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The huge bone factory we know as the human skeleton serves many wonderful and incredible functions. There's always something going on there, since bone is living tissue, constantly remodeling itself.

Some cells remove old bone (resorption), while others build new bone (formation). As we get older, bone loss outpaces bone formation. Some people lose bone mass more rapidly than others, for reasons that scientists don't yet fully understood.

Osteoporosis results when this decrease in bone mineral density is significant. It's a disease of global proportions, affecting more than 200 million people worldwide—over 20 million women and 5 million men in the United States alone.

Who's at Risk?
Osteoporosis—which literally means "porous bones"—has been called the "silent" disease, because the loss of bone tissue progresses gradually (often without pain or symptoms) before a fracture occurs.

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