What is Osteopenia?

Osteopenia is a condition where bone mineral density is lower than normal. It is considered by many doctors to be a precursor to osteoporosis. However, not every person diagnosed with osteopenia will develop osteoporosis. More specifically, osteopenia is defined as a bone mineral density T-score between -1.0 and -2.5.

Like osteoporosis, osteopenia occurs more frequently in post-menopausal women as a result of the loss of estrogen. It can also be exacerbated by lifestyle factors such as lack of exercise, excess consumption of alcohol, smoking or prolonged use of glucocorticoid medications such as those prescribed for asthma.

The condition can occur in young women who are athletes. It is associated with female athlete triad syndrome as one of the three components, the other two being amenorrhea and disordered eating. Female athletes tend to have lower body weight, lower fat percentage, and higher incidence of asthma than their less active peers. The low estrogen levels (stored in body fat) and/or use of
corticosteroids to treat asthma can significantly weaken bones over long periods of time. Distance runners in particular are also discouraged from consuming milk products when training, which would result in lower calcium absorption than other groups. It is also a sign of normal aging, in contrast to osteoporosis which is present in pathologic aging.

The treatment of osteopenia is controversial. Currently, candidates for therapy include those at the highest risk of osteoporotic bone fracture based on bone mineral density and clinical risk factors. Consideration of therapy should be made for postmenopausal women and men older than 50 years of age, if any one of the following is present:

1) Prior hip or vertebral fracture
2) T-score of -2.5 at the femoral neck or spine, excluding secondary causes
3) T-score between -1.0 and -2.5 at the femoral neck or spine and a 10-year probability of hip fracture or a 10-year probability of major osteoporotic fracture

Clinicians judgment in combination with patient preferences indicate treatment for people with 10-year fracture probabilities above or below these levels.

Adopted from wikipedia.com