Osteoporosis: Definition, Symptoms, Causes and Diagnosis

Osteoporosis, leaving its devastating fracture trail behind, is a serious global health problem. And like other chronic diseases that disproportionately affect the elderly, the prevalence of osteoporosis and associated fractures is expected to increase significantly with an aging population. The most devastating consequence of osteoporosis fractures. Osteoporosis is a disease characterized by reduced bone mass, quality and strength, changes in skeletal microarchitecture and increased risk of fractures. A surprising number of people have osteoporosis worldwide, including 75 million people in the United States, Europe and Japan alone. It is estimated that 30 to 50% of women and 15 to 30% of men will experience osteoporosis-related fractures in their lives

Osteoporosis is a serious public health problem that affects all layers of the world community.The good news is that healthy women and men aged 50 to 65 still have time to engage in preventive osteoporosis behaviors to reduce bone loss and height loss. It is imperative that research efforts continue and expand to develop further effective therapeutic measures with fewer unpleasant side effects and that professionals and the general public are better informed about lifestyles that support bone health

For years it was thought that osteoporosis was an inevitable part of aging and that very little could be done. But the state of the art is improving. With recent advances in diagnostic and therapeutic modalities, it has become clear that an untreatable disease should no longer be considered. Research in the area of ​​bone disorders has increased significantly, providing the medical community and the public with a more detailed understanding of the factors that promote bone health or cause bone disease and fractures

Osteoporosis Definition

The word osteoporosis literally means porous bones.It happens when bones lose an excessive amount of their protein and mineral content, spicifecly calcium. Over age, bone mass and thus bone strength, reduces. As a result, the bones become brittle, fragile and break easily. It is often referred to as silent disease because symptoms are not noticed until a fracture occurs. Over the past two decades, a tremendous effort has been made to improve diagnostic methods, raise awareness and identify treatments for osteoporosis

In primary osteoporosis, the results of laboratory studies should be normal. Abnormal study results may suggest an associated disorder. The major common laboratory abnormalities in osteomalacia are hypophosphataemia and raised serum alkaline phosphatase. A low alkaline phosphatase suggests hypophosphatasia. Hypophosphataemia with hypocalcaemia generally indicates a vitamin D deficiency, while isolated hypophosphataemia is more consistent with renal tubular phosphate loss syndrome

Secondary osteoporosis can be the result of underlying medical conditions, including malabsorption; hyperthyroid hypogonadism; multiple myeloma; and the administration of certain drugs, in particular corticosteroids. In the company of the secondary causes, vitamin D deficiency and glucocorticoid use are among the most common

Osteoporosis Symptoms

Osteoporosis is called a silent disease by health experts because there is little evidence of its presence until it is well established

Often in a minor fall which would normally not cause a fracture. A common occurrence are compression fractures of the spine. This can happen even after an apparently normal activity, such as bending or twisting to lift a light object. Fractures can lead to severe back pain, but sometimes go unnoticed. However, the vertebrae collapse on themselves and the person really loses height. The clumsy appearance of many older women, sometimes called the widow's hump or widow's hump, is due to the effect of osteoporosis on the vertebrae

Early signs of accelerated bone loss have a loss of more than 1⁄2 inches in height and forming of kyphosis, a hump in the middle of the back. However, these signs develop slowly and over a considerable time, often several decades, making them less noticeable

Osteoporosis Causes

The causes of osteoporosis include aging: osteoporosis is more likely when people age and their bones lose strength, Genetics, hormonal imbalances (e.g. estrogen deficiency: osteoporosis appears to mainly affect women due to of two reasons: estrogen and build - researchers don't do it completely.) They understand how estrogens protect bone health, but they know that when estrogen levels drop dramatically, like menopause, bone demineralization accelerates, hyperparathyroidism) , environmental factors (eg Diet, nutrition: a low level of calcium intake in the diet is modestly associated with the reduction of bone mass and calcium supplements provide some protection against bone loss, smoking and exercise and medications (some prescription drugs can speed up bone loss, e.g. corticosteroids, methotrexate, cimetidine, heparin and chemotherapy)

Much progress has been made in recent years thanks to new research methodologies that allow scientists to study cells and bone tissues at the cellular and molecular level and in a variety of models

Osteoporosis Diagnosis

Currently, the diagnosis of osteoporosis largely depends on the evaluation of BMD and other fracture risk factors. The discovery of genes that play important roles in defining highest bone mass, bone loss rates and bone microarchitecture (i.e. trabecular thickness, number, etc.) can allow doctors to divide the currently large population of patients with osteoporosis depending on the pathophysiology. This may have important implications for therapy since patients with osteoporosis based on different pathophysiologies may respond differently to various therapies

Before making a diagnosis of osteoporosis, the doctor usually makes a complete medical history, performs a physical examination and orders X-rays, as well as blood and urine tests, to rule out other diseases that cause bone loss. And to make sure, your doctor will ask you a bone density test. This is the only way to know for sure if there is osteoporosis, and it can also know the progression of the disease

Dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) measurements of bone mineral density (BMD) of the hip and spine play an important role in assessing people at risk of osteoporosis and in helping doctors advise patients on the correct use of the anti-fracture treatment. Compared to alternative bone densitometry techniques, DXA hip and spine exams have many features, in which BMD results can be explained using the definition for the osteoporosis T score. Add to know, how predictable fracture risk, assured efficacy in managing anti-fracture therapies and ability to monitor response to treatment

Doctors use a relative percentage loss of the bone scale to measure the severity of osteoporosis. The scale represents bone loss as the standard deviation (SD) of the accepted norm for optimal healthy bone mass. An SD value of -2.5 or higher (2.5 SD below normal) is diagnostic of osteoporosis

The results of bone density test are reported by using T scores. A T score shows how much bone density is greater or less than the bone density of a healthy 30-year-old adult. A healthcare professional examines the lowest T score to diagnose osteoporosis (a T score of -1.0 or higher is normal bone density. Examples are 0.9, 0 and -0.9 / A T score between - 1.0 and -2.5 interprets that they have low bone density or osteopenia, examples are T scores of -1.1, -1.6 and -2.4. A T score of -2.5 or less is a diagnosis of osteoporosis. Some examples are the T scores of -2.6, -3.3 and -3.9. In general, the lower T score, the lower the bone density

Another representation is the Z score, which compares the person's bone density with that of the norm for others of the same age and gender. Some test facilities report bone loss as a percentage; a value of -2.5 SD represents a loss of bone density of about 35 percent (bone mass is 65 percent of what it should be)