Osteoporosis

The Silent Disease

By Donna Verry Dee

Lia Spiliotes doesn't fit the typical image of someone with osteoporosis, a disease most commonly associated with the elderly and characterized by bone fractures and frailty. At 43, she is a single parent of an active 6-year-old boy and the CEO of Predictive Sciences Inc., an Internet healthcare company. In her spare time, she has fun on her Rollerblades.

"I think it's all about maintaining a positive outlook on life and approaching each day with a can-do attitude," says Spiliotes, when asked how she has managed to remain healthy and fracture-free. She was diagnosed with the condition 13 years ago after complaining to her doctor of aches and stiffness.

For millions of other men and women, osteoporosis is a diagnosis they receive only after some minor bump or slip sends them to the emergency room with a fractured hip, wrist or back. Nicknamed "the silent disease," osteoporosis causes bones to weaken and deteriorate secretly, without any obvious signs.

"Bone continually breaks down and builds itself up throughout your life," says Dr. Jeanette Magnus, clinical professor of public health at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. "But once you reach your 30s, your bones do not build up as much as they break down."

When bones begin breaking down more than they build up, they become more porous and less dense, thus the word "osteoporosis", which means "porous bones." The stronger your bones are before you reach your 30s, the more stored up bone mass you will have to work with later.

"It is like placing money in the bank – your bone bank!" says Dr. Magnus. "You start to pull out the interest -- the bone mineral content -- after you are 30 years old, and live on that for the rest of your life."

Women are more at risk of developing osteoporosis than men are. According to the National Institutes of Health, one out of every two women older than 50 will have an osteoporosis-related fracture in their lifetime, as opposed to one in eight men.

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