More information about how the bones work and the medications

Bone remodeling

In order to cure osteoporosis, we have to take a closer look to what our bone does. Bone is actually a living tissue that constantly generate new bones while replacing old bones. Bone remodeling is the process where bones are continuously generated to replace the old bones. It consist of 2 different stage, bone resorption and bone formation.

Bone resorption, is also known as the breakdown or removal of bone, requires special cells to occur. For example, osteoclasts which will appear on the bone’s surface and dissolve bone tissue and creates small cavities. While bone formation requires osteoblast to form new bone tissues. Normally, the rate of bone resorption and bone formation should be the same. In osteoporosis, the rate of bone resorption happens much more quickly than the rate of bone formation hence resulting in loss of bone mass.

Why is it that osteoporosis occur so much common in postmenopausal period in women?

This is because in woman, osteoclast activity will increase due to a decrease level in estrogen, this result in further net loss of bone mass hence causing more serious scenarios of osteoporosis.

Is it possible to use estrogen therapy to cure it since estrogen is a cause of osteoporosis?

Well, it is not totally impossible, but when estrogen is taken alone, it can cause an increase of risk for the woman to develop cancer at the uterine lining, or called endometrial cancer. One way to reduce this effect is too add in progesterone as well. There can also be side effects such as vaginal bleeding, breast tenderness and gallbladder disease.

Different types of medication

Basically we can sum up to 2 types of medication. One of it is antiresorptive medication. Aclasta, the drug that I mentioned in the previous post belongs to this group. They slow down the rate of bone loss. While the rate of bone loss is slowed down, this allow the body to have enough time to synthesize new bones to replace the old bones, hence may cause to the bone density to increase bits by bits.

Another type of drug is called the anabolic medication. One example would be the Teriparatide. It is a form of parathyroid hormone that can increase the rate of bone formation. By boosting the rate of bone formation, it will not cause the bone tissue to weaken, hence preventing osteoporosis.

What happens in the long time after taking the drugs?

Past studies of bisphosphonates such as Aclasta, suggests that after stopping the intake of such drugs, the effect of it may continue for several years as the drugs can remain in the bone for a long time.

References

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=11794

http://nof.org/articles/22

http://www.osteoporosistreatment.space/tag/aclasta

http://www.royalmedical.in/osteoporosis-drugs.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dV1Bwe2v6c