What is osteoporosis?
Osteoporosis is a bone disease that leaves them fragile and brittle. Young, healthy bones constantly make new, strong tissue when you lose it. With osteoporosis, your body doesn’t create new bone tissue fast enough to replace the old, dying tissue. So your bones are less dense and lack the structural strength to support your body or absorb impact. When you fall or take a blow to part of your body, your weakened bones are more likely to fracture or break.
Osteoporosis develops gradually over many years. It’s classified into four stages, ranging from normal bone density and development (Stage 1) to severe, physically noticeable bone loss and deformities (Stage 4). As you hit more serious stages, your risk of fractures rises — even from minor falls or normal movements.
What causes osteoporosis?
Some bone density loss is normal. As we age, our body produces less bone tissue. By the time you hit 40, your body is probably losing more bone tissue than it’s producing. There are a number of things that can speed up that process and increase your risk of osteoporosis, including the usual culprits of smoking, drinking, lack of exercise and family history. There are also several other things that can affect your bone density:
- Not enough calcium, vitamin D or protein in your diet
- Low levels of hormones — estrogen for women and testosterone for men
- Certain medical conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, blood disorders and cancers, anorexia, gastrointestinal diseases, HIV or AIDS, thyroid disease and diabetes
Anyone who is naturally thin or has a smaller frame typically has less bone density, so they are more likely to experience osteoporosis. This is especially true of women after going through the hormone changes of menopause.
What are the symptoms of osteoporosis?
Osteoporosis happens silently and slowly inside your body. You don’t notice any signs of bone density loss or have any sense that your bones are weaker. Most times, the only way you find out you have osteoporosis is after breaking a bone. If you break or fracture a bone from something you wouldn’t normally expect to injure you, that could be a sign.
More advanced osteoporosis may show up in your physical appearance. Even these signs are hard to spot because they happen so gradually that you may not notice the changes:
- You may be an inch or more shorter than you used to be.
- Your posture is more hunched over.
- Breathing is more difficult, leaving you short of breath.
- You suffer from lower back pain.
How do you diagnose osteoporosis?
A bone density scan detects osteoporosis by measuring the amount of calcium and minerals within your bones. It’s a special type of X-ray (sometimes referred to as a DEXA scan) that sends radiation through your bones. The more minerals present, the more the energy absorbed by the bones, showing the level of density.
Your health care provider will review the bone density test results and tell you whether you have normal bone density, low bone density or osteoporosis.
What osteoporosis treatment options are available?
The first step in treating osteoporosis is reversing the trend of bone density loss. While you can’t reverse the effects of aging, you can still change other factors that contribute to weak bones:
- Exercise regularly. Light, weight-bearing exercise like walking, Pilates, yoga and tai chi strengthen your bones and the muscles around them without stressing them.
- Quit smoking and drinking. Both cigarettes and alcohol decrease the amount of calcium your body absorbs, which affects bone health.
- Maintain healthy eating habits. Excessive or restrictive dieting can leave you deficient in the minerals, vitamins and protein your bones need.
- Take vitamin and mineral supplements. At your doctor’s discretion, you may need calcium, vitamin D or other supplements for healthy bones.
Your doctor may also prescribe other treatments to build back your bone density, especially if your osteoporosis is more serious or your health makes it harder to incorporate lifestyle changes. The right treatment for you depends on what factors are causing your bone density less. There are hormone therapies for low estrogen or testosterone, injections to reduce your risk of fractures and bone-building medications for severe cases of osteoporosis.
When should I see a doctor about osteoporosis?
Your health care provider is an important partner in managing osteoporosis throughout your life. They can also help you prevent osteoporosis long before a diagnosis. Bone density scans are an important screening tool to monitor your bone health. Talk to your Internal Medicine physician if you’re over 50 and have recently broken a bone, have a history of fractures, know family members with osteoporosis or have a health condition that causes bone density loss. Your doctor will examine your health and assess your risk to determine whether bone density testing and other osteoporosis treatments are necessary.