Living with osteoporosis

How you can prevent, detect and manage the condition

- Gabriella Del Grande, Amy Hadley

Osteoporosis is a bone condition that affects 1.36 million Australians. Professor John Eisman, director of clinical translation and advanced education at the Garvin Institute of Medical Research, explains how we can help prevent that number from rising.

WHAT IS OSTEOPOROSIS?

Professor Eisman explains that as we age, the bone removal process (where old, damaged bone is replaced with new bone) begins to get ahead of the bone replacement, which means our bones become thinner and more fragile – and that is called osteoporosis.

The concern is that the weaker the bone, the more likely there is to be a fracture. It’s often caused by a fall (from standing height or less), which wouldn’t normally happen if the bones were at peak health.

WHO’S AT RISK?

People aged between 50 and 75 are most at risk of developing osteoporosis, and those with a family history of the condition.

“Having a very early menopause, receiving cortisone corticosteroids [steroid hormones], having an inflammatory disease or malabsorption can also increase the risk,” says Professor Eisman.