diets that put bones at risk even in youth- breaking latest news

We are publishing a preview of an article in the new Corriere Salute. You can read the full text on the issue at newsstands for free on Thursday 28 April or in Pdf on the Digital Edition of Corriere della Sera.

The story of Marta with a happy ending, but many have not had the same luck as him. Marta fell ill with anorexia as a teenager and, in addition to risking her life for her eating disorder, she, barely eighteen years old, found herself with bones as fragile as glass, which risked breaking for a trifle. A side effect of anorexia that is little considered, osteoporosis, but which can seriously compromise the quality of life of those who manage to leave problems with food behind: in fact, adolescence, when an eating disorder appears very often, also the moment in which a large part of the bone mass accumulates, creating the bone reserves that will accompany throughout adulthood.

An unbalanced diet at this stage of life therefore more dangerous than ever, but Marta did not know it when she fell ill. I had long had food problems, which then exploded during the second year of high school, says Marta. I was treated for a long time at a Center for Eating Disorders and several times I was subjected to bone mineralometry (the test to evaluate the quantity and density of the bone, ed). At first I had osteopenia, that is, a “simple” reduction in bone mass, which then quickly turned into osteoporosis. At 22 I had the hormones and bones of a seventy-year-old, not even my mother at 76 had such a broken skeleton.

Thanks to a good psychotherapist Marta out of the nightmare anorexia, but the doctors told her that there was nothing for her bones to do: she had started eating again, but she did not assimilate calcium and vitamin D. I took supplements but I did not tolerate them well, adds Marta. I felt hopeless: I had been diagnosed with a high risk of fracture of the femur and only knew how to tell me to be careful with how I moved, to avoid falling. It was terrible, I had the feeling that I had hurt myself with my hands and that there was no hope or solution for me.

You can continue reading the article on Health Courier on newsstands for free on Thursday 28 April or in Pdf on the Digital Edition of Corriere della Sera.