Osteoporosis - Symptoms, Diagnosis and Treatment

Introduction

Osteoporosis is a disease which is characterized by a decrease in bone density, causing bones to become porous. In the body of the patient the amount of calcium reduces (provides support for the bones). Thus the bones of patients with osteoporosis are extremely fragile and susceptible to trauma, and prone to frequent fractures. This disease is common and usually affects older people, especially women (75%).

Symptoms

Unfortunately, osteoporosis usually has no symptoms that would make the patient suspect of disease, so it is often seen when the disease has already spread to the bone. Some patients have signs of disease like stoop (kyphosis), decreased height and back pain, but most patients gives credit for that to their age, so the disease is diagnosed most often after a fracture.

There are three different types of osteoporosis, and these are:

Postmenopausal type - occurs in women after menopause, but there is a case of this type of osteoporosis in men the same age. This type of disease is characterized by changes in the vertebrae, which leads to severe pain and even fractures.

Senile type - The type of disease occurs in people older than 75 years and it is caused by aging. It is characterized by frequent occurrence of hip fractures.

Secondary type - This type of osteoporosis is caused by endocrine (diabetes, hyperthyroidism,...) and systemic diseases (leukemia, malignant diseases,...) and different drug therapies (corticosteroids, anticonvulsants,...).

Diagnosis and treatment

Diagnosis is based on history, clinical presentation, patient examination and tests such as CT, densitometry, and detailed laboratory tests.

Any post-menopausal women should take hormone replacement therapy, consisting of estrogen and progestin. Estrogen reduces the risk of coronary artery disease, but also increases the risk of uterine cancer, so in women where the uterus is not removed it is combined with progestin to protect against uterine cancer.

For patients who for some reason can not take hormone therapy, it is necessary to treat with some other drugs. In that case most commonly bisphosphonates are used to prevent fractures, increase bone density and maintain bone mass.

Some of the drugs that are commonly used to treat osteoporosis: calcitonin, raloxifene and tamoxifen.

In any case, patients are recommended to prevent disease. If a person suspects that it might have osteoporosis you should firstly go visit your doctor and intake sufficient amounts of calcium and vitamin D supplements. The doctor will probably tell you to exercise as much as possible, use healthy diet and avoid alcohol, tobacco and caffeine.