Osteoporosis is a bone disease that makes bones weaker and more likely\u00a0to break. Anyone can develop osteoporosis, but women are more likely to\u00a0develop osteoporosis than men, and it\u2019s more common later in life.<\/p>\n
There are no signs or symptoms of osteoporosis. People usually don\u2019t know\u00a0they have it until a bone breaks unexpectedly, often from a minor fall. That\u2019s\u00a0why it\u2019s so important to get a bone density test to measure your bone strength.<\/p>\n
What is a bone density test?<\/strong> At your next visit, ask your primary care provider about scheduling a bone density test and what steps\u00a0you can take to prevent weak bones and lower your risk for osteoporosis.<\/p>\n Sources: National Institutes of Health; National Osteoporosis Foundation; UpToDate<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Osteoporosis is a bone disease that makes bones weaker and more likely\u00a0to break. Anyone can develop osteoporosis, but women are more likely to\u00a0develop osteoporosis than men, and it\u2019s more common later in life. There are no signs or symptoms of osteoporosis. People usually don\u2019t know\u00a0they have it until a bone breaks unexpectedly, often from a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7550,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17],"tags":[952,953,954,685],"class_list":["post-9342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-medicare","tag-bone-density","tag-bone-disease","tag-brittle-bones","tag-osteoporosis"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/march-pc.jpg?fit=807%2C546&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6ZZGa-2qG","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9342"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9344,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9342\/revisions\/9344"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nA bone mineral density (BMD) test measures how strong your bones are.\u00a0It\u2019s the only test that can tell you if you have osteoporosis or not. It can also:
\n\u2022 Predict your risk of fractures.
\n\u2022 Let you know if you have osteoporosis after a fracture.
\n\u2022 See if osteoporosis treatment is making your bones stronger.<\/p>\n