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Osteoporosis Osteoporosis Basics

What is Osteoporosis?

Summary & Participants

Most women assume that they already know the ABCs of osteoporosis. But with 10 million cases of this disease in the U.S. alone, there's no doubt people need to know more about this serious condition and how it can be prevented. Join us as we take a deeper look into this common and debilitating condition.

Medically Reviewed On: June 18, 2008

Webcast Transcript

LISA CLARK: Welcome to our webcast. I'm Lisa Clark. When it comes to osteoporosis, most women think they know the basics, but with 10 million cases of osteoporosis in the U.S. alone, there's no doubt people need to know more about this serious condition, which in many cases can be prevented. What exactly is osteoporosis, and why does it occur?

Joining me today to answer these questions is Dr. Carolyn Becker, the Associate Director of the Tony Stabile Osteoporosis Center at Columbia University. Dr. Becker, thanks for being here. We appreciate it.

CAROLYN BECKER, MD: Thank you.

LISA CLARK: I guess we'd better start with the very basics. What is bone?

CAROLYN BECKER, MD: Many people think of bone as a dead tissue. It is a living tissue, and it consists of calcium, phosphate, a lot of minerals. It gives our body its structure so we can walk. It also provides calcium and other minerals to maintain a normal balance in our blood.

LISA CLARK: As a living system, what is the normal bone cycle like? How does that work?

CAROLYN BECKER, MD: The reason we worry about osteoporosis is that bone remodels itself. It is constantly getting rid of the old and replacing it with new bone so that it's structurally sound and strong bone. As we get older, especially after age 30 or 35, for some reason the bone that gets eaten away to be replaced by new bone is not replaced by as much new bone, so there's a net loss of bone over the years. The remodeling process goes on very rapidly after menopause for women, and that's often a time when there is very rapid bone loss.

LISA CLARK: Why does that happen, do they think?

CAROLYN BECKER, MD: We think it's because the lack of estrogen sets up a dynamic within the bone so that the bone starts to be more resorbed, or eaten away, rather than built up. There are two kinds of cells that we find in the bone -- osteoblasts and osteoclasts. Osteoblasts build bone, osteoclasts are like little Pac-Men that eat away the bone and cause these craters to be formed. Lack of estrogen and various other hormonal changes, as well as aging, seem to affect this balance so that the bone cells eating away the bone for some reason overcome the cells that are forming new bone, so you have a loss of bone over time.

Now, there is a bit of an erroneous assumption that osteoporosis is just something that affects older women. Actually, you could say that osteoporosis starts in childhood.

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