Shortly before retirement at age 61, she slipped on a small rug in her kitchen and broke her hip. After Helen recovered, she needed a cane to walk. Helen had osteoporosis, but she didn t know it. You can lose bone over many years. Because you may not notice any symptoms until a bone breaks, osteoporosis is called the silent disease.
Bone is living tissue.
Special cells called osteoclasts are constantly breaking down old bone as other cells known as osteoblasts are replacing it with new tissue. As people age, more bone is broken down than is replaced. The inside of bone normally looks like a honeycomb. In osteoporosis the spaces in this honeycomb grow larger because much more bone is destroyed than is replaced. This makes your bones weaker.