A pair of powerful women have made very public slips this month. On June 8th, Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor fell as she rushed to board a plane for Washington; ten days later, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tripped and fell on her way to the White House (supplying plenty of monologue material for Dave, Conan and Jimmy). Judge Sotomayor, 55, suffered a fractured ankle, so these days she can be seen hobbling down the halls of congress on crutches. Secretary Clinton, 61, meanwhile, underwent a successful two-hour surgery to repair her fractured elbow, and she is resting at home.
The high-profile falls remind us that postmenopausal women are at risk for low bone density, which can weaken bones, making them more susceptable to fractures. Although she's not familiar with the details of Sotomayor's or Clinton's specific injuries, nor the density of their bones, Rachel Rohde, M.D, an orthopedic surgeon based in Royal Oak, MI points out, "We all tend to lose bone density as we age--women at a much greater rate than men--until the men "catch up" later in life." In fact, an estimated that ten million people in the U.S. suffer from osteoporosis and 18 million more are at risk; 80 percent of whom are women, according to Dr. Rohde, who's also a spokesperson for the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS).
