Osteoporosis – disease that weakens the bones – is condition of decreased bone density. That makes bones more fragile, thus more susceptible to fractures, even after relatively minor injuries. Sometimes they occur after normal actions, such as coughing or hugging and once you survive your first fracture, the scary truth is that the risk of new fractures is high. It is true that osteoporosis most commonly occurs with women in their post-menopausal years; nevertheless it can also occur with younger women as well as men.
The fact that osteoporosis can exist in a body for some time and reveal itself only after a fracture makes this disease silently fearsome. That’s why it is of the utmost importance to know how to prevent it, or let’s say how to strengthen bones.
During childhood, bone mass or density accumulates and peaks in the age of 25. Then after some time (experts say around age of 35), person regardless of the sex, starts to lose 0.3%-0.5% of bone density per year. And here is the reason why women after their menopause suffer from this condition in the more severe way. After menopause, level of estrogen in their bodies decreases significantly and that makes bones more porous. Period after menopause is period of speedy bone loss because studies have shown that women lose between 25-30% of their bone density in the first ten post-menopausal years.
Studies conducted have identified risk factors that may lead to developing:
- age: older people (women and men)
- female sex
- family history; probability that you’ll get osteoporosis if somebody in your family has had it goes in the range between 25-80%
- bone structure and body weight: small, thin women tend to be more susceptible to potential risk, as well as men with small bones
- history of fractures
- estrogen deficiency: postmenopausal women (decrease of testosterone in men has much milder effect).
Those above mentioned risks are sometimes called “non-modifiable“ as opposite to group of so-called “potentially modifiable“ risk factors, which include:
- smoking
- significant alcohol drinking
- some medications
- Vitamin D deficiency
- malnutrition
- high protein diet
- excessive work-out
- exposure to heavy metals.
The best way to check if you have osteoporosis is Bone Mineral Density (BMD) Test or bone scan. BMD’s most popular technique is dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA or DEXA). It gives osteoporosis as diagnosis if the so-called T-score equals or is smaller than 2.5 standard deviations.
Some studies suggest that screening for osteoporosis should be conducted on all postmenopausal women below age of 65 with potential risk and all women older than 65.
Regarding the treatment of osteoporosis, there are several medications that have proven to give results. They can be divided into two groups: antiresorptive or bone anabolic agents for reducing of bone resorption and bone anabolic agents that build bones. But additional to such treatment with medication, it is very important to work on “potentially modifiable” factors: have regular exercise program, increase calcium and Vitamin D intake.
So, maybe you will not be able to prevent osteoporosis to happen to you, but you can do a lot for yourself and not allow it to have bad influence on your life.
