Osteoporosis causes bones to become weak and brittle. Unfortunately, a fall or even mild stresses such as bending over or coughing can cause a fracture. Fractures will usually happen in the hip, wrist or spine. Bone is constantly being broken down or replaced. It occurs when creation of the new bone does not keep up with the loss of old bone.
Symptoms of osteoporosis may include back pain, loss of height, a stooped posture or a bone that will break more easily than expected. Luckily, there are several effective osteoporosis treatments:

1. Prolia (denosumab)
One way to prevent osteoporosis from developing is using medications, maintaining a healthy diet or doing weight-bearing exercises. Prolia denosumab is a targeted treatment that stops bone-removing cells before they can reach and damage the bone. Without treatment, an excess of bone-removing cells will make you lose bone faster than your body can rebuild it. This will put you at risk for fracture. Prolia is an injection that helps stop bone-removing cells from developing and it works with your body. The treatment should be avoided if you have low blood calcium or if you are pregnant.

2. Bisphosphonates
There are a class of drugs that allow you to treat and prevent osteoporosis and it is mainly used for postmenopausal women. This treatment has been linked to a number of serious side effects. This includes osteonecrosis of the jaw. The jaw absorbs more of the bisphosphonates than other bones in the body. The drug inhibits the digestion of bone by encouraging osteoclasts to undergo cell death and slow bone loss. The most popular drugs in this class are alendronate and risedronate. This drug is also popular in situations where there is post-menopausal osteoporosis. After five years of treatment through the mouth, the treatment can be halted while those at higher risk may require 10 years.

3. Hormone-related therapy
This consists of estrogens alone or in combination with progestin. HRT slows bone turnover and increases bone mineral density (BMD). The anti-fracture efficacy of HRT has been assessed in meta-analyses and randomized clinical trials. HRT decreases fragility fracture risk by 20-35%. Discontinuation of HRT results in acceleration of bone turnover, decrease in BMD and eventual loss of anti-fracture efficacy. Overall health risks outweigh the benefits from HRT in older postmenopausal women. HRT can increase the risk of myocardial infarction, ovarian cancer and deterioration of cognitive function. Low doses of HRT can protect bone by decreasing bone turnover markers (BTM) levels.

4. Bone building medications
Teriparatide (Forteo) is the first approved anabolic or bone building drug where bone formation is stimulated more than resorption. Efforts have been made to understand the effect of teriparatide on antiresorptive therapy. Teriparatide Forteo decreased fractures at vertebral and non-vertebral sites more than other treatments. Teriparatide is at least as efficacious as other accepted therapies for osteoporosis.

5. Collagen
This product helps benefit patients who have osteoporosis. Collagen for osteoporosis increases bone mineral density and has a protective effect on articular cartilage. It also helps provide symptomatic relief of pain. The product can be used with collagen peptides (SCP) or as collagen hydrolysate. Collagen peptides lead to decreased excretion of bone collagen breakdown products and is persistent 3 months after a treatment.