Haley, thirty, was obese in her teens, until she started dieting in her early twenties. She shrank from 196 pounds to eighty-four pounds, initially spurred on by flattering comments, which ceased long before she settled at eighty-four pounds. She stayed stick thin for four years, subsisting on oranges, crisp bread, boiled eggs showered with salt, and diet fizzy drinks, undeterred by the fact she didn’t have periods any more.
Then, when she was twenty-five, Haley fell off a ladder while decorating and heard her spine crack. A bone-density scan diagnosed osteoporosis.
“The doctor was amazed because I was so young, but he could see I was severely malnourished,” Haley explains. “He said my lack of periods showed my body was seriously lacking estrogen. Now, I realize that’s a big risk factor.”
As Haley learned at her own cost, the female hormone, estrogen plays a large part in maintaining bone mass—which is why osteoporosis is so much more prevalent after menopause, when estrogen production has all but petered out.
Haley was immobile for more than three months. “It was terrifying, and it gave me plenty of time to think about how reckless I’d been. In an odd way, breaking my back was the jolt I needed to wake up to the fact I was anorexic. I decided to accept all the help I could get.”
The first thing Haley did was stop dieting. “I started to eat green leafy vegetables, shellfish, salmon, and a bit of cheese—not really fattening foods, just healthy ones rich in calcium that I was comfortable with.”
“My doctor prescribed the combined Pill, which contains estrogen, with calcium and vitamin D supplements to boost bone health.”
“One of the massive changes I made was to swap fizzy drinks for pints of milk,” she explains. “I developed a real taste for chocolate shakes.”
Perhaps Haley’s body naturally craved what it most needed. Recent research in Japan suggests proteins in milk improve bone strength in women of all ages. Conversely, it’s possible too much fizzy drink can impede the amount of calcium absorbed by bones. Interestingly, a high salt diet is also bad news because it increases the concentration of calcium lost in urine.
