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Osteoporosis Facts
Osteoporosis is a disease characterized by low bone mass and weakened, brittle bone structure. Such fragile bones are more susceptible to fractures, especially in the hip, spine and wrist.
- The National Osteoporosis Foundation estimates that osteoporosis poses a health threat to more than 28 million Americans - 80 percent of whom are women. Approximately 8 million American women and 2 million men have the disease, and millions more have low bone density.
- Although the disease occurs more often in older people, it can occur at any age and in any ethnic group. However, white women at least 65 years of age have twice as many fractures as African-American women do.
- More than 1.5 million fractures each year are due to osteoporosis. In 1995, the estimated national cost for treating osteoporosis-related fractures at hospitals and nursing homes was $13.8 million.
- An imbalance between two processes taking place independently of each other in the bone lessens bone mass. Cells called osteoclasts rid the body of old bone tissue by resorbing, or scooping out, the older portions of bones. Cells called osteoblasts make new bone tissue to fill in the scooped-out area. But as the body gets older, bone formation does not keep up with resorption, and bones become thinner and porous.
- People at highest risk for osteoporosis are female, inactive, elderly, postmenopausal and/or anorexic or bulimic, and have any of the following: a thin or small body frame, a family history of osteoporosis, a diet low in calcium and abnormal absence of menstrual periods. Men with low testosterone levels are at an increased risk.
- Currently, the best way to prevent osteoporosis is to build strong bones during childhood and adolescence, because most women acquire 98 percent of their skeletal mass by age 20. A balanced diet, including plenty of calcium and vitamin D, weight-bearing exercise, and a healthy lifestyle with limited alcohol intake and no smoking can help prevent osteoporosis.
- No medications that cure osteoporosis have been developed yet, but the Food and Drug Administration has approved estrogens, alendronate, calcitonin and raloxifene to prevent or treat the disease in postmenopausal women.
- More information about osteoporosis is available from the National Osteoporosis Foundation at www.nof.org.
- LYNN FOLTIN
Baylor College of Medicine
©2006 Texas Medical Center
E-Mail: tmcinfo@texmedctr.tmc.edu
URL: http://www.tmc.edu/tmcnews/02_15_00/page_16.html
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