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Wel 30% meer Osteoporose in Duitsland.*
Door voeding met te weinig calcium en vitamine D en te weinig beweging zijn het aantal patiënten met osteoporose de laatste 5 jaar in Duitsland met 30% toegenomen!
Osteoporosis is reaching epidemic levels in Germany,
according to a leading expert, who said on Monday that doctors and the general
public need to pay more attention to the fragile bone disease.
Five to six million people in
the country are estimated to already have osteoporosis, said Dr. Walter
Fassbender from the University Clinic Frankfurt and an organiser of this year's
conference of the German Society for Internal Medicine in Wiesbaden.
A huge increase in
osteoporosis incidence is due to a higher life expectancy, a diet low in calcium
and vitamin D as well as low levels of physical exercise.
"Osteoporosis was
responsible for 70,000 hip fractures in 1998, but the disease was responsible
for 120,000 hip fractures in 2002. Levels of osteoporosis have risen by 30
percent in just five years and we expect them to go on rising at an accelerating
rate," he said.
More than a million of those
suffering from osteoporosis in Germany are men.
"Half of men who are
suffering from the disease have secondary osteoporosis due to conditions such as
renal disease, a hyperactive thyroid and, most frequently, hypogonadism,"
Fassbender said.
Furthermore, mortality rates
due to osteoporosis are under-recognised, he said.
Twenty percent of all those
patients who suffer hip fractures die within a year. Another 20 percent of
patients who suffer hip fractures are hospitalized for the rest of their lives.
Fassbender also noted that 80
percent of the 3 billion euros spent by the health system on osteoporosis is
used to treat patients with hip fractures.
"We must raise the
awareness of how widespread osteoporosis is. Doctors are often failing to
diagnose spinal fractures in patients, leaving many patients without proper
treatment," he said.
He said that a balanced diet
with adequate amounts of calcium and vitamin D as well as plenty of exercise all
helped to protect against brittle bones.
In addition to a balanced diet and regular exercise, Fassbender said that selective oestrogen modulators and bisphosphonates are two effective therapeutic options for treating osteoporosis. (2003)