‘Osteo’ comes from the Greek word mean­ing bone.

Osteo­poro­sis is a com­mon skele­tal con­di­tion, which is also known as ‘brit­tle bones’, due to the thin­ning of bones caus­ing them to become porous, frag­ile and more brit­tle, mak­ing bones eas­ier to frac­ture or break. It is often referred to as a ‘silent dis­ease’ because you may not realise you have osteo­poro­sis until you actu­ally break a bone.

Around 20 per­cent of the body’s bone tis­sue is replaced each year with the bone den­sity cycle. Old bone is removed by cells called osteo­clasts and replaced with the for­ma­tion of new bone tis­sue by cells called osteoblasts. The old bone is replaced and removed by the release of acids and enzymes by the osteo­clasts then the new tis­sue is deposited by the osteoblasts, which also secrete pro­tein for bone strength.

Estro­gen defi­ciency has been recorded as a cause of bone loss. This loss can be noted for the first time when men­strual cycles become irreg­u­lar dur­ing per­i­menopause. It can occur any­time from 1.5 years before the menopause to 1.5 years after menopause.

In Aus­tralia one in two women and one in three men aged 60 and over, will sus­tain an osteo­porotic frac­ture. Any bone can be affected by osteo­poro­sis, but the most com­mon frac­tures occur in the hip, spine, wrist, ribs, pelvis and upper arm.

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