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Guard against the 'silent crippler'

29 Apr 2011

Imagine leaning on a table for a moment when, with a sudden snap, a bone in your wrist shatters. Imagine doing something as innocuous as turning your head to look at something and a vertebrae in your neck fractures. For many people this is the first sign that they have osteoporosis.

$Lateral spine X-ray showing osteoporotic wedge fractures of L1/2. (Image: Glitzy queen00 at the English Wikipedia project)$

Lateral spine X-ray showing osteoporotic wedge fractures of L1/2. (Image: Glitzy queen00 at the English Wikipedia project)

Called the "silent crippler", it is believed that as many as one in three women and one in five men in South Africa will suffer from this painful and debilitating disease, which means that between four and six million South Africans are at risk. Read the article.