Osteoporosis

Understanding Osteoporosis

Usually, osteoporosis does not cause any symptoms at first. Osteoporosis is often called the "silent" disease, because bone loss occurs without symptoms. People often don't know they have the disease until a bone breaks, frequently in a minor fall that wouldn't normally cause a fracture. Many people confuse osteoporosis with arthritis and believe they can wait for symptoms such as swelling and joint pain to occur before seeing a doctor. It should be stressed that the mechanisms that cause arthritis are entirely different from those in osteoporosis, which usually becomes quite advanced before its symptoms appear.

Strangely and unfortunately, the symptoms of the disease occur and are understood by the ordinary person only until the disease is at an advanced stage. Some of these symptoms noticed are: Bone pain and tenderness, accompanied by cramps in the legs at night are common symptoms; Weakened spines, resulting in height Loss. A patient may loose as much as 6 inches in height due to Osteoporosis; Regular pain in the spine or muscles pertaining to the lower back; Problem in the neck areas without any specific injury; Abdominal and rib pain; A tendency of brittle fingernails, frequent fractures or broken bones; Evident spinal deformities, like stooped posture, outward curve at the top of the spine resulting in vertebral collapse in the back.

In case of early detection and awareness of Osteoporosis, treatment and normal life is possible. Diagnosis for Osteoporosis is done by doing a background check of family history, blood tests, bone density test, spine X-ray and spine CT tests. Measuring of the bone mass of the spine and the hip is a good indication of the body's overall bone health. This is done to gauge presence of Osteoporosis.