There's a silent disease killing women. It sneaks up on them without warning. Only heart disease and cancer are more likely to be the cause of death for our aging population. That disease is osteoporosis.

In 1990, my eighty year old mother was caught off guard by a deep coughing spell doctors call a bronchospasm. When she finally caught her breath she felt like she'd been hit by a truck. Mother is a trooper whose bronchial troubles through the years didn't keep her from fully participating in life. So, despite back pain she diagnosed as a muscle spasm she went about her day. By the next morning her back pain was so severe she could barely move. A friend drove her to the doctor where x-rays revealed she had 5 spontaneous spinal fractures. Her diagnosis: osteoporosis.

Now mother is 87 years old. In the past seven years additional fractures have resulted in a severe dowager's hump that's reduced her height by six inches. She uses a walker because she's afraid a fall would yield a hip fracture. She avoids sudden movements because they result in additional collapsed vertebrae. She tells friends, "I got osteoporosis when I was eighty."

Osteoporosis is a disease marked by massive bone loss. It can begin in adolescence if children--boys and girls--aren't active or don't drink milk. After age 35, when bone loss can exceed bone building, everyone becomes a candidate for this painful, debilitating disease. In fact, my mother didn't get osteoporosis at eighty. She "got" it over the course of fifty years when she didn't exercise, smoked, took thyroid, refused hormone replacement after menopause and didn't drink milk.

Here are some staggering statistics:

• Forty five percent of all post-menopausal women have osteoporosis.
• Osteoporosis will cause a broken bone in one out of every two women over age 50.
• Osteoporosis affects more than 25 million women in the U. S.
• One women in 10 over age 65 has a collapsed vertebrae
• By age 80, forty percent of all white women in the U. S. will sustain a hip fracture if they fall.
• Complications after a hip fracture will be the cause of death for twenty percent of these women.
• Osteoporosis is the cause of more than 1.5 million spine, hip and wrist fractures in the U. S. each year.

These fractures affects one out of ever six women.

I had no idea osteoporosis was such a serious health hazard. And, as I learned more about it, I teamed with nurse researcher, Dr. Beverly Whipple (author of the best selling, The G Spot,) to write a book to support the Speaking of Women's Health Foundation which made osteoporosis its 2000 health initiative.

Smart Women, Strong Bones is a closet best-seller. Twenty five thousand books will reach audiences in 22 cities that host a Speaking of Women's Health Conference in Y2K. Thanks to an aggressive book agent, Beverly and I expect the book to be available to the general public by 2001.

Smart Women, Strong Bones provides the most up-to-date information available about osteoporosis including a review of the risks, prevention strategies, treatment options, and more than 30 pages of resources readers can use to learn more about a disease that can rob a woman (and man) of an active life. It's a must read so you shouldn't wait until the trade publication is released. Buy it now.

If you would like a copy of Smart Women, Strong Bones ($10) call my office at 1-480-242-4812 and leave your name, mailing address, Visa or Master Card number and an Email address.

Meantime, if you're a woman over age 50, get a bone scan (the book reviews the various resources for this test). Men, also candidates for the disease at a later age should also get smart about their bones.

You won't regret it.