What is Osteoporosis?

Osteoporosis means “porous bone” and is a silent disease. Under a microscope bone looks like coral or honeycomb. If you have osteoporosis, your bones have bigger holes and spaces than in healthy bone. This structural deterioration leads to low bone mass and the bones become weak and break more easily. There are no symptoms until a fracture occurs.

Minor trauma such as a cough, sneeze, bumping into furniture, lifting a child or a fall from a standing height may be the only cause. People with osteoporosis most often break a bone in the hip, spine or wrist. These fractures are often slow to heal and can cause chronic pain.

Osteoporosis is an under recognized and under treated condition. The National Osteoporosis Foundation (NOF) estimates 10 million people in the United States have osteoporosis and 34 million more are at increased risk because of low bone mass.

More people in the US sustain a fracture from osteoporosis each year than are diagnosed with a heart attack, stroke or breast cancer combined. Over 50% of women and 25% of men over age 50 will sustain a fracture related to low bone mass in their lifetime. Even more alarming, 10 to 20% of those who suffer a hip fracture die within the first year and up to 25% require long-term nursing care.

However, osteoporosis is preventable and treatable.