• you had a menopause (surgical or natural) before about the age of 40 or 45

• you have a medical condition that requires you to take cortico-steroids in high doses for several years

• you have had a Colles5 fracture of the wrist after the menopause, following a comparatively minor fall

• you have suffered from anorexia nervosa or bulimia

• you had amenorrhoea (absence of periods) for several years during your normal reproductive years

Other factors which increase your chance of getting osteoporosis are if:

• you are white or Asian

• you are small-boned, light in weight, and slender in build

• your mother, grandmothers or aunts had it

• you finished the menopause 10 or more years ago

• throughout most of your life you have eaten a diet low in calcium

However, people who don’t fall into any of these categories can get osteoporosis.

These are mostly things you can’t do anything about. There are some things you can do something about which contribute to osteoporosis:

• smoking (which lowers the natural level of oestrogen, and brings on the menopause up to five years earlier than it would otherwise have started)

• drinking large quantities of alcohol (which reduces the absorption of calcium from the digestive system, and slows down the activity of bone-forming osteoblasts)

• taking little or no weight-bearing exercise (bones get stronger when they are well used, and weaken when they are seldom used)

• dieting so severely that your periods (and thus your oestrogen production) stop

• continuing to have a diet low in calcium.

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