How To Prevent And Manage Osteoporosis

Very troubling statistics emerged from the 2004 Surgeon General’s Report on Bone Health and Osteoporosis. It costs billion to care for the 1.5 million bone fractures from osteoporosis that occur each year in the United States. Osteoporosis accounts for 2.6 million trips to a physician’s office, 800,000 trips to the emergency room, 500,000 hospitalizations and results in approximately 180,000 people being placed in nursing homes each year.
Osteoporosis is a skeletal disease in which there is compromised bone strength, resulting in an increased risk of fracture.1 Primary osteoporosis is associated with age-related bone loss and with the menopausal loss of estrogen in women.2 Secondary causes include medications, endocrine conditions, metabolic diseases, gastrointestinal conditions, nutritional deficiencies and other chronic illnesses including rheumatoid arthritis, COPD and type 1 diabetes. Essentially anyone with a chronic illness could have associated secondary osteoporosis.

Studies performed in Canada have shown there is often a combination of primary and secondary causes in patients with osteoporosis. A combination of causes occurs up to 51 percent of the time among men and up to 43 percent of the time among women.3 When I interview patients, I primarily look for medications and endocrine anomalies but I also keep a list of other secondary causes in the back of my mind.

http://www.arthritispractitioner.com/article/4393

How To Prevent And Manage Osteoporosis | Arthritis Information