Osteoporosis can be life-threatening as it increases the risk of fractures, especially in the spine and hip. However, osteopenia is not life-threatening but rather a warning for people to pay more attention to their health, lifestyle habits and surroundings.
Osteoporosis is the gradual loss of bone mass with a bone mineral density (BMD) near -2.5 and lower. Osteopenia is also the gradual loss of protein and minerals that degrades bone mass but with a bone mineral density between -1 to -2.5. It is quite evident from the numbers that osteoporosis has more bone loss than osteopenia.
In conclusion, people can live a long life with osteopenia or osteoporosis if they follow proper treatment and a healthy lifestyle. In the case of osteoporosis, people do not die of the condition; instead, they die from the complications such as fractures that occur easily in weak bones.
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