Osteoporosis treatment saves lives and bones
ELEANOR HALL: It is no secret that osteoporosis, which weakens bones, can significantly reduce a sufferer's quality of life. But fewer people are aware that doctors regard it as a killer.
Well now research indicates that some existing treatment options can substantially reduce the risk of premature death due to osteoporosis, as Timothy McDonald reports.
TIMOTHY MCDONALD: Fifty-three year old Pauline is a primary school principal from central western New South Wales. Her bones have been made brittle from osteoporosis and she's fractured both of her ankles.
PAULINE: These fractures happened from no fall. I was just doing my routine work at school, I'm a school principal. From my memory I think I just jumped something about 30 centimetres high.
TIMOTHY MCDONALD: She admits it took her some time to get diagnosed but she's now treating her condition seriously. After all, she doesn't want to replicate her mother's experience.
PAULINE: Mum had her first fracture about 20 years ago when she fell off a window frame and then she's had numerous number of fractures from something as simple as one of my brothers giving her a cuddle, fractures her ribs, my father rolling over in bed, his arm has hit her and she's had a fracture, she's had a fractured wrist.
