What is osteoporosis? Osteoporosis is a progressive disease where the bones become more porous and weaker over time. Untreated, osteoporosis will weaken, disable and kill both women and men. Almost half of the women in the United States will fracture a hip, forearm or spine sometime in their lifetime. 20% of women who fracture their hip will die within one year. And it is not just a disease of the elderly. Osteoporosis regularly begins its destructive process for women in their thirties. Becoming slightly shorter in height is the most noticable of the osteoporosis symptoms. Osteoporosis causes postural changes, and it makes one more likely to have a bone fracture as one ages.

There are two kinds of bone cells that one should understand. Osteoclasts are the cells that travel through bone tissue, finding bone tissue that needs replacing, removing old bone by dissolving it and leaving small cavities or pores where there once was bone. Osteoblasts are the cells that form new bone cells in the cavities left by the dissolving tissue. This continous process of bone resorption and new bone formation is how bones are kept strong in the healthy body. Bone strength is the result of the balance of these two processes. Osteoporosis happens when more bone tissue is being dissolved than is being rebuilt.

When are the bones οστεοπόρωση the strongest in women? Bone strength is greatest at around age 30 for women. Bone loss typically begins in women 5-20 years before menopause. Osteoporosis occurs regularly in both women and men. Even though a man begins to lose bone mass considerably later in life than a woman, bone loss happens in men. Women often begin losing bone mass as early as in their thirties, whereas bone loss begins in the fifties for a man. By the time men reach their seventies, their bone weakness equals that of women.

Harvard-trained Dr. John R. Lee is the author of the b