Everybody of you must be know about the disease called osteoporosis. So, osteoporosis are commonly described as the disease that occurs when the bones lose its mass and density which will make your bone become weak and fragile. The doctor commonly says that the osteoporosis is the “silent disease” because you actually can’t feel any symptoms related to this disease and you will feel that you’re having the osteoporosis when you’re having the fracture. In this article, we provide you every information you need about osteoporosis.
Common Causes of Osteoporosis
Before you know the symptoms or the sign that you could possibly have the osteoporosis, the first thing that you should know is about the causes the osteoporosis. So, you might wonder why the osteoporosis could occur in the body? In this section you will find out the common causes of osteoporosis disease.
Bone Remodeling
As you already know, the bones are the living tissue with holes inside of them. When you’re suffering from osteoporosis, the holes inside of the bones become larger than before and also more fragile than before. The bone remodeling commonly occurs due to the aging conditions. When we are young, the body will always make a lot of bones and then it reached its peak during our peak 20s. After that, our bones started slowly to lose the mass and its density.
Impact of the Hormones and Medical Conditions
The osteoporosis could also happen because of the injection of the hormones and the medical conditions and this is commonly called as the secondary osteoporosis. When you’re taking the medication like glucocorticoid steroids, this will make your body to have some difficulties to absorb the calcium into the body which means that your bone will suffer from the malnutrients and will lead you to osteoporosis.
Also, the injections of thyroid hormone will also increase the risk of having the osteoporosis. Thyroid hormone will speed up the process of bone remodeling which definitely will speed up the osteoporosis. Aside from that, bad habits such as taking too much alcohol and smoking could also increase the risk of having osteoporosis during the elderly period.
Osteoporosis Symptoms
As already mentioned above, the osteoporosis is considered as the silent disease since you couldn’t feel anything wrong with your bones until your bones broken suddenly with the slightest accident like strong coughing or sneezing. So, it is impossible to detect that you’re having the osteoporosis or not. Meanwhile, there are some signs that might give you the clue that indicate that you’re suffering from the osteoporosis disease. These are the sign that could indicate the osteoporosis disease.
1. Fracture
The first symptoms of osteoporosis which will you get is fracture, this happen in almost all osteoporosis patients.
This is the common symptoms that your bone suffers from osteoporosis. While the osteoporosis don’t have any specific symptoms that you could feel, but the most common signs that you have the osteoporosis is the fracture bone because of the fragility of your bone. So, fracture is a kind of the condition when your bones are broken. Commonly, fracture could occurs when your bones are impacted with the force or pressure more than your bones could support.
But, in the case of osteoporosis, fractures could even be triggered by a strong cough or sneeze. So, the next question is what can cause the fracture? Well, typically, fracture could occur when there are the force or pressure than your bones could support, which then the pressure of the force could weaken your bones and breaks it suddenly.
Those pressures and forces commonly occur when you’re having injuries during sports, falls from such a high place, or many traumatic incidents like direct strikes in the body and having a gunshot.
Since the goal to treat this fracture is to put your bones into one piece in their proper positions, the most common things that the doctor will give you is the cast. Casts are basically made from fiberglass which will prevent the movement of your broken bones while in the healing process. But, in severe complex fracture, the surgery would be the only solution to heal this disease.
2. Transverse Wrist Fracture
The other fracture that could be the sign that you’re having the osteoporosis is the wrist fracture. The wrist fracture is the condition that occurs when the radius bone in your forearms broken. So, when you’re having the wrist fracture, that means that the radius, the larger bones of the two main bones in your forearms, breaks. As the result, your wrist would bend in an unusual way and this is very painful as well as make you become unable to grip anything. The most common things that cause this disease is the osteoporosis since the osteoporosis could weaken your bones.
There are a lot of types related to this transverse wrist fracture, which are:
- Open fracture, if the bones broke through your skin.
- Comminuted fracture, if the bones broke into more than two pieces.
- Intra-articular fracture, if the bone broke inside of your wrist join.
- Extra-articular fracture, if the bone broke but your joint isn’t affected.
So, when you’re having the transverse wrist fracture, you need to have the medical treatments as soon as possible since this disease is the serious condition. This transverse wrist fracture is commonly can be overcome with the induction of surgery or the physical therapy. In addition to that, the doctor might also prescribe you with the ibuprofen and acetaminophen to relieve the pain.
