[News] Osteopenia-- or-- How to invent disease.

[Michaelangelica]

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How A Bone Disease Grew To Fit The Prescription

How A Bone Disease Grew To Fit The Prescription : NPR

 

Osteopenia Vs. Osteoporosis

 

Osteopenia is different from osteoporosis. In fact, though Benghauser is extremely health conscious, she wasn't familiar with it. "I'd heard of osteoporosis before, but I'd never heard of osteopenia," she says.

 

Osteopenia, it turns out, is a slight thinning of the bones that occurs naturally as women get older and typically doesn't result in disabling bone breaks. Still, Benghauser's doctor recommended that she go on treatment. As Benghauser asked around, it turned out that many of her peers were taking the pills. For example, she works in an office in Richmond, Va., with seven other women.

 

"Half the staff is younger, in their 20s and 30s, and then there are four of us that are over 50," she said. "Three of those four are on some kind of medication for osteopenia."