October 18, 2017.
Osteoporosis is a disease very little known in France. Yet it kills many people every year.
An osteoporosis plan is needed
The French Association for the Fight against Rheumatism has just completed a White Paper on osteoporosis that it will submit to the health authorities. This book sheds light on the consequences of this little-known disease, which weakens bones and causes sometimes fatal fractures. A few days before World Osteoporosis Day (October 20), the association wanted to sound the alarm.
Osteoporosis is often associated with one of the characteristics of aging, but it is indeed a disease that must be accompanied. “ We sometimes hear that it’s normal to break your bones when you have wrinkles, I protest », Deplores Laurent Grange, rheumatologist at Grenoble University Hospital and president of AFLAR. “ There was an Alzheimer’s plan, an osteoporosis plan is needed. “
A disease that mainly affects women
This disease is silent but it is wreaking havoc. The fractures it causes affect, after 50 years, 1 in 3 women and 1 in 5 men. The problem is that this disease is misdiagnosed so monitoring is very difficult. According to AFLAR, only 15% of fracture victims end up on treatment. The most affected bones are those of the wrist, vertebrae and neck of the femur.
When the femoral neck is affected, the death rate is 20%. According to this work, 376,000 fractures are due to osteoporosis each year and the number of deaths after a fracture related to this disease is greater than the number of deaths from road accidents. 30% to 40% of women going through menopause, and more than half of those over 75 are affected by osteoporosis. It’s time to act.
Marine Rondot
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