The problem is that all women - and, to a lesser ...

Osteopenia is determined by comparing the bone density of women the concept of "healthy young adults" at peak bone density, about 30 years. The problem is that all women - and, to a lesser extent, men - begin to lose bone mass in middle age after natural plateau update process. In women, this accelerates after menopause, because estrogen loss results in less collagen matrix of bone. ". Worried sick: Recipe for Health in Overtreated America "-" osteopenia normally is as gray hair, "says Dr. Nortin Hadler, rheumatologist at the University of North Carolina and author

Hadler is a lot of experts say that the definition of osteopenia is overly broad and misleading. The way they see it, all women experience bone loss, but only some of those diagnosed with osteopenia is really the way to the development of osteoporosis. "If you look at how we define osteopenia, defined very crudely with a very low sensitivity," Hadler said. "So, almost everyone who is in osteopenia group who are going to get a fragility fracture. They are simply a greater risk. "

Bone mineral density measured with the so-called T-scores. People with bone density equal lasix 16 mg to normal, "healthy young adults" have the T-zero, but a man of very thin bone could earn points minus 3. (The most common test for measuring bone density is dual energy x-ray absorption test, better known as a DEXA scan It measures how many X-rays pass through the bone. Dense bone, the less X-rays pass through).

To be considered osteopenia, patient T-score should be below minus 1. This means that the bone density of one standard deviation lower than the typical 30-year-old. Statistically speaking, her bone density falls close to the normal range. Where is the line between osteopenia and osteoporosis are the subject of wide discussion. World Health Organization says the threshold is minus 2. 5. But in 2003 the National Endowment for osteoporosis and the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology broke with WHO and women are advised to treat osteoporosis if their T-bill fell below minus 2. Under the new definition, 6. 7000000 American women were immediately "diagnosis" osteoporosis and is recommended for treatment - with costs at least $ 28 billion, according to a study published in 2007 in matters of health. Use the minus-2 threshold, more than half of Americans aged 65 and up marked with osteoporosis. Any one chooses to treat osteoporosis is to call the court and weighing the risks of treatment against the risks, wait and see. .