Osteoporosis
Many millions of people in this country have osteoporosis.
Osteoporosis is a disease in which bones become fragile and are more likely to break.
If not prevented or if left untreated, osteoporosis can progress painlessly until a bone breaks.
These broken bones, also known as fractures, occur typically in the hip, spine, and wrist.
This can be devastating to the individual suffering from it.
Women are four times more likely than men to develop the disease.
You are never to old to be treated. There are drugs
currently available that can actually stop bone loss, and help you rebuild bone density.
Also, with a DEXA Scanner, bone loss can be detected long before it is visible on X-ray,
and before there are any clinical signs or symptoms.
The radiation exposure is only one tenth that of a chest X-ray!
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THE NITTY-GRITTY
ABOUT YOUR BONES:
People think of their bones as being dead structural material, like rocks or cement blocks.
In reality, our bones are “dynamic”, that is they are microscopically the site of much
activity. They are constantly being broken down and rebuilt/ or remodeled. In
osteoporosis, one loses bone faster than it is being replaced, and this leads to brittle
bones that are more likely to break. Osteoporosis means low bone mass as well as
microarchitectural deterioration. Now, with our current technology, we can only measure
the bone loss, not the architectural change. Luckily, more than 80% of a person’s fracture
risk can be predicted by bone mineral density alone.
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