Luke Simpkins (Cowan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to join with the member for Shortland and the member for Flinders in thanking the member for Hindmarsh for raising this important issue. When you hear about this disease, osteoporosis, you think of something that affects those in their twilight years. But it surprised me greatly. In our positions here in this great place we find that, until someone comes to see us about a matter or the matter is drawn to our attention, we do not really have such a great understanding of it until we meet someone whose life is affected by it. But it is certainly the case that when you look at the details, at the circumstances surrounding osteoporosis—for instance, on the Osteoporosis Australia website—you begin to realise how very important it is that we as parents should even start thinking about these things for our children. I am the father of a nine-year-old and a 13-year-old—both daughters—and I was really surprised to learn that most of the bone mass development in children occurs in the preteen years. For my nine-year-old, that is right now, so I am very encouraged that she drinks a lot of milk and that she is very much into her sport, because this is exactly the time when the bone mass is being built at its best.

It was also interesting to look through the different ages on the Osteoporosis Australia website. This is mainly about women. Although osteoporosis does affect men, we retain our bone mass until we are quite a bit older compared with women. If you are doing everything possible as a woman, you can still develop some bone mass as late as your thirties, but from then on—I will not say it is 'downhill'; it would be a bit rough to say that—bone mass is beginning to decline. Even in the early forties, we are talking about one or two per cent a year. That is very scary stuff. Then when you get beyond the forties and into the fifties and the sixties, when we are talking about somewhere between one and five per cent loss of bone mass each year, it is hardly surprising that we see the number of fractures we see. I understand that close to 25,000 hip fractures take place a year, and most of these are in women.

As other speakers have said, when we hear about these sorts of numbers and the costs to the health system, as well as the impact on people's lives, it is very important to really start thinking about what we can do to alleviate these problems. We hear about the need for calcium. As we heard from the member for Shortland, we also must have exercise. As parents, we should provide that right now, from the youngest ages—resistance training, such as a bit of weight lifting, as well as load bearing, such as walking and activities like that. These are really important things to do right now. Again, we are faced with the requirement to look at the balancing of sun exposure to make sure people have the vitamin D they need, which also helps with bone mass and the development of bones.

It is a challenge when we are in an environment where, between 10 and two o'clock during the day, if you are out in the sun without protection you face real risks of melanoma and other skin problems. My GP recently said to me, when I went for a blood test and found out I had a vitamin D deficiency, 'You need to get out in the sun more.' I was looking at my arms, which have quite a bit of sun damage from years of abuse out in the sun. I was a bit worried about that, but he said, 'No, what you need to do is get out early in the morning so you can get the less-damaging sun on your arms and on your face.' He probably did not realise that just a week before I had been quite badly sunburnt! But these are very important things. When you combine all these together, this is the right way to act against osteoporosis.

See this speech in context