Posts Tagged ‘Fragile’

How can healthy lifestyle changes affect Osteoporosis?

What is Osteoporosis ?
Osteoporosis is a disease caused by weak and porous bones that fracture easily. It happens mainly after menopause in women and particularly those who are small boned or underweight. Bone mass is dependent on the stress, or weight, placed on bones. If not prevented or if left untreated, osteoporosis can progress painlessly until a bone breaks.The more you use your bones to walk, run, lift weights, the heavier and stronger your bones will be.

Healthy Lifestyle
The best way to keep your bones healthy is to establish a healthy lifestyle. One should stop smoking, avoid drinking too much alcohol, get enough calcium and vitamin D through your diet or with supplements, do weight-bearing exercises to help keep bones strong, avoid high doses of thyroid hormone or cortisone-like medications.

- Exercise is very important for slowing the progression of osteoporosis. Exercising for more than three days a week for more than a total of 90 minutes a week reduces the risk for osteoporosis and fracture in both older men and women.
Careful weight training exercise applies tension to muscle and bone.
Regular brisk long walks improve bone density and mobility and may relieve osteoarthritic pain.
Exercises specifically targeted to strengthen the back help prevent fractures later on in life.
Abdominal exercises, lower back exercises, yoga, Pilates, and tai chi help strengthen the spine.

- A combination of calcium and vitamin D can reduce the risk of osteoporosis.
Good dietary sources of calcium include milk, yogurt, and other dairy products, dark green vegetables such as collard greens, kale, and broccoli, sardines and salmon with bones, calcium-fortified foods and beverages such as cereals, orange juice, soymilk.
Dietary sources of vitamin D include fatty fish such as salmon, mackerel, and tuna, egg yolks, liver, vitamin D-fortified milk, orange juice, soymilk, or cereals. Sunlight on your skin activates the production of vitamin D in your body.

- Smoking and excessive use of alcohol reduce calcium absorption which can lead to bone loss. This is especially true for women who smoke, as smoking lowers estrogen levels.
Giving up these two unhealthy habits is a simple lifestyle change that can lower the chance of getting osteoporosis.

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Osteoporosis: Beat Osteoporosis with the right diet.

Osteoporosis (‘porous bones’) is a disease causing bones to become fragile and more likely to break. Without prevention or treatment, osteoporosis can progress painlessly until a bone breaks or fractures. Any bones can be affected, but fractures occur typically in the hip and spine (these are of special concern), and the wrist.

Calcium is one of the key nutrients that your body needs in order to stay strong and healthy. It is an essential building block for lifelong bone health in both men and women, among many other important functions. The amount of calcium you need depends on a number of different factors, including your age.
Your body gets the calcium it needs in one of two ways. The first and best way is through the foods you eat or the supplements you take. However, if you’re not consuming enough calcium, your body will get it in a different way, pulling it from your bones where it’s stored.

Food sources of calcium

- Dairy : Sources include milk, yogurt, and cheese.
- Vegetables and greens: Try turnip greens, mustard greens, collard greens, kale, romaine lettuce, celery, broccoli, fennel, cabbage, summer squash, green beans, Brussels sprouts, asparagus, and crimini mushrooms.
- Beans: Try black beans, pinto beans, kidney beans, white beans, black-eyed peas, or baked beans.
- Herbs and spices: Flavor your food with basil, thyme, dill weed, cinnamon, peppermint leaves, garlic, oregano, rosemary, and parsley.
- Other foods: More good sources of calcium include salmon, tofu, oranges, almonds, sesame seeds, blackstrap molasses, and sea vegetables.

Calcium and milk

Many nutritionists believe that consuming milk and dairy products will help prevent osteoporosis. On the other hand, some believe that eating a lot of dairy will do little to prevent bone loss and fractures and may actually contribute to other health problems.
If you choose to consume dairy, then it’s best to opt for 1% or nonfat milk and other low-fat dairy products, which are lower in saturated fat and natural hormones. Choosing organic products when possible will also decrease your exposure to synthetic hormones and other additives. And if you decide that dairy is not the best choice for you, or you can’t tolerate milk products, there are other ways to include calcium in your diet.

Danger Foods

- Acid Forming Foods.
- Excess Protein food.
- The Coffee Effect : Drinking more than 3 cups of coffee a day increases your risk of developing osteoporosis by 82%.
- Carbonated Drinks : Fizzy drinks are high in phosphorous, an essential mineral which when taken in excess can cause bone loss.
- Eat less salt to prevent osteoporosis.

What are the different methods available for the treatment of osteoporosis?

Osteoporosis (or porous bone) is a disease in which bones become weak and, therefore, are more likely to break. Without prevention or treatment, osteoporosis can progress without pain or symptoms until a bone breaks (fractures).

Hormone replacement therapy (HRT)

Oestrogen seems to protect bone strength. The drop in oestrogen that occurs following menopause is mirrored by an increased loss of bone for a few years thereafter. The loss continues, but less steeply, in older women. Hormone replacement therapy replaces oestrogen and so reduces the rate of bone loss. HRT is thought to be of most benefit for preventing osteoporosis if it is started early in menopause and is taken for at least five years. Briefly, HRT is known to be associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, cancer of the lining of the womb (endometrial cancer), blood clots in the veins (thrombosis), stroke and heart disease.
HRT remains an option for women over 50 at risk of fractures for whom these other medicines are not suitable. HRT is also still a suitable option for women who have had an early menopause.

Bisphosphonates

Bisphosphonates are medications that slow the breakdown and removal of bone (ie, resorption). They are widely used for the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women. The most common side effects associated with bisphosphonates are digestive in nature, for example indigestion, diarrhoea, constipation and abdominal pain.

Kyphoplasty

It is also known as balloon kyphoplasty is a newer procedure. It involves placing a catheter with a balloon into a compressed vertebral body and slowly inflating the balloon to reduce the fracture. A special surgical cement is then injected into the space created by the balloon. The procedure stabilizes the fracture and restores vertebral body height.

Vertebroplasty

It is similar to Kyphoplasty, except a balloon is not used in this procedure.

Strontium ranelate

Strontium ranelate (Protelos) is used for the treatment of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women. It is usually reserved for women who cannot take bisphosphonates.

Raloxifene

Raloxifene (Evista) is a type of medicine called a selective oestrogen receptor modulator (SERM). It can be used to both prevent and treat osteoporosis in postmenopausal women.