Symptoms of Osteoporosis

The skeletal system is complex, providing structural framework, protection of vital body organs, mineral storage, blood cell production, and attachment locations for muscles in order to allow for movement of the body. With all of the important functions of the skeletal system, having weak or brittle bones can prove devastating to health - pain from fractures, loss of motion, decreased protection of the vital organs, unhealthy or incompatible blood, and loss of important minerals.

Bone is a dense tissue in the body. Its density comes from a protein framework and a crystalline matrix of phosphorus and calcium. Bone is a resilient tissue; in fact, bone cycles over every two years. This means that whatever bone one has today is entirely replaced, remodeled, and renewed in a period of two years. (Of course, this process does not occur instantaneously, but over a daily, gradual process.) This resilience of bone allows bone to completely heal with no scarring - a broken bone is unnoticeable on x-ray or with the naked eye after the break has had two years to cycle over!

Thus, since bone is so resilient, it can renew itself and not be subject to degeneration. Yet, why does bone degenerate and become porous and brittle? The answer: nutrition and poor conditions. Bone can only be made out of the raw materials available and can be weak from lack of resistance and various conditions of the body.

Osteoporosis ("porous bone") is a disease characterized by loss of normal bone density; the bone becomes more compressible like a sponge rather than behaving like a solid brick. As the bone weakens and becomes more porous, the risk of compressions or fractures rise exponentially. The most common fractures of osteoporosis occur in the wrists, hips, and spine. Early symptoms of osteoporosis are virtually non-existent; a person may feel aches in the joints or muscles as more strain is placed upon them due to weakening bones. Progressed symptoms of osteoporosis include brittle or weak bones, fractures, loss of height, and bone deformations.

Bone weakening has no symptoms and therefore progresses almost unknown. In fact, x-ray can only pick up bone density loss once approximately 50% of bone density is lost! The gold standard for measuring bone density, bone densiometry, is the DEXA (or DXA) scan. This scan analyzes bone density by utilizing a small x-ray beam on the distal radial bone of the wrist for approximately two minutes. It can detect bone density loss much sooner than a standard x-ray.

Osteoporosis is known as a "disease of society", meaning that it is a disease that only occurs due to poor nutrition and poor health habits. If one were to consume adequate quality calcium by eating green, leafy vegetables, exercise regularly, and avoid the foods and beverages that leach bone, osteoporosis could be a disease in the history books. Proper prevention is simple and is worth more than the cure and much more than the suffering with the debilitating disease.