BONE MASS IN PHYSICIANS

Posted by James

INTRODUCTION

Osteoporosis is a group of skeletal disorders characterized by low bone mass and microarchitectural disruption of bone tissue that leads to fractures. Based on the results of bone densitometry, the World Health Organization (WHO) study group defined osteoporosis as a bone mass greater than 2.5 standard deviation (SD) below peak bone mass (T-score) and osteopenia as 1 SD to 2.5 SD below peak bone mass. More than 10 million Americans have osteoporosis, and another 18 million have osteopenia. The prevalence of osteoporosis drug and osteopenia differs between men and women. Approximately 56% of women in the United States >50 years of age have osteopenia, and 16% have osteoporosis. Low bone mass, expressed clinically as bone mineral density, varies by race and ethnicity. It is more common in Caucasian women (17% have osteoporosis, and 42% have osteopenia) than in other ethnic groups. African-American women, for example, reportedly have a low prevalence of osteoporosis and osteopenia (8%> and 28%>, respectively).

Prevention of osteoporosis and osteopenia depends upon the development of strong bones from childhood to the mid-30s and maintenance of bone strength throughout life. In the United States, low bone density costs $17 billion per year. Prevention, early diagnosis, and treatment are needed to relieve the nation of this expense and to prevent the increased morbidity and mortality associated with fractures. online pharmacy no prescription needed

Groups of people not previously thought of being susceptible are developing low bone mass, because they now have many of these same risk factors as Caucasians. Risk factors, such as low calcium intake, low vitamin-D intake, low sunlight exposure, and a decrease of weight-bearing exercise, are prevalent in most American cultural groups; however, whether these risk factors are more evident in time-demanding occupations asso­ciated with increased indoor activity remains a question. There is a paucity of data on how indoor time demanding occupations influence bone mass in adults. One study done in Poland showed that there was no statistical difference between the bone mineral densities of farmers in rural areas and other occupations—such as nurses, teachers, and retired workers—in urban areas. Since physicians are responsible for early diagnosis and therapy of low bone mass of others and have time-demanding occupations that often require long indoor hours, it is of interest to know what their bone mass is and how their diet and exercise habits influence its development. However, we are unable to find studies of physicians showing the relationship between their bone mineral density, dietary calcium, vita-min-D intake, and exercise. A detailed literature search for osteoporosis and fracture rates of physicians, including a search of data from the Center for Disease Control and the National Center for Statistics, did not reveal data addressing these issues. canadian antibiotics

We present a unique observational, prospective cross-sectional study designed to determine the bone density in physicians and how their dietary calcium, vitamin-D intake, and exercise correlate with their bone mineral density.