3. Hip Fracture
The other disease that could be the sign of the osteoporosis is the fracture on your hip. So, the broken hip could be occured when there is a fracture in the upper portion in your thighbone. Since this broken hip could occur in the femur of your hip joint, this disorder could occur in many different places, which are:
- Femoral Neck Fracture: this broken hip occurs in the femur just about 2 inches from where the head of the bone meets the socket. This type of broken hip could block the blood circulation to the ball of your hip.
- Intracapsular Fracture: this broken hip will affect the ball and socket portions of your hip which will cause the tearing the blood vessels that go to the ball.
- Intertrochanteric Hip Fracture: this broken hip occurs little farther from the joint so that it wouldn’t affect the blood flow into your femur.
This disease is the serious condition because it affects your blood flow and thus, you need to seek the medical treatment as soon as possible. The overcome the broken him, in most cases you need to have the surgery to repair or replace your hip. When you’re having the replacement of the hip, it means that the surgery will remove the damage part of the hip in your body and replace it with artificial hip on its proper place. In addition to that, soon after you’re having the surgery, you will also need to have the physical therapy as well to fasten the recovery of your hip.
4. Loss of Height
The other common symptom that you’re having the osteoporosis is that the loss of your height. As already mentioned above, at the most cases, you couldn’t feel that you’re having the osteoporosis. So, whenever you find out that the height of your body suddenly decreased without any reason at all and it is very unintentional, this could be the sign that you’re suffering from osteoporosis.
Osteoporosis could be linked with the loss of the height because the osteoporosis could attack your spine. At the most cases, osteoporosis could make your spine become collapses and this can lead you to the loss of certain height of your body. So, whenever you’re feeling that your height is regularly decreased in a period of time alongside with the other symptoms like:
- Numbness and tinglings in the area of your body frequently.
- Have some kind of difficulty to walking around
- Have some incontinences
You’re more likely to develop the osteoporosis and you need to go to the doctor immediately so that the doctor could conduct some tests like an x-ray or a CT scan to diagnose whether you’re having the osteoporosis or not.
When you’re having the height loss because of the curved spine caused by osteoporosis, there is a way to treat this problem:
- Physical Therapy to strengthen your core muscles and spinal support muscles.
- Add some calcium supplements to keep the strength of your bone and keep the density of your bones.
- Taking some medications to induce the new bone formations.
- Taking the surgery to restore the height of vertebra and inserted the bone cement so that in the future, your vertebra wouldn’t collapse again.
5. Lower Back Pain
The other thing that could be the sign that you’re having the osteoporosis is the lower back pain. This disorder commonly occurs between the people in the ages of 30 and 50 and partly comes because of the aging within the body and also can caused by the osteoporosis, since the osteoporosis could make your bones become loss its density suddenly.
So, whenever you’re feeling the pain in around your lower back, you need to take this symptom as soon as possible by taking the medication in your home such as stop taking too much physical activities and apply some ice cubes in the area of the pain in your lower back, also, you could take the medication to relieve your pain like ibuprofen or acetaminophen. but, when you feel the pinched nerves and the muscle weakness, you might need to seek the medical treatment in the hospital since if this is becoming fatal, you need to have a surgery.
6. Neck Pain
The other thing that could be the sign that you’re having the osteoporosis is that you’re having the neck pain. So, your neck is basically made up from the vertebrae and the muscles, ligaments, and also your bones in the neck are really essential to support your head and also help to make the head motion. In the case of the osteoporosis, the bones and the muscles around the neck become weakened as the osteoporosis could make your bone lose its density.
While maybe most of the cases of the neck pain is not a serious condition, but you need to take it seriously because of the possibility of having the neck pain caused by osteoporosis. You need to take the first medication in the home such as:
- Apply the ice cube in the area of the pain in your neck as it might could relieve the pain caused by the neck pain.
- Reduce the frequency of the physical activity that involved the movement of your neck.
- Always exercise your neck with the slow stretch in the head.
- Having the gentle neck massages.
But, when the neck pain is till occurs after several weeks, you need to seek the medical treatment as you will be likely to prescribed the antibiotics by the doctor and other kind of medical therapy. Rarely, you will have the surgery too.
