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What is osteoporosis?
Osteoporosis is a disease of progressive bone loss associated with an increased risk of fractures. It literally means "porous bone." The disease often develops unnoticed over many years, with no symptoms or discomfort, until a fracture occurs. Osteoporosis often causes a loss of height and dowager's hump (a severely rounded upper back).

Why should I be concerned about it?
Osteoporosis is a major health problem, affecting 25 million Americans and contributing to an estimated 1.3 million bone fractures per year.

One in two women and one in five men over the age of 65 will sustain bone fractures due to osteoporosis. Many of these are painful, debilitating fractures of the hip, spine, wrist, arm and leg that often occur as a result of a fall. However, a task as simple as lifting a heavy window can produce a fracture of the spine in a person whose bones have been sufficiently weakened by the disease.

The most serious and debilitating osteoporotic fracture is the hip fracture. Most hip fracture patients who previously lived independently will require assistance from their family or home care. All hip fracture patients will require walking aids for several months after injury, and nearly half will permanently require canes or walkers to move around their house or outdoors. Hip fractures also are expensive. Health care costs from hip fractures total more than $9.8 billion annually or $35,000 per patient.

What causes osteoporosis?
Doctors don't know the exact medical causes of osteoporosis, but they do know many of the major factors that can lead to the disease. These factors are:

• Aging. Everyone loses bone with age. After 35, the body builds less new bone to replace losses of old bone. In general, the older you are, the lower your total bone mass and the greater your risk for osteoporosis.
• Gender. Osteoporosis is eight times more common in women than in men. The disease affects as many as half of all women in the United States over the age of 45 and 90 percent of women over the age of 75.
• Estrogen. The maintenance of bone density in women is strongly related to the female hormone estrogen, and production of this hormone greatly decreases with menopause. A lack of estrogen also can accelerate osteoporosis in women who experience early menopause or amenorrhea (absence of menstruation); the latter condition can be caused by excessive exercise, the eating disorders bulimia and anorexia nervosa, and other conditions.
• Heredity. A family history of fractures, a small, slender body build, fair skin, and a Caucasian or Asian background can increase the risk for osteoporosis. Heredity also may help explain why some people develop osteoporosis early in life, even before menopause.
• Nutrition and life-style. Poor nutrition, including a low calcium diet, and a sedentary lifestyle have been linked to osteoporosis, as have smoking and excessive alcohol use.
Medications and other illnesses.
• Osteoporosis has been linked to some medications, including steroids, and to other illnesses, including some thyroid problems.

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