Collin County Living Well Magazine Winter 2014 | Page 39

/13 6:08 PM BACK TO A HEALTHIER LIFESTYLE Balloon Kyphoplasty Offers Relief for Patients with Fractured Vertebrae By Adrian Moger, MD You’ve suffered with back pain after falling or maybe just after bending down to pick up something off the floor. You finally make an appointment with a doctor to have it checked out. Your doctor determines that you have a vertebral compression fracture (VCF). Most VCFs are caused by osteoporosis, a disease that causes bones to become brittle and break easily. Osteoporosis, often called the “silent disease” because bone loss occurs without symptoms, threatens approximately 44 million Americans, or 55% of the people 50 years old and older, according to the National Osteoporosis Foundation. Ten million people have the disease and 34 million more are estimated to have the low bone mass that places them at risk for the disease. If not prevented or if left untreated, osteoporosis