Osteoporosis- Take care of your bones

 What is Osteoporosis?

One of the dangers of recognizing the symptoms of osteoporosis is that this disease can go undetected for years before any tangible signs are detected.

The gradual onset of osteoporosis will mean that while the bones are slowly being weakened, it's not until something slightly out of the ordinary may occur to your health, that people may explore the possibility that they may have this bone crippling disease.

Signs to look out for:-

• Dull pains around the muscles or bones especially in the lower back.

• The gradual loss of height or a slight stoop and change in posture.

• Early stages of menopause.

• Taking corticosteroids over a long period of time.

• An innocuous bone fracture.

• Family history.

There are two types of osteoporosis, type I and type II:

Type I is much more prevalent in women and often occurs after menopause as the bones resorption increases - i.e they lose their substance and symptoms tend to occur from the age of 50 upwards with a loss of strength in the spine and wrists.

Type II is more common after 70 and affects women more than men although less so than type I, and is typically the result of the decline in the bone's outer hard shell and the spongy tissue inside.

The most likely place type II osteoporosis will develop is in the spine, neck, wrist, hand, hip, or foot, where fractures that occur at a young age without detection like a stress fracture in the foot from stepping off a bus or bruising your hip from a fall in the snow - injuries we take to be part and parcel of everyday life - are often the precursor for this ailment.

Symptoms of Osteoporosis:-

When you've been diagnosed with this disease, depending on where it's present in your body, the symptoms and treatment will vary.

Osteoporosis Back & Neck Symptoms: Dull pains may lead to sudden sharp jolts of pain in the lower back or neck as it spreads, lasting from only a few days to a few months.

Spinal osteoporosis will often lead to "dowager's hump" - a stoop. This curvature of the spine is due to the compression placed on the vertebrae and is slightly more common in women.

Osteoporosis Foot Symptoms: When it occurs in the foot, the patient often finds the pain hard to locate as this disease can radiate quite fast at times, where most of the bones in the foot become slowly demineralized, which can cause multiple arthritic pain in the joints.

Unfortunately when this occurs, to date it's irreversible as the lattice network of the bones has become completely eroded, so treating the symptoms as opposed to instructing remission is the only option. 

Wearing good arched thick comfy soles with tight laces will help as a practical measure.

Osteoporosis Hip Symptoms: Until you fracture your hip they may be few if any signs or symptoms except slight aches in the joint. Once the disease is in advanced stages then deformity of the spine, backache, and stooping are common.

Not all osteoporosis of the hip is the same though. 

Transient osteoporosis of the hip occurs in middle-aged women and men and is normally brought on by obesity, but it is treatable and normally only lasts 6 months to a year.

Osteoporosis Hand and Wrist Symptoms: Once again it's the lack of bone density that should be the tale-tale signs as to whether this disease is beginning to radiate through the hand, where the movement of joints in the wrist and fingers are hindered and often painful on colder days.

It's not too common for this disease to become too degenerative in the fingers, but symptoms may include dislocating your thumb or fracturing a finger. It's damage to the wrist which is more disabling.

* With regards to all forms of osteoporosis, getting a bone density test is the easiest way to assess how bad the disease is.

Below you will find what doctors in the West will and won't prescribe to treat the symptoms of osteoporosis, but your own research should be the judge of this.

Treatment of Osteoporosis:

• Take 800 units of vitamin D per day.

A rich calcium daily intake if you're on a high acid diet, although there is much debate today as to whether this might contribute to the spread of the disease and that it has little effect on rebuilding the bone.

• Rich vitamin K intake through diet and supplements.

• Magnesium supplements.

Change from a high acid diet to a high alkaline one which includes foods like bok Choy, broccoli, and romaine lettuce.

Stop, dramatically curb drinking and smoking habits.

Natural joint supplements that include omega 3, 6, 9 proteins plus additional anti-inflammatory ingredients 

HRT's: Now this is considered a highly controversial treatment. Undergo estrogen therapy, or hormone replacement therapy at your own peril(risk) as the risks to your health are high.

Natural progesterone: As opposed to HRT's which don't build the bone but just slow the rate of the diseases progression, natural progesterone is argued to increase your bones strength and density by stimulating the osteoblasts, cells which build bone.

Exercise is key - Period, especially swimming, yoga and low impact sports.