Dear Renemm

Thank you for visiting health24.com.

Osteoporosis is a generalised skeletal disease characterised by decreased bone mass, deterioration of bone microarchitecture, resultant increase in bone fragility and fracture risk.

The operational definition is based upon one of the two findings:
* Bone mineral density (BMD) of hip, spine or forearem
* History of fracture in absence of trauma (assuming no other bone disease or malignancy is present)

Three types of imbalances can occur:
* Decreased bone formation - patients older than 50, patients with liver disease and patients using heparin
* Increased bone formation - patients with estrogen deficiency, patients with hyperparathyroidism, hyperthyroidism or hypogonadism, patients using heparin and possibly cyclosporin
* Increased bone resorption and decreased bone formation - patients taking glucocorticoids

I trust that the above information is of assistance.

Kind regards



Dr Anrich Burger