Florence Henderson never broke the bone china as the world's most perfect mom on the '70s sitcom classic The Brady Bunch . She found out her own bones were at risk. But osteoporosis is a silent killer. You can just go on thinking everything is OK until you either have a fracture, or detect osteoporosis with a bone density scan.
Osteoporosis causes bones to become more porous, dangerously brittle, and prone to breakage.
Five million men in the USA also suffer from it. Despite these dark demographics, experts in the field agree the outcomes could be drastically changed. Most of these fractures could be avoided or prevented if women got bone density testing for osteoporosis, took preventative measures, and had appropriate medical treatment. But a new study shows that despite knowing the risks of osteoporosis and painless, noninvasive bone density scanning tests, women routinely ignore this advice. In addition, many family physicians are still not in the habit of recommending routine bone density testing for members of the at-risk population.