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Monday, January 8, 2018

FRAX: Fracture Risk Assessment Tool

This is an area of great interest to doctors and patients with osteopenia and osteoporosis. It is an epidemic to make our bones stronger, and prevent falls. It can help doctors discuss your fracture risk as you age, which presently affects 40% of postmenopausal women. My active patients want to stay active for as long as they can. The post I do tomorrow will discuss Vit D and calcium intake.

So, FRAX Algorithms (just love that word for some reason) will give you and your doctor your 10-year probability of having a fracture. Hip Fractures have complications and actually have a 20% death rate in the next 5 years. So, it can be huge to lower your risk and become more healthy. And, for some, they get to eat a lot more (when they have low body weight).

Most of the links below get too scientific, but it is good to make you aware. You can challenge your doc or your parent's doc to see what FRAX says. The common risk factors include:

  • having a fracture as an adult
  • having a parent, sibling or child with a fracture due to some bone weakness
  • having low body weight
  • current smoking
  • taking oral corticosteroids
  • having poor health
  • having a low bone density
  • having rheumatoid arthritis
  • having previous hyperthyroidism
  • having poor depth perception
  • having tachycardia
  • taking alcohol 3 units/day
  • and also there are age, sex, race, and height factors
I hope the articles below are somewhat helpful if you are trying to get a grip on where you are going and how to make your fall risk less. Good Luck. Rich




https://www.mdedge.com/familypracticenews/clinical-edge/summary/rheumatology/screening-reduce-fractures-older-women?oc_slh=b5cd26eb7ef08a129178fb13c775a36c2805f6e6834f11ecb0c5ed849e9efb8e&utm_source=ClinEdge_FPN_cedge_010218_F&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Screening%20for%20Fractures%20in%20Women%20%7CCognitive%20Training%20%7CSteglatro%20OK%27d%20for%20T2D%20%7C%26%20More%20ClinicalEdge

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2827823/

https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/FRAX/tool.aspx?country=9

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Thank you very much for leaving a comment. Due to my time restraints, some comments may not be answered.I will answer questions that I feel will help the community as a whole.. I can only answer medical questions in a general form. No specific answers can be given. Please consult a podiatrist, therapist, orthopedist, or sports medicine physician in your area for specific questions.