Osteoporosis Osteoporosis Basics

Ignoring the Warning Signs of Osteoporosis

There are approximately 8 million women and 2 million men living with osteoporosis in the United States today, according to the National Osteoporosis Foundation. An estimated 34 million more people have low bone density, a precursor to osteoporosis.

The disease causes bones to become brittle and prone to fracture, and while osteoporosis is both preventable and treatable, it often goes undiagnosed and untreated because it has no symptoms. But under-diagnosis is not the only reason osteoporosis often goes untreated...

A recent study by University at Buffalo researchers shows that even when people are diagnosed with osteoporosis, often they fail to pursue treatment. Nearly half of the 836 women in the population-based study who underwent osteoporosis screening for the first time were found to have osteoporosis. Follow-up, one year later, showed that half of the women diagnosed had not begun treatment to slow progression of the disease, and a quarter of the women diagnosed had failed to discuss the screening results with their physician.

Study results were presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Epidemiological Research this week.

Below, Dr. Martin Nydick and Dr. David Zackson of the New York Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell Medical College, discuss the dangers associated with osteoporosis, and the reasons why a proactive treatment approach is a good idea.

Q: How would you define the disease?
DAVID ZACKSON, MD: Osteoporosis is a disease of the bone in which the bone substance is normal but there's just not enough of it to connect, on a microscopic level, in a normal fashion. This makes the bone much more vulnerable to fractures.

For those who get the disease, it manifests itself as loss of height, which is due to compression fractures of the vertebrae, and increased vulnerability to hip fractures in older age.

Q: Twenty-five million Americans have osteoporosis. What does this mean in the world of American healthcare?
MARTIN NYDICK, MD, FACP: This is a very prevalent disorder. It produces about a million and a half fractures each year and it's been estimated that it may be costing our economy up to or more than twenty billion dollars in healthcare costs. These costs are from nursing homes and other services that are necessary to take care of people after they have fractures, which can be very debilitating.

Q: What is the most dangerous outcome of this disease?
DAVID ZACKSON, MD: Hip fractures are the most devastating result of osteoporosis, and result in the most deaths. There's a death rate increase by twenty-five to thirty percent within the first year after having a hip fracture.

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