Osteoporosis

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• QIs osteoporosis life-threatening?

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  A Diana Meeks , Family Medicine, answered on behalf of Sigma Nursing

  Osteoporosis is not usually life-threatening. It is important to exercise, maintain a healthy diet and take your medications. If you have a fracture from osteoporosis it will certainly affect your lifestyle while the bones heal. About half of the people who have a hip fracture will need help walking after the hip heals.

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• QWhat is osteoporosis?

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  A Diana Meeks , Family Medicine, answered on behalf of Sigma Nursing

  Osteoporosis is a condition where your bones become weak and contain less bone tissue. Osteoporosis literally means "porous bones." The name is appropriate because if you have osteoporosis your bones are less dense and appear to have more pores or holes in them. The lower bone density may predispose you to bone fractures.

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• QWhen should I call my doctor if I have osteoporosis?

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  A RealAge answered

  When to see your doctor about osteoporosis depends on how high your risk of having a fracture might be. Bone density is just one of several factors that influence your risk. Endocrinologists (physicians specializing in the treatment of metabolic illnesses such as osteoporosis) recommend that a person receive treatment for osteoporosis if the T-score in your bone density test is -2.5 standard deviations (SDs) or lower and if no other medication or disease is causing bone loss.

• QHow common are bone fractures due to weak bones?

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  A Dr. Michael Roizen, MD , Internal Medicine, answered

  Bone weakening, or osteopenia and its more severe form, osteoporosis, affects more than 25 million Americans. It is the major underlying cause of hip fractures and bone breaks in the elderly. Approximately 1.35 million bone fractures, including 300,000 hip fractures and 700,000 fractures of the vertebrae of the spine are caused annually by osteoporosis weakened bones coupled with a fall which stresses the weakened bone. Although osteoporosis affects women disproportionately, especially small-boned women of Northern European or Asian descent, we are all at risk. More than twenty million women have this disease, but so do more than four million men. Also, as more men live longer, they are at a higher risk of osteoporosis.
• QWhat is the real danger of osteoporosis?

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  A Dr. Mehmet Oz, MD , Cardiology (Cardiovascular Disease), answered

  When you think of osteoporosis, you probably think of old ladies who are stooped over. And you probably think of bone breaks. Both are unfortunate and preventable-but the second one can lead to tragic consequences.
  
  Surely, fractures are a danger of having thin bones--but it's not the break itself that makes osteoporosis so bad. It's what happens after the fracture.
  
  A hip fracture, for example, doesn't age you, but the fracture triggers a chain of aging-related events. When you're bedridden, you become weaker, becoming more susceptible to infections. With less exercise, your arteries become less elastic and more prone to blockage. And finally, your immune system becomes more vulnerable to dangerous diseases and infections.
• QWhy are so many who have osteoporosis unaware of it?

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  A Dr. Mehmet Oz, MD , Cardiology (Cardiovascular Disease), answered

  Many people who have osteoporosis have no idea they have it. Why? In most cases, there aren't any symptoms until you break a bone. Break an arm when you slip on the ice, and you think nothing of the way it happened-you know that the trauma was significant enough to cause a break. But break an arm when you bump into the doorway, and it's a tip-off that your bones are much weaker than normal and that you may have osteoporosis. A doctor may also discover osteoporosis through an X-ray taken for another problem. You can also have a test to measure your bone mineral density, such as a DEXA scan.
  
  It's easy to see why prevention is so important: you never see the injury coming until it's too late to do anything about it. The other important reason is that treatment doesn't cure osteoporosis; it only slows the thinning process and can help rebuild new bone. Because your bones grow when stimulated under the right circumstances, you can take steps now to prevent bone loss and osteoporosis.
• QIs osteoporosis a disease?

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  A Boston Women's Health Book Collective , Administration, answered

  Osteoporosis is not a disease but a risk factor. It does not by itself predict whether a woman will have a bone fracture. Preventing, detecting, and treating osteoporosis is significant to prevent fracture, but other risk factors are more important.

  A woman with osteoporosis has fragile bones that break more easily. Osteoporotic bones have less mass—that is, they weigh less—than normal bones. In addition to weighing less, osteoporotic bones have lost some of the microscopic architecture that gives the bones strength.

• QWhat are the different categories of osteoporosis?

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  A Boston Women's Health Book Collective , Administration, answered

  The World Health Organization announced the following categories of osteoporosis in women:

  • Normal: Bone mineral density(BMD) within 1.0 standard deviation of the average for young adult women
  • Osteopenia: BMD within 1.0 to 2.5 standard deviation below the average for young adult women
  • Osteoporosis: BMD with more than 2.5 standard deviation below the average for young adult women
  • Severe osteoporosis: BMD with more than 2.5 standard deviation below the average for young adult women and one fracture related to osteoporosis