Preventing Fractures: Signs, Risk Factors of Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis, and the condition that precedes it, osteopenia (low bone mass), is not just a problem for older adults past retirement age. It is a condition that can start for many adults in their 50s and 60s.

A recent report found that one-quarter of all American women aged 65 or older suffer from osteoporosis, which weakens bones and greatly increases a person's risk for dangerous hip, back or other fractures. An estimated 6 percent of men in this age group also have osteoporosis, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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[Transcript]

[Signs of Osteoporosis]
Natalie Regalado:
The whole idea of osteoporosis is that bones are weaker than they're supposed to be. Instead of falling and really hitting yourself hard with something that should cause a fracture, we see that our patients are either having very minor falls, or no fall at all, they've bent over, or that they did something like picking up a gallon of milk and that causes a fracture. By definition, if anybody has what we call a fragility fracture, where they did something that shouldn't have caused the fracture in anybody else, and it caused a fracture, they should come in and be evaluated for that.
[doctor explaining what Osteoporosis is and how it affects the body]
[Doctor discussing how to go about getting a heel scan]
Natalie Regalado:
The other thing that's very important is loss of height. Our elderly people think, and the community in general, they think that losing height is a normal part of aging, and to a certain extent they're right. But if you lose more than average, that could be a sign that it's because you're having osteoporosis. And another thing is when people have what we call in the medical community kyphosis, or people are bent over, that's not just regular aging. That's because you're having the silent fractures in the back that are a sign of osteoporosis.
Natalie Regalado:
We have to take it back and think about, what is it that you're trying to prevent? We know that if a patient breaks their hip, because of osteoporosis, the morbidity and the mortality, the bad things that happen to the patients are horrible. That's the end goal. We want to prevent hip fractures and all other fractures. Definitely, even if people don't have symptoms, women after usually 65 and men after 70, 75, depending on which guideline you follow, they should be assessed for osteoporosis, even if they have no signs or symptoms, because we're trying to get ahead of the game. We're trying to prevent the fracture.
[To get a free heel scan that measures low bone mass visit BaptistHealth.net/OsteoScan]
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[End Transcript]