20th October, World Osteoporosis Day

20th October is observed as World Osteoporosis Day (WOD) which provides an all-important focal point for informing and educating the general public and policy makers about the prevention of osteoporosis which still suffers from poor general awareness.

Osteoporosis is known as the ''silent disease'' which causes dowager's hump and brittle bones.

Understand Osteoporosis
Osteo in osteoporosis refers to bone, and porosis refers to the condition of softening. It often has no symptoms, until the bones are so compromised that a negligible pain results into a fracture.

Experts suggest that men and women reach their peak bone mass in late 20's.

“All this while, bones are constantly replenishing themselves as the old bones are wrecked and new bone tissues are produced. It is in the mid 30’s that bone resorption commences to outpace bone arrangement resulting into a gradual loss of density,” says Orthonova Hospital’s orthopedic surgeon Dr Dhananjay Gupta. Read more