life.<\/p>\n

People may improve their level of exercise, nutrition, stop smoking and reduce their alcohol intake, she said.<\/p>\n

She encouraged people to \u201cbe proactive\u201d about their bone health through having a healthy lifestyle.<\/p>\n

Osteoporosis risk factors <\/p>\n

Age 65 and older for women, and 75 and older for menEarly menopauseFamily history Some medical conditions i.e. gastrointestinal disorders that may affect the absorption of minerals into your bonesMedications such as steroids including prednisoneAlcoholSmokingInactivityLow body massFrequent fallsPoor nutrition and eating disorders.<\/p>\n

It is estimated one in three women and one in five men aged 50 or older will have an osteoporotic fracture.<\/p>\n

Source: QE Health<\/p>\n

Megan Wilson<\/a> is a health and general news reporter for the Bay of Plenty Times and the Rotorua Daily Post. She has been a journalist since 2021.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This increases the risk of fracturing or breaking a bone, even after a minor fall or bump. Osteoporosis…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1081,1975,796,22263,16099,65549,14224,111,43,139,69,19691,14901,1327,312,88,1354,4576],"class_list":["post-86361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-accident","tag-at","tag-diagnosis","tag-happened","tag-kind","tag-laing","tag-lucy","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-osteoporosis","tag-receives","tag-rotorua","tag-says","tag-surprise","tag-woman","tag-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}