This is a condition of the bones where the bones become thin and weak, it mainly occurs in the wrist, hips and spine and it is a disease which mainly affects women who have gone through the menopause. However it isn’t just limited to women and men and younger people can also be affected too, though in younger people there are generally other factors contributing to the cause as well.
The disease affects millions of people throughout the world, with more of these being women, a huge percentage of fractures that occur do so as a result of osteoporosis. Women are more at risk due to the loss of bone speeding up after they have gone through the menopause, the risk is increased even more in women who have gone through menopause early or who have had their ovaries removed before reaching menopause.
You should ask yourself the following questions in order to determine if you might be at a higher risk of developing the disease.
If two or more of the questions above apply to you then you should talk this over with your doctor, your doctor might suggest that you have blood tests and an examination in order to determine if you have the disease.
There are a variety of ways which the disease can be determined; tests include a DEXA scan which involves a very low dosage of x-rays. The x-ray will usually be performed on the hip or wrist and this is to check for the density of your bones, the specialist can then determine if you have the disease or if you might be at risk in the future of developing it.
You can help to prevent the disease from occurring in several ways:
