Introduction
¡@ Patients with osteoporosis are usually not aware of this disorder. Major symptoms are back pain, hunchback, getting shorter in body height, scoliosis and fracture if severe. Bones are responsible for support, protection, exercise, blood formation and storage of calcium. Bone is a live tissue and continues to decompose and re-grow.
¡@ Bone remodeling has different conditions during different ages. Children in the growth period have faster bone formation than bone resorption; therefore, new bone matrix can be accumulated and help them to grow height. People in their twenties have peak bone mass. After thirty, calcium in the human bones is decreasing rapidly and results in low BMD, causing degenerative changes of bone tissue, fragility and fracture. Those symptoms are so-called "osteoporosis".
¡@ Bone matrix degradation starts at the age of thirty to thirty-five. Women get osteoporosis more easily than men because women generally have smaller skeletons and bone mass. In addition, female bodies stop excretion of female hormone (estrogen) after menopause. Estrogen is one of protective factors in BMD, so the absence of it causes more rapid bone loss.
¡@ Not only female but also male would have osteoporosis, especially for high risk groups. One-fourth of female who are older than 65 have osteoporosis in Taiwan; young women are also risk group of bone loss. One-twelfth of male who are older than 50 have osteoporosis in Taiwan. Prevention is crucial to avoid suffering from osteoporosis.
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Why bone loss happen?
¡@ Osteoporosis falls into the category of defects in bone turnover. There are still no precise causes of the disorder. Nowadays we generally believe these are possible risk factors:
1. Aging
Bones are naturally aging when people are getting older, causing lower bone density.
2.
Decrease of female hormone (estrogen)
Estrogen helps bone formation and decelerates bone resorption. However, women who enter menopause or were excised ovaries stop to excrete estrogen, accelerating bony degenerative disorder.
3. Dystrophy
Insufficient intake of Calcium. Frequently eating high-salt and high-protein food, smoking cigarettes and drinking wines.
4. Abnormal lifestyle
Seldom exercise and no exposure to the sun.
5. Having specific diseases or taking specific medication
Either of those above would cause deceleration of bone formation and acceleration of bone resorption.
6. Hereditary factors
Heredity is also the cause of Osteoporosis.
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Symptoms
¡@ There are no prominent symptoms in
the early stage. Patients are usually
aware of the disorder until encountering
fracture. Common symptoms are as following:
1. Ache
Patients feel weak and bone-ache and
this mostly happen in their waist, pelvis
and back. Ache would continue and intensify.
2. Fracture
Not all patients would feel ache before
they have fracture. Patients could have
fracture easily if they fall down or
are even slightly touched. Patients
in their fifties or sixties have frequent
fracture of vertebra (spine) and radius
on their forearms. Patients in his seventies
or eighties have frequent fracture of
proximal humerus, tibia, pelvis and
hip bones. Because fifty percent of
hip bone fracture causes death, people
must pay close attention.
3. Hunchback
The vertebra (spine) would encounters
long-term pressure after fracture so
as to shorten height.
4. Scoliosis and joint deformation
¡@ Those symptoms would affect patients'
type of build. In addition, patients
would suffer from pain (oesteopenia),
disability and large amount of medical
expenses. The disorder affects not only
individuals and their families but also
the whole society.
¡@ Currently, there is no safe and effective
way to cure osteoporosis completely.
Therefore, prevention is important and
it is never too late to save your bones.
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