Boning Up On New Osteoporosis Risk Guidelines

Main Category: Bones / Orthopaedics
Also Included In: Seniors / Aging
Article Date: 11 Mar 2008 - 4:00 PST

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Osteoporosis - a skeletal disease that traditionally affects those age fifty and older - is a major public health problem. New guidelines released by the National Osteoporosis Foundation (NOF) call for bone mineral density (BMD) testing for all men ages seventy and older and for younger men with risk factors for bone loss. BMD testing is also urged for women sixty-five and older, and postmenopausal women that have risk factors for bone loss.

"These guidelines represent the newest advances healthcare professionals can use to identify and treat patients with low bone mass, risk of fracture, or osteoporosis," says noted expert Dr. Warren Levy, President and CEO of Unigene Laboratories. "As life expectancy rates continue to rise, osteoporosis will only have a greater impact on national health. The NOF guidelines will help physicians to diagnose and treat the disease."

Osteoporosis occurs when deteriorating tissue reduces bone density in the spine, hip, and other areas. Today, osteoporosis is a major health threat for forty-four million Americans, 80% of whom are women. In the United States, ten million individuals already have the disease while three times as many are believed to have osteopenia, a decrease in bone mineral density that can be a precursor condition to osteoporosis.

Fractures caused by either osteoporosis or low bone density can lead to chronic pain, disability, or worse. Fortunately, if osteoporosis does develop, various treatments are available.

The leading category of osteoporosis drugs is bisphosphonates, non-hormonal drugs that bind to bones to protect against tissue breakdown. However, recent reports have associated bisphosphonates with osteonecrosis ("bone death") of the jaw, severe bone/joint pain and potentially severe gastrointestinal side effects.

Alternative drug treatments for reduction in fracture risk do exist such as: calcitonin, parathyroid hormone, estrogen, and testosterone. Calcitonin is the active ingredient in Fortical, a nasal treatment developed by Unigene and marketed by Upsher-Smith Laboratories. "Nasal calcitonin products have been shown to help maintain proper bone density," says Dr. Levy.

While until now, the medical community had no clear guidelines for assessing fracture risk, Dr. Levy believes the new NOF guidelines will help to educate the public and medical community on the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis. "As in most things," says Dr. Levy, "education is a strong first line of defense."

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