Osteoporosis is an important disease that seriously endangers the health of the elderly, with serious consequences of fractures and post-fracture complications resulting in disability and death, placing a heavy burden on patients, families and society. Therefore, osteoporosis is an important health issue facing the world, along with heart disease, hypertension, diabetes and other chronic diseases.
So what is osteoporosis?
It was only at the 4th International Symposium on Osteoporosis held in Hong Kong in 1993 that a clear definition was given: osteoporosis is a systemic skeletal disease characterized by a decrease in bone mass and degradation of bone microstructure, resulting in an increase in bone fragility and susceptibility to fracture. From here, it can be seen that osteoporosis is first a systemic disease, then a degeneration of bone, microstructural changes, and finally an increase in brittleness and susceptibility to fracture, thus saying that osteoporosis is an important health problem facing human beings.
First, what are the symptoms of suffering from osteoporosis?
First, pain: pain is the most common symptom of osteoporosis, with low back pain, pain spreads along the spine to both sides, posterior extension when upright, pain increases when standing or sitting for a long time, pain increases at night or early morning when waking up, bending, muscle movement, coughing, and pain decreases during daytime or when lying on the back.
Second, shortening of height and hunchback: Since the spine is the pillar of the body and is heavily loaded, it is easily compressed and deformed after osteoporosis, which shortens the height.
Third, decreased respiratory function: This is due to the thoracic deformation caused by compression of the thoracolumbar spine, which causes a series of symptoms such as chest tightness and difficulty in breathing.
Fourth, fracture: this is the most common and serious complication of osteoporosis, which can lead to disability or death in some patients, and its most common fracture sites are the spine, the hip and the wrist.
It has been reported in the literature that there are two high-risk age groups for fractures in a person’s lifetime, one at the age of 10-20 years, mostly caused by more severe trauma, and one over the age of 50 years, mostly caused by fragility fractures due to osteoporosis. The occurrence of osteoporotic fractures in the elderly depends on two conditions: the fragility of osteoporotic bones, the decrease in quality and the ability to withstand external forces; and the other is that the elderly are prone to falls causing stress on the bones. Therefore, the prevention of fracture should start from two aspects: firstly, osteoporosis should be prevented and treated, and secondly, when osteoporosis has occurred and is more serious, the prevention of falls in the elderly should be the main focus.
From the above, it can be seen that osteoporosis is a universal health problem that should be given sufficient attention, therefore, the International Health Organization has designated October 20 every year as “Osteoporosis Day”.
Second, what is the harm of osteoporosis?
1.It causes inconvenience, physical and mental pain to patients.
2.Complications threaten health and life, and even lead to disability and early death.
3. Huge waste of money and resources.
3.How can I know if I have osteoporosis?
The current gold standard for diagnosing osteoporosis is dual-energy X-ray bone densitometry (DXA), which uses a T-score for postmenopausal women and men over 50 years of age, judged by the lowest score in the lumbar spine, femoral neck or total hip.
T-score compared to peak bone in healthy adults
Normal BMD>-1
Low bone mass -2.5 SD < BMD < -1 SD
Osteoporosis BMD < 2.5 SD
Severe osteoporosis Osteoporosis + fragility fracture