Several orthopedists yesterday said frequent late nights and sleep disorders could have a detrimental impact on bone mineral density and increase a person’s risk of developing osteoporosis by nearly 2.5 times.
Osteoporosis is a progressive bone disease characterized by reduced density and quality of bones, leaving people more susceptible to fractures.
“There are many commonly known risk factors for osteoporosis, including gender, age, insufficient intake of calcium, drinking and smoking and lack of exercise, but not getting enough good quality sleep could also play a large part in whether a person loses bone mass density,” Chen Chih-hwa (陳志華), a professor at Taipei Medical University’s Department of Orthopedic Surgery, told a news conference in Taipei.
Citing Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics figures, Chen said 82.18 percent of people aged 15 and older go to bed before midnight on weekdays, but only 79.23 percent do on a Saturday night.
“The statistics mean that during weekdays, one out of every six Taiwanese stays up late,” Chen said.
Chen said that an overseas research project that monitored full-time and part-time nurses who had to work night shifts at least three days a month between 1988 and 2008 found that they were 1.37 times more likely to suffer from wrist and hip fractures than those who had never worked nights.
The risk was even greater, 2.36 times, for nurses whose body mass index was less than 24, Chen said.
“Domestic research has also shown that people with sleep disorders are 2.44 times more susceptible to developing osteoporosis,” Chen said.
Exposure to fluorescent light at night could impede the production of hormone melatonin — which helps regulate sleep-wake cycles — and in turn affect bone metabolism, he said.
“In addition, keeping abnormal sleep hours or sleeping too much during the day could decrease one’s amount of sun exposure, which is a beneficial source of vitamin D, which can promote the human body’s absorption of calcium, and hinder the production of growth hormones that would then lead to reduced bone density,” Chen said.
Yang Rong-sen (楊榮森), an attending physician in National Taiwan University Hospital’s Department of Orthopedics, said osteoporosis affects about 2.46 million Taiwanese aged 50 and older, and preventing osteoporosis is crucial to preventing potentially incapacitating fractures.
“The mortality rate for hip fractures is 15% for women and 22% for men. On average, two out of every three patients who suffer a fracture end up losing his or her mobility,” Yang said.
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