Boning Up on Osteoporosis

December 29, 2004

(http://www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesTitle/productCd-0764554581.html) Boning Up on Osteoporosis Adapted _Menopause For Dummies_ (http://www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesTitle/productCd-0764554581.html) Osteoporosis is a disease characterized by weak and brittle bones. Bone deteriorates, as you grow older, becoming weak and brittle. Anyone lucky enough to live to a ripe, old age loses bone - it's part of the natural aging process. But not everyone develops osteoporosis. Osteoporosis is a serious issue for women - particularly during and after menopause. The real danger of osteoporosis is that it sets the stage for literally breaking a leg (or a hip, or a wrist, or another bone). And as you age, breaking a bone becomes more than an inconvenience - it can be deadly. A hip fracture carries the same mortality rate as breast cancer in the elderly! And half of hip-fracture victims become dependent upon caregivers for the rest of their lives. Linking osteoporosis and womenAbout 25 million Americans have osteoporosis, and most of them are women. The good news is that the disease is preventable and treatable, even after menopause. Women lose bone at very different rates, so the following generalizations reflect averages for the perimenopausal (premenopausal), menopausal, and postmenopausal years and don't necessarily apply to every woman: * Perimenopause: Most women begin losing bone from their spine before or during perimenopause at a rate of 1 percent per year. * Menopause: After a woman becomes menopausal, the rate of bone loss increases to about 3 percent per year if she doesn't receive hormone therapy. * Postmenopause: Sometime during the ten years following menopause, bone loss slows back down to a rate of about 1 percent per year. In the first five to seven years following menopause, a woman can lose as much as 20 percent of the total bone she's expected to lose during her lifetime. By the time a woman is in her 80s, she may have lost as much as 47 percent of her total bone density. Only 25 to 33 percent of women develop osteoporosis. However, it's like a thunderstorm. You may only have a 33 percent chance of rain, but if it rains on your picnic, it's a mess. Defining and diagnosing osteoporosisOsteoporosis literally means porous bone - bone that is weak and brittle. Too little calcium in the bone is the cause of this disease. Both men and women can develop osteoporosis, but it's more common in women than men for a couple of reasons: * Women's bones are less dense than men's bones. * Testosterone stimulates bone growth and helps build stronger bones. Men have more testosterone than women. * More women live further into their senior years than men.In your grandmother's day, doctors only diagnosed patients as having osteoporosis if they actually broke a bone because of the disease. Waiting for a fracture before taking action is like buying a lottery ticket after the drawing - it's a bit too late. Today, technology exists that can help identify osteoporosis before it results in painful and often debilitating fractures. Diagnosing osteoporosis in terms of objective measurements of bone density is more practical than waiting for an injury. Bone-density measurements allow your medical team to treat your condition early so you can prevent injury and promote healing. How can you tell a healthy bone from a fragile bone? One way is to cut the bone in half and look at a cross-section. * A healthy bone looks like Swiss cheese - lots of cheese separated by small holes. * A fragile bone looks like lace - lots of holes separated by thin, string-like structures.Medical folks measure bone density (strength) to determine if you have brittle bones. Nearly 30 years of research has proven that low bone density leads to fractures. Osteoporosis today is defined in terms of how your bone density compares with the peak bone density of a healthy, 35-year-old woman. * If your bones are just slightly less dense than the bones of an average 35-year-old, the diagnosis is osteopenia - low bone density. * If they're significantly less dense than the bones of an average 35-year-old, the diagnosis is osteoporosis - brittle bones. The threshold that separates osteopenia from full-blown osteoporosis comes from research that shows how much bone you can lose before significantly increasing your risk of fracture. Folks with osteoporosis have low bone density, but they also have a higher risk of fracturing a bone. Looking at causesSixty years ago, doctors noticed that osteoporosis occurred primarily in menopausal women. They suspected that osteoporosis was related to sex hormones - specifically a deficiency of estrogen. Hundreds of research grants later, medical professionals and ordinary folks know that estrogen levels affect bone density. Does menopause cause osteoporosis? The short answer is no. Osteoporosis is caused by calcium deficiency in the bones, and estrogen plays a role in getting calcium to your bones and keeping bones healthy. Deficiencies of other vitamins, minerals, and hormones can influence the amount of calcium that gets absorbed by your bone, thereby contributing to the development of osteoporosis. Lack of exercise can promote osteoporosis as well. Finally, lifestyle choices, such as the use of tobacco and alcohol, can also play a role in the onset of osteoporosis.

Diana Gonzalez

Nothing wastes more energy than worrying - the longer a problem is carried, the heavier it gets. Don't take things too seriously -