Introduction to Osteoporosis in Geriatric Patients (Nursing)

00:01 Hi, welcome to our series on Geriatric Nursing.

00:05 Now, in this part of our series, we're going to talk about age related changes in health, but specifically your bones.

00:12 We're going to talk about what happens to bones as we age.

00:16 Now, officially, we call that osteoporosis.

00:20 So let's think back to when you were little.

00:21 Do you remember how fun that was? You'd be running all over the place, you'd be sweaty.

00:26 You even trip and fall, you got scratches on your knee.

00:29 But even if you fell from something a lot higher, like a tree or a piece of playground equipment, most cases, kids just pop back up, they shake it off, and they keep on running.

00:40 It's almost like they're made out of rubber.

00:43 But let's compare that to what it looks like as you age.

00:46 Now, we're not talking about falling from a tree or playground equipment, we're talking about even falling your own height.

00:53 Now for me, that's very close to the ground, because I'm just 5'2, barely.

00:59 But when an older person falls just from standing up to the ground, they're gonna have some significant challenges and some problems.

01:08 Now, people always kind of joke about how old people's bones are kinda grungy.

01:14 But really, that's what we're talking about.

01:16 Because how do we go from these super flexible bodies, to these bodies that are a little crunchy at times.

01:24 So if you're intrigued, come along with me, I'm going to show you step by step with some incredible drawings to help you understand what happens to bones as we age.

01:36 So let's start from the very beginning.

01:39 What is osteoporosis? Now, you have our character, and they're going kind of... right? Kind of demonstrating back pain.

01:47 We'll hold that thought, because we're going to talk about that in just a minute what osteoporosis has to do with back pain? Before I do, write a guess.

01:57 I mean, pause for just a minute and write a guess on what connection you think there is to osteoporosis and to back pain.

02:11 Okay, I hope you took advantage of that.

02:13 See, that's called prediction.

02:15 And at Lecturio, we are huge fans of learning science, helping you learn how to study more effectively, because we know you have limited time.

02:26 So when you try to predict an answer to a question, even if you don't know the answer, it's going to stick in your brain better.

02:33 And that's what we're all about.

02:35 So, go ahead, if you didn't do it, pause, try and predict something.

02:39 And then we're going to move on to the next slide.

02:45 So let's bring in two versions of our character, Mandy.

02:48 Look at Mandy on the side with the soccer ball.

02:51 Now, look at the picture of the bone right next to her.

02:54 See that? It's all compact and tight.

02:57 This represents a strong bone.

03:00 We are talking about bones that have decreased density or osteoporosis, right? If you break that word down, you have osteo that means bone, porosis that means porous.

03:13 So porous is not something you really want your bones to be.

03:17 Look at older Mandy's bone on the right there.

03:20 There's those holes in those gaps.

03:22 You can tell that bones when she's older, are not as strong as when she was younger.

03:28 Now, here's some other things to keep in mind.

03:31 Bone tissue in older Mandy is lost much faster than the bone tissue can be rebuilt.

03:37 And young Mandy, she had was able to keep up with it.

03:41 And that's why she had those dense bones.

03:43 But older Mandy has developed osteoporosis.

03:46 And that's why she has those porous bones.

03:50 Because she's losing bone tissue faster than she can replace it.

03:54 And this makes her bones brittle.

03:56 So that's why falling just from her own height has a higher risk of her breaking a bone.

04:02 Now, I'm sure some of you out there know an elderly person, or you know someone you've had a grandparent or someone in your circle of influence has had a fall and they broke a bone.

04:13 We're gonna get a little more specific about that.

04:15 But think about that person. Picture what they went through.

04:19 What did they look like? What do you imagine their bones look like? Did they look like young Mandy's bones? Or did they likely look like older Mandy's bones.

04:31 Take a look at this hip bone.

04:33 You'll notice there's some things that are not normal that are going on there.

04:37 We're going to break down two of the most common examples of that.

04:41 But I wanted to reinforce with you as clients age, the bones lose thickness and strength.

04:47 So because they have osteoporosis developing, their bones are not as thick.

04:53 They're not as strong.

04:54 So they're more risk for fractures.

04:56 We're looking at two of those.

04:57 These are common examples because of the changes they're experiencing in their bones.