In the round table of the XXVII National Congress of Diabetes, it has been shown that the diabetic patient has up to 6 times more risk of suffering a fracture due to bone fragility.
The endocrinologist and professor of Medicine at the University of Granada, Manuel Muñoz Torres, has highlighted as factors of this risk the effect of hyperglycemia on bone quality.
In conjunction with this, macro and microvascular complications and comorbidities that diabetes usually carry (obesity, hypertension, dyslipemia, kidney problems), also exert their negative influence on bone health.
According to the doctor, the problem would not derive from the deficit of the bone, but, rather, of their poor quality, since, he says, people with diabetes, especially type 2, have a bone density greater than the non -diabetic population.
To this are added the negative effects that some drugs indicated in the treatment of the disease have on the bone.Among these medications are glitazons, which cause bone alterations of interest in especially vulnerable populations, that is, elderly or postmenopausal women.
He also indicated that, although they are effective and safe drugs, they should be indicated with special caution in those sensitive populations.
A risk that is also added are the episodes of hypoglycemia, especially in elderly people, since they are more likely to suffer falls and, consequently, fractures.For this reason, insulin should always be used in a controlled way, taking into account this possible associated risk.
Given these risks, Muñoz emphasizes: "These people need particular measures to prevent the future appearance of bone fractures, being essential that their doctor warns them of this risk and informs them about conventional measures to avoid these alterations. In any case, the firstBone fracture prevention measure in these people must be, without a doubt, to ensure that they have well controlled their diabetes, avoiding the use of those hypoglycemiciantes that can raise the risk of bone fragility. "
