Rally With Sally for Bone Health
In Norma Rae, Sally Field fought to win a better life for coworkers as a feisty union organizer. That 1980 film role earned her the first of her two Oscars.
Today she's fighting for her peers again -- but it's no act. She wants to wake up America to the threat of osteoporosis. This bone-thinning disease affects millions of older women, and its results can be devastating.
"Now that I'm 60, I want to help change the way women live as they age," says Ms. Field, who was diagnosed with thinning bones in 2005. "For me, that means being very up-front about my osteoporosis as a way of helping to educate women on this very important health topic.
Managing her case
"The women of my generation have fought hard to make our lives better -- and that certainly includes trying to make our health better. In my case, that means managing my osteoporosis effectively, by doing everything I can to strengthen my bones and prevent needless bone fractures in the years ahead." She doesn't smoke, she gets plenty of calcium and vitamin D, she works out every day and she takes medication.
Sally Field got her start in light 1960s TV fare like Gidget and The Flying Nun. Lately, she's juggled no less than three roles as a mom: the matriarch on Brothers & Sisters, Dr. Abby Lockhart's frenetic mother on ER and a terminal cancer patient in the movie Two Weeks.
But she made time to launch a campaign (Rally With Sally For Bone Health!) aimed at finding and managing osteoporosis. On the Web, at http://www.bonehealth.com, you can read her monthly health journal entries and find resources to help you cope with the ailment.
"Learning how to manage this condition simply makes good sense," she says. "Nobody wants to be immobilized by a hip fracture that could require institutional care and deprive them of their independence."
A public health crisis
The U.S. Surgeon General has declared osteoporosis a public health crisis. "If you look at the latest health research, it tells us that one out of two American women over 50 will experience an osteoporosis-related fracture in her lifetime. And these fractures can drastically affect mobility and quality of life in older people," she says. "Those of us who are concerned with women's health have no intention of sitting back and accepting the status quo."
Ms. Field suggests you talk with your doctor about your family health history and your personal risk for osteoporosis. The doctor may want you to have a bone-density scan.
"After that, you and your doctor can custom-tailor the osteoporosis management plan that's exactly right for you," she says. That plan "will undoubtedly give you your best fighting chance to control your osteoporosis.
"Let's make the most of this next phase of our lives by giving osteoporosis the careful attention -- and the effective management -- that will help prevent this chronic ailment from slowing us down!"