Osteoporosis is a systemic skeletal disease, which is characterized by low bone mass, which results to the increased fragility of bones, and the tendency for fractures.
Bone loss both in men and women begins at 30-40 years of age, in parallel with the reduce of muscle mass. In women from menopause begins a period of accelerated bone loss, which ranges from 2% to 5% per year, for the next 10 years.
Osteoporosis is distinguished into two main types, the postmenopausal or type I osteoporosis that regards women of an age between 50 and 65 years and the senile or type II osteoporosis that regards both sexes and manifests after 70 years of age.There are, of course, two more types of osteoporosis, the idiopathic juvenile osteoporosis which is rarer and the secondary osteoporosis by known causes (e.g. immobilization, drugs, chronic diseases, neoplasms, diet, endocrine abnormalities, genetic abnormalities, etc).
Risk factors according to the National Osteoporosis Foundation of the USA for osteoporotic fractures are the following:
- The sex
- Prolonged amenorrhea (>1 year) before the menopause
- Smoking
- Reduced calcium intake during the patient’s lifetime
- Weight <57.6 Kg
- Alcoholism
- Estrogen deficiency
- Repeated falls
- Premature menopause (<45 years) or bilateral oophorectomy
- Reduced physical activity
- Poor hygiene