New Delhi: When you think about staying healthy, you probably consider lifestyle changes to prevent conditions like cancer and heart disease. Keeping your bones healthy to prevent osteoporosis may not be at the top of your wellness list. But it should.

 

What is osteoporosis?

Osteoporosis is a bone disease. Its name comes from Latin for “porous bones.”

The inside of a healthy bone has small spaces, like a honeycomb. Osteoporosis increases the size of these spaces, causing the bone to lose strength and density. In addition, the outside of the bone grows weaker and thinner.

 

Osteoporosis can occur in people of any age, but it’s more common in older adults, especially women. More than 53 million people in the United States either have osteoporosis or are at high risk of developing it.

People with osteoporosis are at a high risk of fractures, or bone breaks, while doing routine activities such as standing or walking. The most commonly affected bones are the ribs, hips, and the bones in the wrists and spine.  

It can takes a heavy toll on an individual’s health and future if left undiagnosed and untreated.

Since osteoporosis typically shows no symptoms in the early stages of bone loss, the disease frequently remains undetected and untreated despite the many effective treatment options. It is said that osteoporosis results in nearly 9 million fractures each year worldwide.

Osteoporosis symptoms:

The early stages of osteoporosis don’t cause any symptoms or warning signs. In most cases, people with osteoporosis don’t know they have the condition until they have a fracture.

If symptoms do appear, some of the earlier ones may include:

• receding gums

• weakened grip strength

• weak and brittle nails

If you don’t have symptoms but have a family history of osteoporosis, talking to your doctor can help you assess your risk.  

Without appropriate treatment, osteoporosis can worsen. As bones get thinner and weaker, the risk of fracture increases.

Severe osteoporosis:

Symptoms of severe osteoporosis can include a fracture from a fall or even from a strong sneeze or cough. They can also include back or neck pain, or loss of height. These last two symptoms can be caused by a compression fracture. This is a break in one of the vertebrae in your neck or back, which is so weak that it breaks under the normal pressure in your spine.

If you do have a fracture from osteoporosis, how long it takes to heal will depend on many factors. These include where the fracture is, how severe it is, as well as your age and health history. 

Therefore, it is necessary to know the causes of Osteoporosis. Osteoporosis causes:

 Age

The biggest cause of osteoporosis is age. Throughout your life, your body breaks down old bone and grows new bone. However, when you’re in your 30s, your body starts breaking down bone faster than it’s able to replace it. This leads to bone that’s less dense and more fragile, and thus more prone to breakage.

 Menopause

Another primary cause of osteoporosis is menopause, which occurs in women around the ages of 45 to 55 years. Due to the change in hormone levels associated with it, menopause can cause a woman’s body to lose bone even more quickly.

Men continue to lose bone at this age, but at a slower rate than women do. However, by the time they reach the ages of 65 to 70, women and men are usually losing bone at the same rate.

Here's a roundup of some recommendations on how to reduce the risk and keep bones healthy: 

Osteoporosis and the broken bones it can cause are not part of normal aging. There is a lot you can do to protect your bones throughout your life. You’re never too young or too old to improve the health of your bones. Osteoporosis prevention should begin in childhood. But it shouldn’t stop there. Whatever your age, the habits you adopt now can affect your bone health for the rest of your life. Now is the time to take action.

 Increased exercise―at least three and a half hours per week―for young children, during growth but before puberty, can help boost bone density according to recent research. Sports with a high osteogenic (bone-building) effect include football, basketball and handball, when practiced young. Playing these team sports at an early age guarantees greater accumulation of bone mass in comparison with low osteogenic-effect sports such as swimming. 

Moreover, low bone strength appears to be less of a problem for children who get moving or start walking early, according to a British study published in May 2016.

 According to research published in January 2017 in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, women who scored highly on the dietary inflammatory index (DII), a measure of the inflammatory potential of diet, had twice the risk of hip fracture than those eating diets with lower inflammatory potential.

A Mediterranean diet―rich in fruit, vegetables, fish, omega-3 and wholegrain cereals―may therefore be of interest. Plus, vitamin D (sardines, mackerel, calf's liver, eggs, cod liver oil) is essential for building and regenerating bone.

 Whether a preventative measure or after a fracture, it's important to ensure sufficient calcium intake after menopause by eating foods such as yogurt and cheese, as well as fruit and vegetables like broccoli, spinach, and dried fruit and nuts (walnuts, almonds, dried figs).

 It's also important to keep an eye on sun exposure to help maintain vitamin D levels. Beware of drinking too much coffee or alcohol too. While up to two glasses of red wine can be beneficial for osteoporosis, three can make the condition worse.

 When it comes to exercise for preventing the loss of bone mass, walking is a very good compromise for women needing to avoid impact sports but still seeking a cardiovascular workout. Head out for a longer, hour-long walk at the weekend and keep the pace brisk. Or try hiking with Nordic walking sticks, for example, to get the upper body and arms moving too.

 What's more, hopping carefully for two minutes a day could strengthen the hip bones in older people, helping to reduce the risk of fracture in the event of a fall, according to research from the National Centre for Sport and Exercise Medicine (NCSEM) at Loughborough University in the UK.

 Eating a healthy diet consisting plenty of dairy products, such as milk, yoghurt and cheese, etc, to provide enough calcium and vitamin D, which is essential for bone health. It is recommended that one should aim for around 750-1000 mg/day of calcium in the diet (the amount in one pint of milk is approximately 700).

 Not smoking cigarettes or not drinking more than the recommended amount of alcohol – up to 2 drinks for men and one drink for women daily.

 Taking regular physical exercise such as walking briskly for 30-45 minutes at least 3-4 times per week. However, you should consult with your doctor before taking up any exercise or physical activity programme if you have recently broke a bone or are unable to do this for other reasons. In addition, knowing what sort of exercise is suitable for you and adapting to the right amount of exercise can help reduce bone loss and also lowers the risk of falling.

 In case you have had one or more falls recently, make sure that you see your doctor and take steps on how to reduce the risk of having further falls.

Through early prevention, diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis, millions of men and women all over the world can reduce their risk of painful, debilitating and life-threatening fractures.

What else can you do to protect your bones?

 Children and adolescents should:

1. Ensure a nutritious diet with adequate calcium intake 

2. Avoid protein malnutrition and under-nutrition

3. Maintain an adequate supply of vitamin D

4. Participate in regular physical activity

5. Avoid the effects of second-hand smoking

 

 Adults should:

1. Ensure a nutritious diet and adequate calcium intake 

2. Avoid under-nutrition, particularly the effects of severe weight-loss diets and eating disorders

3. Maintain an adequate supply of vitamin D

4. Participate in regular weight-bearing activity

5. Avoid smoking and second-hand smoking

6. Avoid heavy drinking

 

And, If you have risk factors, including first fractures, seek testing and treatment if required, in order to protect your future independence and quality of life.

 

World Osteoporosis Day (WOD) is marked on October 20 each year. It seeks to raise global awareness of the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis and related bone diseases. It also aims to put osteoporosis and fracture prevention on the global health agenda and reaches out to health-care professionals, the media, policy makers and the public at large. The event calls on the general public to take early action to protect their bone and muscle health to enjoy a good quality of life and independence in the future.

 

Ends

 

References:

http://www.thejakartapost.com/

https://www.nof.org

http://www.hindustantimes.com

http://www.timesnownews.com