Etiology of osteoporosis

Osteoporosis is the thinning of bone tissue and loss of bone density over time. Osteoporosis results when too much bone resorption occurs, too little formation exists, or a combination of both co-exists.

A major cause of osteoporoses is less than optimal bone growth during childhood and adolescence, resulting in failure to reach optimal peak bone mass.

Thus, peak bone mass attained early in life is one of the major important factors affecting the risk of osteoporosis.

Other common causes of osteoporosis include aging, menopause, endocrine disorders, metabolic disorders, malnutrition, malabsorption, and malignancy. Menopause and ageing are the most common causes of osteoporosis.

Endocrine, metabolic and nutritional disorders are more likely to cause osteomalacia, which radiographically resembles osteoporosis but is metabolically and clinically different from osteoporosis.

Increased bone resorption results from estrogen deficiency associated the menopause in normal women also one of the major cause of osteoporosis.

Males with low levels of testosterone are also more prone. The use of tobacco and a family history of osteoporosis also increase the risk.
Etiology of osteoporosis

What is osteoporosis?

Osteoporosis is a disease in which bones become less dense, lose strength and are more likely to break. The bone mass is low and the structure of the bone is poor.

To use a more precise terminology, osteoporosis is a reduction in the amount of bone tissue per unit volume of anatomical bone.

The word osteoporosis is derived from the Greek osteo, meaning bones, and porosis, meaning with holes.

Osteoporosis is categorized as either primary or secondary, depending in the origin of the disease in the individual.

Primary osteoporosis, is characterized by a marked acceleration of bone mass lose, while osteoporosis is a consequential condition resulting from another disease process and/or its treatment.

Osteoporosis happens mainly to women at midlife and later, but also can happen to men and children.

Bone is a dynamic living organ that is constantly changing. The complications of osteoporosis relate to the fractures that result from the condition and therefore depend on which bone breaks.

The tree most common fractures associated with osteoporosis are the wrist, the hip (neck of femur) and vertebrae.

A major cause of osteoporosis is less than optimal bone growth during childhood and adolescence, resulting in failure to reach optimal peak bone mass.

Other causes of osteoporosis are bone loss due to a greater than expected rate of bone resorption a decreased rate of bone formation or both, resulting in less dense bone.

Nutritional factors include dietary intake of calcium and vitamin D.
What is osteoporosis?