Overview
Osteoporosis is a disease of the bone that affects the body’s ability to make bones and/or causes bone loss. When this happens, the bones become very fragile and weak resulting in it breaking from a fall and in some serious situations, from just sneezing, coughing, and minor bumps. This condition is quite common, especially amongst older people.
This disease is caused majorly by the lack of calcium and vitamin D in the body. Low calcium consumption leads to the reduction of bone density and bone loss. Being underweight, smoking, lack of exercise, malabsorption [1], aging, and genetics are also causes of bone weakening in the body. A bone density test [2] is conducted to check for osteoporosis. It is the use of an x-ray to check the density of the bones in your spine, wrists, and hips. Osteoporosis is also known as porous bone.
The bones in the body renew constantly, as new bones are being made while old ones are broken down. The younger a person is, the faster the body makes bones than it breaks it down. This causes an increase in the body’s bone mass. However, the process begins to slow down during a person’s early 20s and most people reach the height of their bone mass by the time they are 30years old. The older people get, the more the body breaks down bones more than it makes them.
There are four main stages of osteoporosis, they include: