Osteopenia & Osteoporosis
What is Osteopenia?
Osteopenia is when your bones are weaker than normal but not so far gone that they break easily, which is the hallmark of osteoporosis.
What is Osteoporosis?
Osteoporosis comes after osteopenia and is a condition in which gradually decreasing bone mass and deteriorating bone structure leads to increased bone fragility and increased risk for fractures, particularly of the wrist, hip and spine.
Osteoporosis is a major skeletal disorder that predominantly affects women.
Symptoms
Osteoporosis progresses without symptoms until fractures occur or Kyphosis (a curvature of the spine that causes the top of the back to appear more rounded than normal) becomes apparent. Thus, osteoporosis is often described as a silent menace.
How can to check your bone state?
With a bone density scan. This exam is used to measure bone mineral density (BMD). It is most commonly performed using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA or DEXA) or bone densitometry.This exam will be authorised by a doctor.
How to reduce risk ?
Is divided into non avoidable and avoidable.
Non avoidable risk factors:
Gender: women are more likely to develop osteoporosis than men
Age: the older, the higher the risk of osteoporosis
Family history: having a parent or sibling with osteoporosis increase the risk
Frame size: those size smaller body frame size tends to have higher risk due to having less bone mass to draw from as they age.
Hormonal imbalance: low levels of oestrogen especially at menopause, increases the risk of developing osteoporosis at a later age.
Thyroid problem: too much can cause bone loss.
Avoidable risk factors
1. Body weight
Higher body weight is positively linked to bone mass and therefore a higher body weight it is associated with a higher bone mass and reduce risk of osteoporotic fracture.
2. Physical activity
Appropriate physical activity can aid attainment of peak bone mass, reduce age-related bone loss. However, excessive can be detrimental to the bone health.
3. Calcium intake
Calcium is important for maintaining strong bones and the recommended intake is at least 700mg a day (The British Dietetic Association, 2005).
4. Eating disorders
Eating disorder can lead to osteoporosis and loss of muscle strength, particularly in women and girls, thus a specialist is essential.
5. Vitamin D
It is important to help the body absorb calcium and it can be found primarily in UV sunlight exposure, eggs, milk and oily fish.