Osteoporosis Complications And Treatment

Osteoporosis comes from the words ‘osteo’, meaning bone, ‘por’, meaning porous and ‘osis’ which is disease. So, this condition is a porous bone disease - it is the wasting away of the inner bone matrix inside the bone itself. It is not to be confused with osteoarthritis, which is the degeneration of cartilage between the joints.

In osteoporosis, the loss of bone mass makes bones so porous and weakened that they become deformed and prone to fracture. In both men and women, bone mass starts to decrease at about the age of 40, and continually decreases from then on. Once women reach menopause, the decreased production of oestrogen can lead to osteoporosis.

To reduce the chances of osteoporosis, make sure you have a lot of calcium in your diet, and exercise regularly. Weight bearing exercise assists in the strengthening of and an increase in bone mass.