• VITAMIN K
• NUTRITION
• BLOOD COAGULATION
• BONE METABOLISM
• VASCULAR BIOLOGY
• K1 vs K2

Osteoporosis is a condition of decreased bone mass. This leads to fragile bones which are at an increased risk for fractures. In fact, it will take much less stress to an osteoporotic bone to cause it to fracture. The term "porosis" means spongy, which describes the appearance of osteoporosis bones when they are broken in half and the inside is examined. Normal bone marrow has small holes within it, but a bone with osteoporosis will have much larger holes. This picture shows a bone with osteoporosis on the top with large spongy holes, and a normal bone on the top with normal small passageways. In severe osteoporosis, this can be exaggerated much more than shown here!

Healthy bone	Osteoporotic bone

There is no method of determining the actual structure of bones without actually removing a piece during a biopsy (which is not practical or necessary). Instead, the diagnosis of osteoporosis is based on special x-ray methods called densitometry. Densitometry will give accurate and precise measurements of the amount of bone (not their actual quality). This measurement is termed "bone mineral density" or BMD.

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Osteoporosis is different from most other diseases or common illnesses in that there is no one single cause. The overall health of a person's bones is a function of many things ranging from how well the bones were formed as a youth, to the level of exercise the bones have seen over the years. During the first 20 years of life, the formation of bone is the most important factor, but after that point it is the prevention of bone loss which becomes most important. Anything which leads to decreased formation of bone early in life, or loss of bone structure later in life will lead to osteoporosis and fragile bones which are subject to fracture. Several more pages go into these topics in more detail.