Ms. Huang called to ask: my mother suffers from osteoporosis, usually nothing abnormal, a few days ago lifting heavy objects accidentally flashed the waist, at first thought to rest a few days to get better, but the pain in the waist but more and more powerful. It was only when I went to the hospital that I discovered an osteoporotic fracture of the thoracolumbar spine. I wondered why I had fractured my back after flashing it. Doctor’s answer: Osteoporotic fracture is a kind of fragility fracture, your mother has osteoporosis itself, and one slight external force is enough to cause a fracture. Generally speaking, the incidence of fracture in patients with osteoporosis is about 20%, especially in women over 60 years old, and the incidence of fracture doubles with every 5 years of age. The common fracture sites are the spine, hip, proximal humerus, and distal radius. The spine is the most common site for osteoporotic fractures, mostly occurring in the thoracic and lumbar spine, and is often caused by minor external forces, such as bumps in a car, coughing and sneezing, bending over to hold a child, bending over to pick something up, etc. Some fractures can be caused even without any external forces. Due to the poor quality of bone in the elderly, the bone healing process is slow after fracture, and osteoporosis itself increases the risk of re-fracture. How can the disease be prevented? In addition to medication to improve bone mass, the elderly should get more sun exposure, balanced nutrition, and a diet that contains adequate calcium, vitamin D, and other nutrients. At the same time, it is important to improve the home environment and take anti-slip measures to reduce the chances of falls in the elderly can also reduce the occurrence of osteoporotic fractures. For elderly patients with hypertension, diabetes, chronic liver and kidney diseases, and those who need to take steroids, anti-cancer drugs, diuretics, etc. for a long time, they can also visit the bone metabolism clinic and ask specialists to evaluate the osteoporosis condition and give appropriate interventions, which can reduce the incidence of osteoporotic fractures.