Elderly people who are depressed are 2.32 times more likely to suffer osteoporosis, the Taiwanese Osteoporosis Association said.
The association cited a recent case of a 63-year-old woman surnamed Lin (林), saying she had lost her vision as a result of diabetes and was diagnosed with depression and anxiety, with symptoms such as being unwilling to speak or interact with other people, sleeping poorly, wanting to cry and suicidal ideation.
Lin was later diagnosed with severe osteoporosis that required emergency treatment after a bone density examination she underwent after fracturing her hip in a fall showed that she had a T-score of minus-3.5, the association said.
Osteoporosis is indicated by a T-score of minus-2.5 or lower, and normal is defined as minus-1.0 or higher
Association managing supervisor and physician at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital’s Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism Huang Chao-shan (黃兆山) said depression and osteoporosis interact in many ways, mainly through the endocrine system.
Insufficient vitamin D3 intake can hinder bone development and increase depression and depression can lead to an endocrine disorder that reduces the release of hormones needed for developing bones, he said.
Huang said studies have also shown that men who are taking antidepressants have a lower hip bone density, and women and elderly people who are depressed are 1.42 times and 2.32 times more likely to suffer osteoporosis respectively.
Depression affects about 7.3 percent of the population and about 35.2 percent of elderly people, he added.
The association urged people to exercise more and get enough vitamin D3 and sunlight to prevent depression and osteoporosis.
Adults can keep in mind the “3-3-3” exercise principle — exercising at least three days a week, for at least 30 minutes and reaching a heart rate above 130 beats per minute — to stay healthy, it said.
Elderly people over the age of 60 should exercise at least three days per week, but only every other day, doing warm up and cool down routines for at least five minutes before exercising for at least 20 minutes at a heart rate of 110 times per minute, the association added.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the