What is Osteoporosis: A disease in which bones become fragile and more likely to break. It can progress painlessly until a bone breaks. Severe/Established Osteoporosis is where a patient suffers the breaking of bone form a standing/low height fall.

Diagnosis: The diagnosis of Osteoporosis done by measuring the bone mineral density of a patient. Dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) is used to do this and Osteoporosis is where the results of the DXA for the specific patient equal to or below 2.5 standard deviations of a chart established by the world health organisation.

Cause:
Age - After the age of 35, bone density in humans starts to decrease at a rate of 0.3-0.5% per year.
Gender - Females generally have lower bone density than men.
Race - Inherited in genetics
Diet - A diet that lacks calcium (ex. milk, cheese, and other dairy products)
Menopause - Women may lose 2-4% of bone density per year as a result of low estrogen levels after menopause.
Other causes:
-Lifestyle
-build (people of thin or small build are more susceptible to developing osteoporosis)
-chemotherapy (it can sometimes bring on menopause early)
-She may have had a traumatic event, such as falling down stairs.
-Osteoporosis occurs when an imbalance occurs between new bone formation and old bone resorption.The body may failto form enough new bone, or too much old bone may be reabsorbed, or both.
-Sustained fracture before being aware of the disease being present
-The leading cause of osteoporosis is a lack of certain hormones, particularly estrogen in women and androgen in men.
-Long time use of steriods such as prednisone
-Inadequate intake of calcium and vitamin D, lack of weight-bearing exercise, andother age-related changes in endocrine functions (in addition to lack of estrogen).
-Arthritis-conditions where there is damage to joints in the body. Specific: osteoarthritis which is a degenerative joint disease that occurs following trauma to the joints following an infection or a result to aging.

Signs and Symptoms:
-Osteoporosis itself has no specific symptoms, but the main effect of osteoporosis is the increased risk of fracture. Osteoporotic fractures are those that occur in situations where healthy people would not normally break a bone. These are viewed as fragility fracrtures. The average fragility fracture occurs in the vertebral column, hip, and wrist.
-Vertbral compression fractures have several main symtoms: pain, numbness, tingling, weakness, and losing controll of urine or stool.

Bone Mineral Density Test:
A bone mineral density test is an easy reliable test that measures the density, or thickness, of your bones. It measures the amount of mineral (calcium) in a specific area of bone. The more mineral you have in the bone measured, the greater your bone density or bone mass.
A BMD test can:

• Measure the density of your bones
• Detect osteoporosis before a fracture occurs
• Help to predict your chances of fracturing in the future
• Monitor the effectiveness of treatments for osteoporosis

Treatment:
Medication: bisphosphonates or newer drugs called teriparatide and strontium renelate. Minocycline, an antibiotic related to tetracycline can also help, as it is inexpensive, has been shown to increase bone mineral density, improve bone strength and formation, and slow bone resorption.
Excercise: walking and jogging to bear their own body weight for bones to grow stronger. It will reduce the risk of falls by strengthing the mucscles on the legs and back. In a sitting position with the back against the wall and slowly squatting will strengthen the legs and back.
Nutrition : Calcium (around 1200-1500 mg of calcium should be taken per day) and Vitamin D (shown to reduce fractures by 25% in older people) *(important: excess protein is bad)
Quit tobacco smoking and drink alcohol in moderation (or quite in general)
-Surgery- Two sergical methods of treating osteoporosis is 1) a vertebroplasty (relieves pain from spinal compression fractures. Injection of cement like mixture into crushed aread) or 2) a kyphoplasty which is used to restore vertabrae to their normal shape. (balloon device inserted to fractured vertabrae-cement like mix is poured into the spot where the balloon takes up space).
-Metal Screws: holds the bones together while healing
-replacement: remove ends of femur and replace with metal prosthesis
-Total Hip Replacement: If arthrititis/injury has damaged the joints and it affects the function.

Increased Risks: Bone fracture. Women with osteoporosis are at high risk for "Fragility Fractures," fractures resulting from situations where a healthy person would normally not break a bone.
Old age creates increased risks of falling and thereby more fractures. Impaired vision due to aging also increases the likelihood of falling.