The word meaning of osteoporosis, also known as osteoporosis among the people; In Latin, ‘os’ means bone and ‘por’ means hole, meaning bone with holes. When we look at our bones under the microscope, they have a perforated appearance like a honeycomb. If you have osteoporosis, this honeycomb appearance will appear as larger gaps than healthy ones. This means that the density or mass of your bone tissue decreases, so your bones become weaker and brittle. In 1994, the World Health Organization (WHO) defined osteoporosis as a diffuse bone disease characterized by reduced bone mass and deterioration of the microarchitecture of the bone resulting in an increased risk of fracture.
Osteoporosis is a very common disease. In the Caucasian race, one out of every two women over the age of 50 and one out of every four men have low bone density. 20-25% of men over the age of 70 and women over the age of 50 have osteoporosis.
Osteoporosis is an important disease. The most important complication is fracture; It can cause more important or even fatal consequences, especially in older ages. Osteoporosis-related fractures often occur in the hip, spine, and wrist. Severe/persistent pain may develop due to the fracture. In people with osteoporosis, stature becomes shorter due to volume loss and compression fractures in the spine. This causes posture disorder such as hunching in the person. Even if surgical intervention is performed due to hip fracture, it causes death in 20% of the elderly and many of them become in need of care.
Osteoporosis sneaks up on you; It develops very quietly and the gradual weakening of the bones is not felt. The person may complain of shortening in height, bending / hunching in the back and pain.
Some people consider bone hard and lifeless; but our bones are living and growing tissues, just like our skin or muscles. Our bones are made up of three important structures that give it flexibility and strength. These are:
-Kalogen: a protein that forms a flexible roof to the bone,
-Calcium-phosphate mineral complex, makes bone strong and hard,
-Living cells: regeneration of bone provides.
In children and young people, bone formation is greater than destruction. Bone density gradually increases during this period and reaches its peak at the age of 18-25. While maintaining the balance between bone formation and destruction between the ages of 25-50; In the following years, women lose 20% of their bone density 5-7 years after menopause due to the decrease in estrogen level with menopause.
You can take steps to protect your bones at any age; it’s never too late.
There are some risk factors that predispose to osteoporosis. Some of these are risks that we can control and some that we cannot control.
-Female gender, being over 50 years old, ethnic origin (more Asian, Caucasian and Latino than African and Hispanic), having a family history of osteoporosis, being thin and weak, having fractures;
-Not getting enough calcium and vitamin D, not consuming fruits and vegetables, taking excessive protein, caffeine and sodium, smoking, excessive alcohol and being too thin (Body Mass Index ≤19); are risks that we can control.
Osteoporosis may develop spontaneously without an underlying cause, or it may develop secondary to an underlying cause, sometimes at very early ages. These secondary causes may develop due to an underlying disease of the person or due to the drugs used by the person. Diseases:
– Inflammatory rheumatic diseases (rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, ankylosing spondylitis), digestive and intestinal problems (celiac disease, inflammatory bowel disease, gastric bypass surgery, etc.), hormonal causes (diabetes, parathyroidism and thyroiditis) gland overwork, Cushing’s syndrome, early menopause, decrease in testosterone level in men), blood diseases (such as leukemia, lymphoma, multiple myeloma, sickle cell anemia, thalassemia, blood and bone marrow diseases), neurological causes (such as stroke, Parkinson’s, spinal cord injury) ), mental diseases (such as depression and anorexia-eating disorder), cancer and other causes (such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, female athletes-menstrual disorder, eating disorder, excessive exercise, chronic kidney and liver diseases, excessive weight loss).
Drug-related: Cortisone use, thyroid replacement therapy, gastric protective drugs (Proton pump inhibitors), depression treatment (those that act on serotonin receptors), heparin, anti-androgenic therapy, aluminum-containing antacids, cyclosporine A, tacrolimus , some drugs used in the treatment of cancer, such as methotrexate, some drugs used in the treatment of epilepsy.
