What is osteoporosis?

Bones are architectural masterpieces. They consist of
living tissue and, during our lives, our bones are thus
continually going through a balanced process of being
built up and broken down again.
This well-balanced equilibrium shifts as we grow older.
More bone mass is broken down than is being built up,
above all in women over 50. Therefore experts suspect
hormonal causes. Up to a certain point, this is part of the
normal human ageing process. However, if much more
bone mass is broken down, doctors talk about the
metabolic disease osteoporosis. The consequences of
this are usually seen in the spine. Healthy vertebral
bodies are deformed by the weight of the body and may
collapse.
A particularly common form of this is the so-called
wedged vertebral body.