Osteoporosis: Bone Disease

“In the United States, approximately 30 million women and 10 million men aged 50 years or older have osteoporosis, low bone mineral density, or both, placing them at risk for disabling fractures” (Gronholz, 2008). Osteoporosis is a bone disease that occurs when the bones become fragile and brittle from the loss of tissue. The disease affects the entire skeleton including the spongy bone layer. Bones with a large spongy bone percentage are usually weakened and affected the most by condition. These would include the spine, the hips and the wrists. The hormones that are involved are estrogen (in women) and testosterone (in men). When these hormone levels decrease bone decay increases. Hyperparathyroidism can also cause osteoporosis due to too

For osteoporosis to be diagnosed and treated properly a bone density scan is needed. The most commonly performed test is the Dual Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry (DXA). The DXA detects the percent of bone loss in the whole skeleton. It also measures the raw density information with a T and Z score. The T-score represents the amount of bone you actually have compared to the normal population. The Z-score represents the amount of bone you have when compared to people of the same age group. A normal T-score ranges from -1.0 or higher. Osteoporosis ranges in the -2.5 or lower for the T-score. Although, the DXA is the most commonly used way to diagnose osteoporosis there are other test that can be used to test specific parts of the body.

There’s the Peripheral DXA (DXA), Quantitative Ultrasound (QUS), Single Photon Absorptiometry (SPA), Peripheral QCT (PQCT), Single-Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry (SXA), Quantitative Compound Tomography (QCT), and the Dual Photon Absorptiometry (DPA).

These different test measure different body parts bone mass which includes: (DXA) at the forearm, finger, and heel, (QUS) heel or finger, (SPA) wrist, (PQCT) forearm, (SXA) heels or wrist, (QCT) spine or hip (DPA) the spines and hip, and whole

In the long run osteoporosis can lead to an increased likeliness of fractures because the bones are so weak that fractures occur easier than they would normally be expected to. These frequent fractures and weak bones can cause major chronic pain to the entire body. Osteoporosis makes it hard for bones to grow properly which means bones are sometimes not strong enough and can affect mobility. Too many fractures or constant injuries in the same area of the body, not giving the bones adequate time to heal or gain enough strength can also result in disability that can eventually become long-term. Hip fractures due to osteoporosis can lead to death. Remember, osteoporosis is a silent disease and there are any ways to prevent it, get