Osteoporosis and lifestyle medicine

Osteoporosis is a major public health threat in this 21st century. It has high prevalence among postmenopausal women & elder patients (age > 60 years). It is a skeletal disorder characterized by compromised bone strength and suffer having greater chances of fractures. Osteoporosis is a condition where bones became weak & brittle that may increase chances of fracture in the patients. According to the WHO criteria, osteoporosis is defined as a bone mineral density (BMD) that lies 2.5 standard deviations or more below the average value for young healthy women (a T-score of <-2.5 SD). Osteoporosis is occurs due to too much bone mineral density is decreased that results into the changes in the structure of bone. Etiological factors includes advanced age, sex (women > male), sedentary lifestyle, minimal/ absence of sun exposure, smoking, alcohol consumption, hormonal imbalance and disease conditions such as diabetes, malignancies (multiple myeloma, lymphoma, leukemia). The diagnosis of condition must be confirmed by using spine dual energy X- ray absorptiometry (DXA) with WHO T-score thresholds. Osteopenia or low bone mass is having T-score of –1 to -2.4 & on the basis of T score, it will be classified in to two types that is primary and secondary osteoporosis. Primary osteoporosis more common in disease such as postmenopausal osteoporosis (type1) and senile osteoporosis (type2). It has severe morbid consequences, the prevention and management of this condition and associated fractures is considered to the essential to the maintenance of health status or quality of life (QoL) of patient. Patient can prevent to suffer from this condition by applying various tools of lifestyle medicines i.e. staying physically active or doing weight bearing exercises. Smoking cessation, moderate alcohol consumption are also became major approaches to manage or prevent occurrence of condition. Nutritious diet rich in calcium, vitamin D, Vitamin A, Vitamin C and other nutrition also play a key role in the management or prevention of disease.