Prevent Disease.com - Women Need to Know Osteoporosis Risk



		Women Need to Know Osteoporosis Risk Excerpt By Robert P. Heaney, ABCNews.com Many women have undiagnosed low bone density, putting them at risk for osteoporosis. This week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Dr. Ethel Siris and her colleagues report results of a study named NORA, the largest of its type ever performed. More than 200,000 postmenopausal women - patients in more than 4,000 medical practices across the United States - had their bone densities measured. Nearly 40 percent were found to have low bone density levels, putting them at increased risk for fracture, and 8 percent were in the high danger zone. The most disturbing finding in NORA was the fact that 22,096 women — 11 percent of the total group — had had a history of fracture since age 45 — evidence pointing to the bone-weakening disease osteoporosis. But, that diagnosis had not been made in any of them; nor had anti-osteoporosis treatment been started. It is generally agreed that fractures due to osteoporosis substantially reduce the quality of life and cause greater disability for older women, and can even lead to premature death in some. Fracture is the first symptom of osteoporosis, which is an otherwise silent disease. Measurement of bone mass is the only sure way to detect it before fracture occurs. No Group Is Immune While African-American women in NORA were less likely to have low bone mass, as has long been known, still, many had low density levels: 32 percent had values that placed them below the 16th percentile of young healthy women, and 4 percent were in the danger zone. This is the largest study of bone status in African-American women ever published and should alert physicians to the fact that no group in the population is immune to osteoporosis. More than half of all osteoporosis-related fractures are preventable by some combination of improved nutrition, smoking cessation, hormone replacement in postmenopausal women, a rich and growing array of bone-active drugs, and hip protectors. None of these will work, however, unless they are utilized. That means, first, identifying those who are at greater than average risk, and second, an understanding by physicians of how common the disorder is, and a conviction that available interventions are effective and worth applying. Bone-mass screening should be made both less costly and more widely available. Women need the knowledge of their own osteoporosis risk before they will be motivated to make needed lifestyle changes or adhere to a preventive medical regimen. And physicians need to recognize that patients look to them to be alert to this otherwise silent problem and to offer informed help in reducing their fracture risk. Dr. Robert P. Heaney is a professor of medicine at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., and a member of the board of directors of the National Osteoporosis Foundation. Reference Source 104 For more information on how to prevent other diseases, use PreventDisease.com's "Quick Prevention Resources".