7. Kyphosis
The other symptom that you could get as the sign that you’re having the osteoporosis is the disorder called kyphosis. Kyphosis commonly occurs when the curvation around your spine in the upper back is larger than the normal. Although indeed that your spine has the natural curve in the neck, upper back, and lower back to support the weight of your head, but you’re considered of having the kyphosis when the arc of the spine in the upper back is larger than usual.
This kyphosis could occurs in the people in any ages, but the kyphosis commonly caused by the poor posture that commonly caused by osteoporosis. So, the symptoms whenever you’re having the kyphosis beside the excessive curve in the spine in the upper back is that you will also have the difficulty of breathing, pain around your back, and excessive fatigue. When you’re feeling the sign of kyphosis, you need to seek the medical treatment as soon as possible since it will get worse as the time goes by.
So, the kyphosis could be treated in several ways. But, since the causes of kyphosis are the poor structure, here are the common treatment of the kyphosis:
- Physical therapy to build the strength in the core muscle and back muscle.
- Taking a yoga to build the strength, flexibility, and elasticity around your muscle.
- Having the chiropractic treatment to fix the spine alignment.
- Taking the medical surgery in severe kyphosis.
8. Prolonged Menopause
The other symptom that could be the sign that you’re having the osteoporosis is that the prolonged menopause. So, the question is why the prolonged menopause could cause the osteoporosis? Because the prolonged menopause means that you suffer from the falling amount of estrogen levels. In the matter of fact, the consistent estrogen levels would be the very important aspect to maintain the rhythm of bone remodeling.
The decrease amount of estrogen levels would be really dangerous as this accident will change the levels of a lot of chemicals that have the function to maintain the healthy balance of bone production. As the result of the imbalance of the bone productions, the osteoclasts become more active with the decreased amount of estrogen levels which means that the more bone is broken down and could lead the bones lose its density rapidly.
How to Prevent Yourself From Osteoporosis
So, after you already know the symptoms of osteoporosis, you might wonder how to protect yourself from this silent disease. Well, while in the case of osteoporosis due to the aging process couldn’t be prevented, but you definitely can avoid the ways that already listed below.
- High Intake of Calcium and the Vitamin D
The first thing that you should do to protect yourself from the osteoporosis is that you need to consume the foods that have enough amount of calcium and vitamin D (Read : Benefits of calsium & vitamin d deficiency). Make sure that you have the sufficient amount of calcium and vitamin D in your daily life. Calcium is very beneficial to strengthen your bone and maintain the health of your bone while the vitamin D will helps the absorption of calcium into the body. (Read : How To Prevent Osteoporosis Naturally with Exercise)
The next question is, what types of foods that contains a lot of amount of calcium? Here are the types of food that you can consume to ensure that your body have the sufficient amount of calcium:
- Dairy Products, such as cheese, milk, and also the yogurt.
- Leafy green vegetables, such as broccoli, okra, collard green, kale, and turnips.
- Fortified foods, such as the fortified foods that commonly have the addition of calcium and Vitamin D such as the brand of breakfast cereals, bread, or juice.
- Don’t Smoke and Drinking Alcohol
When you want to protect yourself from the osteoporosis, you absolutely need to maintain your healthy habits. Drinking a lot of alcohol and smoking will absolutely increase your chance of having osteoporosis as the time goes by. In case of the drinking alcohol, you still can consume it as long as you’re limiting the intake of the alcohol. Drinking alcohol two glasses of alcohol is enough and don’t drink more than that.
In case of smoking, if you’re a smoker, you need to do the things that will make you to get rid of this habit since many studies have already proven that the smoking would increase the possibility of you developing the osteoporosis. So, according to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, adults who have the smoking habits have 30 percent to 40 percent higher possibilities for developing the osteoporosis during their elderly period.
- Exercise Your Bones Everyday
The next thing that you should do to protect yourself from osteoporosis is that you need to exercise your bones regularly by having the various physical activities because our bones need the resistance to grow strongly. So, having the various physical activities such as fitness and weight bearing activity will be very beneficial for the growth of your bones.
So, now you already know everything that you should know about osteoporosis. Although we can’t prevent the osteoporosis due to the aging process, but we can protect ourselves from this disorder with many kinds of healthy habits. Remember to consume the foods that have the high contents of calcium and vitamin D, and also always remember to exercise your bones regularly. Stay healthy.