Osteoporosis is a condition known as a decrease in bone density, decreasing its strength and resulting in fragile bones. Osteoporosis literally leads to abnormally porous bone that’s compressible, such as a sponge. This disorder of the skeleton can help weaken the bone and result in frequent fractures (breaks) to happen in the bones. Osteopenia, by its definition, is a condition of bone that’s slightly less dense than normal bone but not to the degree of bone in osteoporosis.
A normal bone is composed of protein, collagen, and calcium, every single one helps give strength to the bone. Bones that are affected with osteoporosis can break (fracture) with relatively minor injuries that normally would not cause a bone to fracture. The fracture can be either in the form of cracking (as in a hip fracture) or collapsing (as in a compression fracture of the vertebrae of the spine). The spine, hips, ribs and wrists are common areas of bone fractures due to osteoporosis although osteoporosis-related fractures can happen in almost any skeletal bone.
