How marine research can improve osteoporosis diagnosis
Overview of osteoporosis.
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Transcript
NARRATOR: Osteoporosis patients doing water aerobics - the disease they have is a form of bone atrophy. The illness causes their bones to become increasingly brittle as they age. Apollonia Noll has been suffering from this disease for 10 years. She was plagued with sudden and intense pain.
APOLLONIA NOLL: "With me it started as an inexplicable burning in my shins, in my bones, especially when I climbed stairs. I couldn't figure out why that was, so I went to the doctor and asked what it might be. It took ages of running through countless possibilities of what it might be. That went on for nearly three years before someone finally realized it was osteoporosis."
NARRATOR: From the age of 40 everyone's bones atrophy to a certain degree. They lose calcium, a mineral that strengthens bones. Osteoporosis patients' bones become thinner and more brittle than those of healthy people, and they break easily. Over seven million people in Germany suffer from osteoporosis. Until now their illness was commonly diagnosed at a very late stage, but marine research might just change this. Researchers have been investigating the calcium content in marine life. By doing so they can determine things like their age. These testing methods could one day improve osteoporosis diagnosis.
MARKUS BLEICH: "Medical professionals are faced with the challenge of treating and diagnosing osteoporosis in their patients. In order to do this we have to understand what happens when someone has osteoporosis, what happens to their bones, the mechanisms that are driving this process. And now we have these techniques from marine research that give us a new possibility to diagnose and observe just how bones lose calcium."
NARRATOR: Apollonia Noll also believes that an earlier diagnosis would be helpful to patients, as it would make it easier to deal with the illness.
NOLL: "If it is recognized early enough then it is easier to adapt your lifestyle to living with it. You know how you have to proceed, that you have to go to get a bone density test every three to four years. And if your bones have stayed more or less the same, then you know all the work you have been doing is paying off."
NARRATOR: This is an incurable disease, but it is one patients can learn to live with. It means taking medication, a calcium-rich diet and, most of all, lots of physical activity.
APOLLONIA NOLL: "With me it started as an inexplicable burning in my shins, in my bones, especially when I climbed stairs. I couldn't figure out why that was, so I went to the doctor and asked what it might be. It took ages of running through countless possibilities of what it might be. That went on for nearly three years before someone finally realized it was osteoporosis."
NARRATOR: From the age of 40 everyone's bones atrophy to a certain degree. They lose calcium, a mineral that strengthens bones. Osteoporosis patients' bones become thinner and more brittle than those of healthy people, and they break easily. Over seven million people in Germany suffer from osteoporosis. Until now their illness was commonly diagnosed at a very late stage, but marine research might just change this. Researchers have been investigating the calcium content in marine life. By doing so they can determine things like their age. These testing methods could one day improve osteoporosis diagnosis.
MARKUS BLEICH: "Medical professionals are faced with the challenge of treating and diagnosing osteoporosis in their patients. In order to do this we have to understand what happens when someone has osteoporosis, what happens to their bones, the mechanisms that are driving this process. And now we have these techniques from marine research that give us a new possibility to diagnose and observe just how bones lose calcium."
NARRATOR: Apollonia Noll also believes that an earlier diagnosis would be helpful to patients, as it would make it easier to deal with the illness.
NOLL: "If it is recognized early enough then it is easier to adapt your lifestyle to living with it. You know how you have to proceed, that you have to go to get a bone density test every three to four years. And if your bones have stayed more or less the same, then you know all the work you have been doing is paying off."
NARRATOR: This is an incurable disease, but it is one patients can learn to live with. It means taking medication, a calcium-rich diet and, most of all, lots of physical activity.
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