Osteoporosis - What Causes Osteoporosis?

Osteoporosis is a condition wherein the bones of a person become fragile and porous. Bones become porous due to a depletion of calcium that leads to the bone becoming brittle. If not prevented, or if left untreated, a case of osteoporosis may progress painlessly until one day when the bone breaks. The bones that usually fracture are the hipbones, spine and wrist. First we need to understand why the bones become so weak in a person with osteoporosis. Bones are a living tissue that is constantly being renewed through a process called "remodeling".

This is where cells called osteoclasts search through bones in your body looking for old bone that needs replacing. When they find such an area the cells destroy that old bone leaving a small space in the bone. While this is happening cells call osteoblasts are also searching through the bone, however this cell is looking for the spaces left by the osteoclasts. When the osteoblasts find these empty spaces they have the power to fill that space with new bone. This process goes on our whole lives constantly regrowing the bones in our body.

Do you believe that lack of calcium is the most common cause of osteoporosis? Vitamin D deficiency may be even more important; a study from Amsterdam shows that 64 percent of postmenopausal women with osteoporosis lack vitamin D. A woman’s bones are strongest when she is 20; you lose bone continuously over your lifetime until at 90, virtually all women have osteoporosis. Only recently have doctors become aware of this high rate of vitamin D deficiency which weakens bones. Very few people meet their needs for vitamin D from food; the most important source is sunlight. Still, during summer when sunlight is abundant, the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency was 59 percent, and during winter it was 69 percent. Warnings about skin cancers from sunlight exposure may have increased risk for osteoporosis. This study, presented at the 2005 annual meeting of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, shows that postmenopausal women should get blood tests for vitamin D, and those with low levels should get more sunlight or take vitamin D supplements.

Other causes of osteoporosis are heredity and lifestyle. Whites and Asians, tall and thin women and those with a history of osteoporosis are those at the highest risk of getting osteoporosis. The behavioral causes of increasing the risk of osteoporosis are smoking, alcohol abuse, prolonged inactivity and a diet low in calcium. There are also some diseases that are associated with aging that cause osteoporosis, which include kidney failure, liver disease, cancers, Paget’s disease, endocrine or glandular diseases, gonadal failure and rheumatoid arthritis. There are some medications like steroids, seizure drugs, thyroid hormone and blood thinners that are also found to cause osteoporosis.