Osteoporosis: Prevention, Prognostication, and Treatment Options

One of the most common and serious conditions involving the skeletal bones is osteoporosis. In many cases of this condition, the skeletal bones lose their natural toughness that they break, causing very little trauma or none at all. The bones of the wrist, hip, and spine are those most likely to fracture in osteoporosis.

As it is, the complicated nature of osteoporosis is not completely understood, although it appears that certain factors - or a combination thereof - play an important role in effecting the diminishing by degrees of the robustness of the bones, this being the distinguishing characteristic of osteoporosis.

Many of those who have the disease do not realize that the condition is present in them until the same has become well settled. A break in the bones of the wrist or hip, which occurs as a consequence of a natural tendency, may be an early sign of the existence of the condition. Pain in the lower back, caused by vertebral crush fracture - the collapse of a vertebra - is a typical sign in some cases. But the most perceptible consequence of the disintegration of the vertebrae is widow's hump, a condition characterized by the forward-curving of the spine in the upper back, resulting further to the tapering of the individual's height.

In measuring bone density in the wrist, hip, and spine, doctors use a couple of medical techniques: dual-photon absorptiometry, or DPA, and quantitative CT scanning. As far as high-risk subjects are concerned, these two medical techniques are very useful in assessing the extent of the loss of bodily minerals that has occurred. But in normal subjects, the prognosticative value of these techniques may be limited. It is for this reason that the use of these medical techniques for screening purposes is not deemed cost-effective.

While researchers and medical experts do not fully agree on how best to deal with osteoporosis medically, they are united in one important point: Prevention is a vital prelude to any program of actions necessary to take in keeping osteoporosis in check. Some preventive measures must be mentioned in this regard: ensuring that the body has a sufficient supply of dietary calcium; shunning the two well-identified risk factors - excessive drinking and smoking; and engaging in some moderate bone-stressing exercises as jogging. It must likewise be made clear here that engaging in immoderate exercise or weight loss programs can bring about susceptibility to osteoporosis in the individual concerned.

In high-risk subjects involving post-menopausal women, hormone-replacement therapy is considered an ideal treatment. However, for those with a history of certain conditions, such as uterine cancer, liver disease, or stroke, estrogen therapy may not be appropriate. Also, this therapy has been pointed to as a factor in increasing slightly the occurrence of uterine cancer specifically in women who have not had a hysterectomy, the surgical removal of the uterus. It may help lessen the risk if progestogen is given at the same time, but the combination may present another risk in the form of cyclic bleeding which is much like menstruation.

Other treatment techniques have been tried or used on women who have lost bone sturdiness and are experiencing instances of fracture. For example, a combination vitamin D-calcium-sodium fluoride medication or an injection of calcitonin (a hormone that lowers level of calcium in the blood plasma) has been successfully used in such cases of osteoporosis. [Read the Original Article]

Sources:

http://www.nof.org/osteoporosis/index.htm
http://www.medicinenet.com/osteoporosis/article.htm