Written by nursingstudents Roosa Erkkilä, Minttu Marila & Jutta Hautamäki
On last week 17.10-23.10.2022 was the celebration of bone week and it´s every year in October. On this year, the theme of the bone week is” No Sooner Said Than Done – your choices matter”. The meaning of that week is to advance recognizing of osteoporosis and to support advancing of the bone health and self-treatment of osteoporosis. Especially the impacts of nutrition and exercising are brought into relief on this year´s bone week. The international osteoporosis day and the white shirt day are part of the bone week.
Every year the World Osteoporosis Day (WOD) is being celebrated on 20th of October. It´s dedicated to raising awareness of the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis, as well as metabolic bone disease. Bone fractures from osteoporosis are to be taken seriously. Especially hip- and vertebral fractures leads to spiral of more fractures, that can cause chronic pain, immobility, and permanent disability. The world osteoporosis foundation has been arranging worldwide campaign since 1997.
What does the osteoporosis then mean?
“Osteoporosis means that the bone´s mineral density has decreased and bone´s structure has changed so that the bone´s strength weakens. Then the bone can be fractured from a minor injury.
The bone tissue ’lives’ entire time, old bones are decaying and new are formed to replace. Until the 30th year of age, bones are being form more than it decays, so the bone strength increases. After that, more bones are decaying than being formed, so when getting older, bone strength slowly decreases. Osteoporosis is clearly more common with women than men.”
Who can get osteoporosis?
Although osteoporosis is most common in the elderly, osteoporosis can also occur in women of all ages and in men.
The greatest risk of developing osteoporosis is in postmenopausal women, because the decrease in estrogen production during menopause increase the loss of bone mass.
In men, bone decreases more slowly. Osteoporosis can be divided into primary and secondary osteoporosis.
Primary osteoporosis (no single clear cause)
- Postmenopausal osteoporosis
- Age-related osteoporosis
- Genetic vulnerability
Secondary osteoporosis (indications of some clear cause)
- A disease e.g., hormonal disorder, celiac disease, rheumatism, disease of thyroid and diabetes
- Medication e.g., long-term treatment of cortisone and cancer treatments
Sources:
https://www.suomenosteoporoosiyhdistys.fi/rakasta-luitasi-turvaa-tulevaisuutesi/
https://luustoliitto.fi/luustoliitto/luustoviikko/