Vitamins, minerals and supplements in the news
Feb 1, 2011
Many women are suffering multiple fractures before their brittle bones are diagnosed.
One in three women and one in five men aged 50 or older in Britain has osteoporosis, an age-related disease that affects the way the bone cells renew. As a result bones are less dense and more prone to breaks.
Category: General
Posted by: catherine
One in three women and one in five men aged 50 or older in Britain has osteoporosis, an age-related disease that affects the way the bone cells renew. As a result bones are less dense and more prone to breaks.
Women are at greater risk, particularly as they get older, because their levels of oestrogen, the bone-protective hormone, fall with age.
Unfortunately the symptoms of the disease are hidden until a fracture occurs so often the first sign comes when someone falls.
Britain has one of the highest rates of hip fracture in Europe. Last year, there were 80,000 cases; by 2020, it is estimated it will be around 100,000. Every year, nearly a third of these patients die as a result, 28,000 will never walk properly again and 12,000 have to go into residential care.
According to official guidelines a dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scan should be used to -measure bone density in all women over 50 who have fallen and suffered a fracture. It’s believed that such screenings could cut the risk of future fractures by half.
Paul Mitchell, a lecturer in falls and osteoporosis at the University of Derby and the editor of a recent report on the condition says that around half the people that fracture a hip have broken or fractured a bone before.
‘What we have to do is to get the right systems in place so those who need preventative treatment get it,’ he says. ‘If we don’t, the patient having a wrist fracture treated today will present in 18 months with a broken hip.’
It is believed though that only one in five older women who suffer a broken bone are getting bone-strengthening treatment and that only 29 per cent of NHS acute trusts even have a fracture liaison nurse. This means the required list of people older than 50 who have suffered a fracture often isn’t even compiled. Subsequently the necessary DXA scans are never arranged and GP’s are never advised which patients should be on medication.
Osteoporosis experts and organisations such as the National Osteoporosis Society are campaigning for improved fracture care.
‘It’s disgraceful that in this country we’re missing opportunities to provide preventative treatment for patients after a first fracture,’ says Professor Oliver, the National Clinical Director for older people
‘If this lack of prevention was happening with heart or stroke, it would be regarded as completely unacceptable.’