Genetic Factors Identified As Increasing Risk Of Osteoporosis

02 May 2008
Reports published in The Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine this week outline research that shows the impact that genetic variations could have on the risk of breaking a bone due to osteoporosis.

Dani Preedy, Medical Policy Officer at the National Osteoporosis Society says,

"These findings are really very exciting for the future. We welcome research which helps to increase understanding of the disease - particularly how genes are involved. However, there are clearly a number of different genes as well as many other factors involved in determining fracture risk. Before screening programmes can be developed we need much more research to understand which genes are most important and whether targeting treatments to people identified by these genes can actually reduce the risk of fracture in the future."

Improving techniques to identify those at risk and strategies to treat them effectively is very important because in the UK, one in two women and one in five men over the age of 50 will break a bone mainly because of osteoporosis. These painful, disabling fractures cost the NHS and government £5 million a day."

Notes

1. The National Osteoporosis Society is the only UK wide charity dedicated to improving the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of osteoporosis.

2. In the UK, one in two women and one in five men over the age of 50 will break a bone mainly because of osteoporosis.

3. It is estimated that there are currently three million people with, or at risk of osteoporosis in the UK.

4. Osteoporosis costs the NHS and government £1.7 billion a year - that's £5 million a day.

5. There are about 230,000 osteoporotic fractures every year.

6. 1,150 people are dying every month in the UK as a result of hip fractures.

7. Osteoporosis literally means 'porous bones.' Our bones are made of a thick outer shell and a strong inner mesh, which looks like a honeycomb of bony struts. When some of these struts become thin or break, causing the bone to become more fragile and prone to fracture, this is referred to as osteoporosis.

8. Osteoporosis is often referred to as the 'silent disease', because it often remains undetected until the time of this first broken bone, which can occur in the wrist, hip or spine. Bone loss occurs in everyone as they get older, but these broken bones are not an inevitable part of ageing and there is much that can be done to prevent and treat them.

National Osteoporosis Society

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