Osteoporosis is a disease which, for the moment, cannot be cured but the risk of fractures can be reduced thanks to treatments. Explanations.
- 5.5% of the population is affected by osteoporosis according to Inserm.
- This bone disease is characterized by a decrease in bone density and mass.
- Medications help reduce the risk of fractures.
In France, in 2019, the number of people with osteoporosis was estimated at nearly 4 million, or 5.5% of the total population, according to the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm).
Two classes of osteoporosis treatments
It is a bone disease that combines both a decrease in bone density and mass. Patients with it have more fragile bones, which increases the risk of fractures.
According to health insurancethe primary cause of osteoporosis is aging but there is a “genetic predisposition and the existence of cases of osteoporosis in the family must be taken into account”.
Currently, there is no treatment to cure osteoporosis, according to the Canadian Cancer Society. However, a healthy lifestyle and certain treatments can help prevent, control or even reverse bone loss.
There are two classes of treatments according to Professor Karine Briot, rheumatologist, specialist in osteoporosis, at the microphone of Jean-Paul Marre:
- Those which block osteoclasts, that is to say the cells which degrade bone.
- Those that stimulate bone formation.
“One of the limits (of current treatments) is not having more treatments that stimulate bone formation, underlines Professor Karine Briot. We only have one class while we have many more classes of treatments that block bone destruction. We would like to have more drugs in the arsenal that stimulate bone formation.”
Less risk of fractures with treatments
“For almost all medications, approximately 70% reduction in vertebral fractures is achieved, noted Professor Karine Briot. THE Treatments have, for the most part, been shown to reduce the risk of femoral neck fracture by between 40 and 50%. Afterwards it is less clear for other fractures linked to falls, other than the femoral neck, it is around 20%, but in any case it reduces the risk of fracture, we must therefore believe in the effectiveness of the anti-osteoporotic medications.” Encouraging figures because, according to Inserm, osteoporosis is the cause of nearly 490,000 fractures each year in France.
Because osteoporosis cannot be cured, patients generally have lifelong treatment. “But it is not necessarily with the same medicine, continues Professor Karine Briot. There are processing frequencies, orders, stops, pauses. The strategy is a lifelong strategy but not necessarily with the same medication.”
