A reader's letter this week was timed to perfection. The condition he suffers from, osteoporosis, was the subject of a conference of experts and a new treatment that should help him a lot - provided the NHS gurus will allow it.

Here's his letter, which gives some idea of how ill he feels.

Four weeks ago I was told I have osteoporosis. I get a lot of pain in my back and chest, every day when I bend, reach or lift anything. I soon get tired. Is there anything to ease the pain? All my doctor can give me is paracetamol and calcium tablets, but they don't help. Can you give me some hope?' It's a common fallacy that osteoporosis is almost exclusively a disease of women - yet here is a man obviously considerably disabled by it. For every ten osteoporotic women there is at least one man - and that adds up to many thousands of men in a position like the writer of this letter.

Can we help him more than just giving him calcium and painkillers? That's where the conference and the news about a new treatment come in.

The main theme of the meeting was that with the number of people aged over 75 in the UK set to top six million by 2026, a 60 per cent increase since 2002, the health service will struggle to cope with the inevitable increase in falls, bone fractures and osteoporosis care unless we change the way we treat sufferers.

It will involve diagnosing it earlier, using well-tried and proven ways to prevent pain and fractures, and educating people on healthy eating and exercising so that they at least delay, or prevent altogether, the loss of bone.

Already if you are a woman over 50 you have a one-in-two chance of suffering a fragility' fracture (a break due entirely to loss of bone strength) in your lifetime, and if you have already had one fracture you are likely to have more.

GPs are already being trained in running assessment clinics and fracture prevention clinics, one part of which is to help to prevent the falls around the house that cause many of the fractures. Installing handrails for people who are unsteady, banishing rugs underfoot, better training of pets (falling over a dog is one of the commonest causes of fractures), and better-designed chairs can prevent thousands of broken bones each year.

We are also making advances in effective treatment of osteoporosis - drugs that do truly strengthen bones by stimulating the cells that make new bone in our spine, pelvis, arms and legs. They are called bisphosphonates. They can be taken weekly or monthly, and the latest is given by a single infusion just once a year.

Whenever we hear of a new drug, of course we are told that it will be costly and that the NHS may not be able to afford it. Here's Professor Ian Philp, National Director for Older People on that subject: If every Strategic Health Authority (SHA) in England invested £2m in falls and bone health early intervention services they could each save £5m (net £3m) in one year in reduced NHS costs by preventing 400 hip fractures.' Enough said.

If you want to know more about osteoporosis, you can't do better than to contact the National Osteoporosis Society (NOS). There is a multitude of self-help groups for so many illnesses today and some seem to be biased towards a particular point of view that can be unhelpful or even dangerous, but I put NOS right at the top for excellent advice and knowledge. My reader should certainly contact NOS at its helpline - 0845 450 0230.