About Osteoporosis
A disease of the skeletal system, osteoporosis — known also as "porous bone" — affects both men and women and all demographic groups. When bones become deficient of calcium and vitamin D, which in turn diminishes thickness, bones become more susceptible to fractures and breaks. This is one reason that osteoporosis is also known as a "silent" disease since it's not detected until a joint or verteberal fracture of some kind occurs.
Osteoporosis is a condition of very low bone density. Osteoporosis affects
10 million people in the United States, mostly women. Another 34 million
Americans
have bone density that is lower than normal. It is estimated that one in
three women over the age of 50 will experience a bone fracture due to low
bone density. More on the epidemiology
of this disease.
Think of bones as receptacles of growing tissue that have an outer layer of "cortical" or dense bone, that wraps itself around "trabecular" or spongy bone. The spongy, healthy internal part of bone resembles the image of a porous sponge, and with osteoporosis, effectively the holes in the sponge increase and become more numerous, thereby contributing to an overall weakening of the internal structure and not providing the exterior with the support it needs.
If one were to think of bones as storers of calcium and other important nutrients that the body looks when it has needs calcium, the process of breaking it down in order to rebuild bone and replenish much-needed supply would present a linear process that's somewhat understandable. Men and women approach peak bone mass into their early 30's, which then takes an abrupt shift and then greatly decreases the bone rebuilding process.
"We tend to think of the skeleton as an inert erector set that holds us up and doesn't do much else. That's not true," says Karl L. Insogna, M.D., director of the Bone Center at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut. According to FDA Consumer Magazine, of the 2 to 4 pounds of calcium in the body, nearly 99 percent is stored in the teeth and skeleton.
"The upper limit of bone mass that you can acquire is genetically determined," says Mona S. Calvo, Ph.D., a calcium expert in the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. "But even though you may be programmed for high bone mass, other factors can influence how much bone you end up with," she continues.
More on symptoms of osteoporosis