Bone Health After Spinal Cord Injury

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Presented at the SCI Forum on April 28, 2021.

If you have a physical disability, you are at higher risk for osteoporosis. For people with spinal cord injuries, it can be an especially common and difficult issue. Did you know about the risk? What should you be doing to keep your bones healthy and decrease your risk for fractures? Join us as we hear from Dr. Susan Ott, MD, professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Washington. Dr. Ott specializes in research and clinical treatments for metabolic bone disease, such as osteoporosis. She believes it is important for patients to understand why spinal cord injury is so harmful to bones. While fracture risk remains high and more research is needed about how to solve the problem of bone loss in SCI, Dr. Ott provides some advice about things you can do to help your bones. She also discusses some new findings on the horizon that give some hope for the future.

For more background on osteoporosis and why it develops, please see Dr. Jelena Svircev’s 2012 comprehensive overview at https://sci.washington.edu/info/forum....