Your bones are living, growing tissue. Bone tissue is highly dense, and your bones provide structural support, protect vital organs, and store the calcium essential for normal body functions. In order to understand how osteoporosis occurs, it is important to become familiar with the living, growing nature of bone tissue.
Osteoporosis Risk
Bone Turn-Over Rate
Stages of Bone Loss
Spine Fracture Risk
Osteoporosis Risk
The risk factors for osteoporosis include:
- Family history of osteoporosis
- Female of advancing age
- Cigarette smoking
- Excessive use of alcohol
- Sedentary lifestyle
- Low calcium diet
- Caucasian or Asian descent
- Slender body build
- Early menopause
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Bone Turn-Over Rate
Bone undergoes a continuous cycle of resorption and formation. Old bone is routinely "resorbed," or carried away, by your body as part of its normal function. At the same time, new bone is formed in your skeleton. The rate of old bone resorption and new bone formation changes over time. As you go through your childhood and teen years, new bone is added faster than old bone is resorbed, resulting in overall bone growth. Most women acquire a majority of their bone mass by age 18, which peaks by age 30. This is when your bones are most dense and strong.
After age 30, the process very slowly reverses, meaning that more bone is carried away than is formed. This results in overall bone loss, which can continue as you age. When bone resorption happens too quickly, or new bone grows too slowly, a person may reach the point of developing osteoporosis. The disease is more likely to develop if you did not acquire the best bone mass during your bone-building years.
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Stages of Bone Loss
- Decreased Estrogen Causes Bone Loss: Since the hormone estrogen helps protect against bone loss, less estrogen in your body results in more bone loss. That's why the years after menopause—when a woman's ovaries stop producing estrogen—is the time of life when bone loss is most rapid. In fact, women can lose up to 20% of their bone mass in the 5 to 7 years following menopause.
- Low Bone Mass May Become Osteoporosis: When you reach a point where you have significantly less bone than normal, you have a condition called low bone mass. With further bone loss, your bones may no longer have a normal structure. At this point you would have osteoporosis.
- Osteoporotic Bones Can Break Easily: Osteoporotic bones are thin and fragile, and can break easily. Once you have experienced a spine fracture, there is an increase in the risk of experiencing another spine fracture.
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Spine Fracture Risk
Women with osteoporosis are more likely to experience a spine fracture than women without osteoporosis. And once a spine fracture occurs, the risk of experiencing another spine fracture increases.
If you are a woman past menopause with osteoporosis, it is important to talk to your doctor about ways you can reduce your risk of spine fracture. Your doctor may recommend ways to help make your bones stronger, including taking EVISTA once daily.
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