Osteoporosis fell by two-thirds in 26 years. In Limerick. The Irish one.

Here’s some genuinely good bone news, from a town with a familiar name. Researchers in Limerick, Ireland looked back at every first-time bone-density (DEXA) scan done at two local hospitals between 1998 and 2024. That’s 66,681 people, about 4 in 5 of them women, with an average age of 61.

Over those 26 years, the share of people who already had osteoporosis at their first scan dropped by roughly two-thirds. The study was published in Archives of Osteoporosis and is free to read.

Why it’s more than a headline

The researchers did a few things right. They only counted each person’s first scan, before any treatment, so people improving on medication don’t muddy the picture. They adjusted for age and sex, so it isn’t just younger people getting scanned. And they checked whether the drop came from scanning more people. Even after all that, each year brought about 3–5% lower odds of osteoporosis at the hip and spine.

Average bone scores rose too. The typical hip T-score improved from −1.26 to −0.68, and the spine from −1.66 to −0.31. In other words, people are arriving at their first scan with stronger bones than they did a generation ago.

Bone health isn’t fixed by the year you were born. Across a whole region, it moved.

The catches

The lead author, Dr Azrin Muslim, put it fairly himself: the results “do not mean osteoporosis has ceased to be a significant health problem, nor do they show that fractures will necessarily decline at the same rate.”

Also this week: should your first scan be at 50?

On 20 October, NBC News ran a piece with Duke orthopedic surgeon Dr Jocelyn Wittstein. She noted that women lose about 10% of their bone density from two years before menopause to about a decade after, and suggested a first DEXA scan at 50 rather than 65. US guidelines currently recommend screening at 65, or earlier for postmenopausal women with risk factors. Her view is an opinion, not new data. But it fits the Limerick story: you can’t see a trend in your own bones without a starting number.

What to do with this

The encouraging part is that whole populations can shift toward stronger bones. Your own bones respond to the same things the researchers mention: regular weight-bearing exercise and load, enough calcium and vitamin D, not smoking, and going easy on alcohol. If you’re a woman around menopause, or anyone over 50 with risk factors, ask your doctor about a baseline scan. Then you’ll have a number to improve on.