A new study suggests that women with osteoporosis appear to have higher risk of Parkinson’s Disease (PD).
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| Photo: Osteoporosis in Women | InStyleHealth |
According to the researchers, “Osteoporosis and PD
often co-occur, and even patients with early-stage PD may have reduced
bone-mineral density levels.” Further adding that, “This may imply that
osteoporosis is associated with a higher risk of PD.”
What is Osteoporosis?
Osteoporosis is a bone disease that happens when the
body loses too much bone, makes too little bone or can be both. The result of
which, bones become weaker and may break from a fall, in serious cases, from mere
sneezing or minor bumps.
Furthermore, osteoporosis means “porous bone.” When viewed under a microscope, a healthy human bone looks like a honeycomb. However, when one has osteoporosis, the holes and spaces in the honeycomb structure are much larger than healthy bones.
When the bones have osteoporosis
or osteoporotic bones may have lost density or mass and contain abnormal tissue
structure. If you are already 50 years or older and have broken a bone, you
need to ask your doctor or healthcare provider about taking a bone density
test.
Retrospective cohort study was conducted by experts
using Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Research Database. Researchers
enrolled 23,495 individuals aged 50 – 80 years old who had osteoporosis between
2002 and 2006 in the osteoporosis group and 23,495 propensity score-matched
patients without osteoporosis in the comparison group.
Using the logistic regression model which included
age, gender, comorbidities, and socioeconomic status to calculate the propensity
scores of the subject.
In the osteoporosis group, were 31% more likely to
develop OD than the comparison group. Participants with osteoporosis also had a
significantly lower PD-free survival rate relative to that of the comparison
group.
With the stratification analysis by gender, women with
osteoporosis came out to be at higher risk of developing Parkinson’s Disease
than their male counterparts in the study.
Authors of the study stated, “Patients with
osteoporosis are at an increased risk of developing PD, and that the magnitude
of this extra PD risk appears to be higher in women.”
“However, further studies are needed to investigate the mechanisms that underlie these findings,” experts suggested. For complete details of the study, click here.
Source:
J Clin
Endocrinol Metab 2021;106:e763-e771