Osteoporosis For Dummies
by Carolyn Riester OConnor, MD and Sharon Perkins, RN
Osteoporosis For Dummies
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Copyright 2005 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published simultaneously in Canada
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2005923787
ISBN-13: 978-0-7645-7621-8
ISBN-10: 0-7645-7621-6
Manufactured in the United States of America
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About the Authors
Carolyn OConnor graduated cum laude from Yale College with a bachelor of science degree in chemistry. She then traveled to Manhattan to attend Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons. After medical school, she did her postgraduate training in internal medicine at The New York Hospital Cornell Medical School. Her fellowship training in rheumatology was at Boston University Medical Center. Currently, she is chief of rheumatology and associate professor of medicine at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia. One of her major interests is metabolic bone disease. Her division of rheumatology runs the bone density program at Drexel.
She has two children; one has majored in philosophy and the other is studying mechanical engineering. Her outside interests include growing roses and struggling with the New York Times Crossword.
Sharon Perkins has been a registered nurse for almost 20 years, and currently works for a group of retinal doctors. Since she started treating an older population with macular degeneration, she sees way more osteoporosis than she wishes she did. She has five children and two daughters-in-law, two grandchildren, and a husband who recently retired from 20-plus years of flying airplanes and is currently hanging around the house.
Dedications
I dedicate this book to my many patients who trust in my advice. Truly, from listening to them and caring for them, I have learned more about osteoporosis than from reading any textbook.
Carolyn R. OConnor, MD
For my granddaughter Emma, in hopes that osteoporosis will be fully preventable in her future.
Sharon Perkins
Authors' Acknowledgments
Many thanks to the following people:
*Antonio J Reginato, MD (in memoriam) friend and mentor, who taught me about metabolic bone disease and showed me my first case of osteomalacia 20 years ago
*Gerald F. Falasca, MD, who taught me how to read my first bone density reading
*Norman A. Johanson, MD, Chief of Orthopedic Surgery, Drexel University College of Medicine, who contributed invaluable comments to Chapter 13
*Susan Ott, MD, who supplied pathologic slides of bone disorders
Carolyn R. OConnor, MD
One of my earliest memories is of my great grandmother, who my younger sister called the grandma with the broken arm. Id just met my family history of osteoporosis, although I didnt know it at the time.
Years down the road, my children remembered their great grandmother, daughter of my great grandma, who had fallen and broken her hip. Pictures show the inches she lost as she aged as evidence of vertebral compression fractures.
Osteoporosis runs in my family, but we never really put a name to it or did much about it. But because of the problems my relatives had, I was always aware of aging as being dangerous for your bones, and for that, I thank them.
I also have to thank my sister, Sue, for telling me Id hate writing a book on osteoporosis, because bones are boring. She knows I love a challenge.
Thanks to all the rest of my family and my friends for occasionally remembering that I was writing a book and asking me how it was going. Sometimes I needed a chance to vent!
For all the people behind the scenes at Wiley Publishing, especially Kathy Cox, who never loses faith in me, thank you.
Dr. OConnor and I both thank our acquisitions editor, Mikal Belicove, for the chance to write this book, as well as our marvelous project editor, Natalie Harris, copy editor, Chad Sievers, and technical editor, Deborah Kado. And once again, Kathryn Born has done a wonderful job on illustrations.
Sharon Perkins