Osteoporosis is a disease that might not exist. However, according to some researchers, by 2020, women with bone fractures will make up one third of all inpatients. This ailment is more common than colds, allergies, and high cholesterol. And treating osteoporosis is more expensive than fighting asthma and diabetes. The mortality rate from hip fractures among women is higher than the mortality rate from all types of cancer combined. What to do to protect yourself from this ailment?
What is osteoporosis?
This is a disorder in which bone density is so reduced that a bone fracture occurs even from a minor effect. The bones gradually become extremely fragile and porous. Old bone cells do not have time to be replaced by new ones, although many patients do not even realize that they are sick. As a result, the first tangible symptoms of osteoporosis are fractures.
“Porous bones” - the word “osteoporosis” is literally translated, the symptoms, the treatment of which cannot be started, appear for the first time, as a rule, only at an advanced age. But the bones begin to thin out 30 years before the first fracture occurs. In addition, the bones grow together much more slowly than in youth, as the process of bone cell repair slows down.
Therefore, the higher it is possible to increase bone density at a young age, the more time will pass before the disease declares itself. Knowing this, you can protect yourself from osteoporosis.
Reasons Why Osteoporosis Symptoms Appear
The exact causes are unknown, but science speaks of factors contributing to the development of the disease:
• Inherited features. The symptoms of osteoporosis are more likely to be felt by thin women of short stature (up to 157 cm) of Northern European origin with a light skin type.
• Sedentary lifestyle. Smokers whose diet is poor in calcium, exposed to the sun on average less than 3 hours a week, who abuse caffeine and alcohol are at risk.
• The use of certain types of drugs. Diuretics (furosemide), cortisone, dilantin (long-term use), thyroid hormones, levothyroxine, products containing aluminum hydroxide - increase the risk of osteoporosis.
• Health status. Symptoms of osteoporosis can often occur in the following cases:
1. Artificial or early menopause, causing a low level of estrogen.
2. Lack of menstruation (amenorrhea).
3. Anorexia nervosa caused by prolonged starvation or too tight a diet.
4. Hyperthyroidism.
5. Diabetes.
6. Urolithiasis , kidney disease.
7. Intolerance to dairy products caused by a deficiency of lactase.
8. Stitches, ileitis.
9. Rheumatoid arthritis.
10. Bed rest for more than three weeks
11. Alcoholism.
Osteoporosis Prevention
To protect yourself from osteoporosis, you must do everything possible in the first thirty years of your life to build up enough bone density. To do this:
• Exercise regularly
• Stop smoking
• Do not abuse caffeine and alcohol
• Monitor your posture, focusing on your back
• Be in sufficient quantities in the sun, which contributes to the production of vitamin D
• Eat foods rich in calcium and not get involved in diets and starvation, leaving your body for a long time without the necessary minerals
Although it is still impossible to completely recover from this ailment, nevertheless, effective drugs have been created that alleviate the patient's condition and reduce the risk of fractures.
Patients should constantly do an affordable and safe set of exercises, be physically active, monitor their diet and treat these recommendations very seriously, as if they were prescribed drugs.