Osteoporosis is a very common condition in the present world , perhaps because we are living longer. Osteoporosis in simple language means fragile bones. It is more common in females. One in Five females suffer from this after the age of fifty, the recent study done in Australia showed that there were 1.3 million osteoporotic women in Australia compared with 50 million women in USA in 2010. 80 thousand women each year in Australia, suffer from a fracture from minor trauma, usually in the arm , hip and spine.
Billions of dollars are spent on health budgets to look after these women and men.
And the misery they suffer from the complications are immeasurable.
Osteoporosis is a preventable disease and we can save so much pain and suffering and cost if we act early.
This prevention really should be started in childhood, its like the foundation of a house, the better , the longer the house will stand. Like the repair of the house , the body also needs constant care to prevent osteoporosis.
The four important factors that are adequate nutrition, calcium, vitaminD and physical activity.
In very young children up to the age of 4 you need 500mgs of calcium per day, then in adolescents about 700mgs and teenagers about 1000mgs. In older women the need increases again to 1300mgs per day.
Five to ten minutes of sport in the sun each day is enough to keep their vitamin d levels up to around 50units.
So as you can see it is very simple to maintain your bone health.
The best bone health is around late twenty's and it is called peak bone mass.
So if you have your best bone density at that age, your risk of osteoporosis is 30% less in old age.
There are some risk factors which increase the risk of osteoporosis , the most important being genetics, a frail figure, smoking, long term use of steroids, for example in Asthma, early menopause, poor gonadal activity(poor development).
The diagnosis is best made by bone density scan, called "dexa scan".
More tests are performed in complicated cases to study the calcium metabolism, and hormones involved in bone formation.
The treatment is simple, keep your calcium, Vitamin D and exercise up.
The drugs required fall in to two categories' one is to stop the bone destruction, and the other is to make the bones remodel. The bones get repaired all the time by the process of absorption and remodelling .
Hormone replacement in women is the best treatment for prevention and management of osteoporosis, except where this cannot be given.
It is very useful to take HRT in early menopause preferably before the age of sixty.
DO NOT BE AFRAID of HRT or MHT, do not suffer and enjoy life.
There are many other drugs available, for the management of osteoporosis, and they fall under the group of drugs called anti absorptive, they are called Bisphonates.
Nothing is worse than lying in a hospital with a broken hip, hanging in a sling, counting days, don't let it happen, do not be anti HRT, you cannot treat osteoporosis by calcium , vitamin d only.
To build a house you need a builder which is the HRT and you need concrete which is Calcium and Vitamin D.
