Lifestyle Causes
Difficulties in your diet, unhealthy habits, and lack of physical activity might lead to such conditions. Some of these lifestyle reasons are:
- Smoking
- Not being physically active, especially strength training
- A lot of drinking alcohol
- A lack of vitamin D or calcium
Certain other situations can also raise the risk of having osteopenia:
- Bulimia
- Anorexia
- Hyperthyroidism
- Hyperparathyroidism
- Cushing’s syndrome
- Inflammatory conditions such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, or Crohn’s disease
During your life, your bones change constantly. New bone grows during old bone breaks down and then is absorbed by your body. When you are at a young age, you grow new bone more quickly than your body takes it. When you are at a young age, your new bone grows quickly then your body breaks down the older bone. This might lead to an increased bone mass. Once the body begins to break down the old bone quickly then it forms new bone, your mass starts to get low. Loss of mass of bone weakens your bone and might lead them to break down. The starting of this decline is called osteopenia. For some people, it might lead to more dangerous osteoporosis.
Women are more likely to have osteopenia in comparison to men. This is because of several factors. Women have a reduced bone mass overall and less calcium absorption than men do. They are also likely to live longer. While in women, the bone loss rate increases after menopause as the levels of estrogen reduces. Since the ovaries form estrogen, quickly bone loss will happen if both of the ovaries are removed surgically. There are several reasons for osteoporosis. Not only do bones lose density with age, medicines utilized to cure arthritis, Crohn’s disease, breast cancer, Addison’s disease, and asthma can also reduce bone density.
Some illnesses such as hypopituitarism, hyperthyroidism, and eating disorders also lead to the lost strength of bone. You will look for more information on all these reasons for lowering the density of bone along with estrogen’s role in bone density. Osteoporosis is a condition in which bones get thinner, or lose bone mineral density. This might lead to an increased chance of fractures. Osteoporosis is more occurring in women, significantly after menopause. However, several conditions might be linked with a low bone density. The things that might affect your density of bone such as:
Aging
Aging lowers bone strength because more bone is broken down that might be formed up. Everyone forms osteoporosis if they live long enough. Aging is the most occurring cause of osteopenia. After your bone mass is higher, your body breaks down the older bone more quickly than it forms new bone. That means you might lose the density of bone. Women lose bone faster after their menopause because of fewer estrogen levels. If you lose a lot, your bone mass might get low enough to be considered osteopenia. Around half of Americans above the age of 50 have osteopenia. The more of such risk factors you have, the higher chance is when:
- A family history of reduced BMD
- Not getting sufficient exercises
- Being female
- Menopause before 45 years of age
- Removal of ovaries before menopause
- Being above than age 50 years
- Drinking a lot of caffeine or alcohol
- A diet lacking in vitamin D and calcium
- Taking phenytoin or prednisone
- Using or smoking other kinds of tobacco
Alcohol
Higher intake of alcohol raises the risk of forming osteopenia or osteoporosis
Calcium
A lack of calcium impacts bone strength and the muscles that maintain bone health, so adequate intake of calcium is essential.
Breast cancer
Women having breast cancer have a higher chance of having osteopenia and osteoporosis because of the treatments utilized and their impacts on the levels of estrogen.
Corticosteroid therapy
Asteroid replacement hormone consisting:
- Hydrocortisone
- Prednisolone
- Dexamethasone
- Cortisone
Long-term utilization (above than 2 months) of oral corticosteroid kind medication with doses of above 5-7.5 mg of prednisolone each day, raises the chance of forming osteopenia or osteoporosis by lowering bone density and bone formation. If other risk factors for osteopenia or osteoporosis (such as being postmenopausal) occur, the effect on bones will be more dangerous. Corticosteroid therapy might be prescribed for several conditions like:
- Asthma
- Chronic airways disease
- Certain skin conditions
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Inflammatory bowel diseases (Crohn’s disease)
- Addison’s disease: This might lead to a deficiency in the cortisol hormone and is treated with corticosteroid medicines to replace the hormone