Causes of Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis is known as “silent disease” because you will never know you are suffering from that condition, until your bone breaks due to a sprain, fall or bump. Osteoporosis is the condition when your bones become weak and fragile and easily prone to fractures. Most often fractures occur in the hip, wrist and spine.

Some risk Factors

• Women get osteoporosis more than men
• Older people have a greater risk of osteoporosis than younger people
• Asian women have higher risk of osteoporosis than Black or Hispanic women

Causes of osteoporosis

Obesity and low weight: The main cause for osteoporosis is obesity. Excess weight can weaken your bones. Similarly low body weight women have less bone mass and this can also lead to osteoporosis.

Family history: This is another cause of osteoporosis. If anybody in your family has osteoporosis, you are more at the risk of developing this condition.

Smoking and consuming too much of alcohol: This can also contribute to getting osteoporosis. They reduce the calcium and estrogen level in your body.

Estrogen deficiency in women and testosterone deficiency in men: after menopause women experience bone loss and a drop in their estrogen, and this increases the risk of osteoporosis.

Lack of calcium and vitamin D: Many of the organs of your body depend on calcium in your blood. Calcium is also needed to make your bones strong. Lack of calcium makes your bone brittle. Vitamin D is needed to strengthen your bones and prevent bone loss.

Lack of exercise: This can also weaken your bones and cause osteoporosis. You have to do strength training exercises at least for 30 minutes every day to increase your bone and muscle mass.

Medications: taking drugs for treatment of diseases like thyroid, asthma, psoriasis, rheumatic arthritis and epilepsy, blood thinners, antacids with aluminum can also weaken your bone and increase the risk of fractures.

Too much of protein and too much of caffeine also reduces the calcium level in your body and weaken your bones.

Diseases: Many diseases associated with aging causes osteoporosis like kidney problems, intestinal problems, thyroid problems, surgical removal of ovaries or testes, cancer, rheumatic arthritis, endocrine disease, Paget’s disease and liver disease.

Osteoporosis is a common disease that affects people as they grow old. Make changes in your lifestyle. A healthy diet, exercising and avoiding smoking and alcohol, make you disease free and healthy and also reduces the risk of osteoporosis. Remember “prevention is better than cure”.

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