The content of this podcast is provided for general informational purposes only and is not intended

as, nor should it be considered a substitute for professional medical advice.

Oh, how I feel.

Bitchy, bitchy, bitchy, bitchy, bitchy, bitchy, bitchy, bitchy, bitchy and bitchy.

Hello, this is Karen Nicol family nurse practitioner, and you are listening to Itchy and bitchy. Itchy and bitchy.

Hello, this is Karen Nicol family nurse practitioner, and you are listening to Itchy and Bitchie a podcast that provides answers to your many unanswered health questions.

Recently, I was talking to a friend and podcast listener about my journey with osteoporosis. And she said, you should do a podcast

episode on osteoporosis. So here I am about to share my journey with all of you. There are two

stages of bone loss, osteopenia, which is the first stage or early bone loss, and osteoporosis,

which is the second stage or advanced bone loss. I have osteoporosis, darn it. The word

osteopenia comes from the Greek words osteo, meaning bone, and penia meaning poverty. So

osteopenia literally means bone poverty. The word osteoporosis is derived from the Greek words

osteo, again meaning bone, and poro, meaning holes. So I have bone holes. Hmm. Today I'm going to speak

specifically about osteoporosis versus osteopenia, since many people are diagnosed with advanced

bone loss or bone holes after having their very first bone density test. The test to measure

bone density is called a dexas scan. The test result expressed as a number called a T-score

compares your bone density with that of a healthy 30-year-old woman. A normal T-score is in a positive number

down to minus 1.0. Osteopenia is minus 1.1 up to minus 2.4, and at minus 2.5 or below, that is considered osteoporosis.

Unfortunately, a bone density test is not ordered as early as it should be,

so we sometimes entirely miss the early stage of bone loss called osteopenia.

It's a shame since early detection and treatment is so important. There are certain factors that put

us at risk for developing osteoporosis. A couple of risk factors are ones we cannot change,

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