About Osteoporosis

Michael Porteous asked:


Osteoporosis is a condition of low bone density leading to fragile and easily broken bones. Knowing why such a condition comes about is most important in learning how to combat the condition, unfortunately there is no single cause of osteoporosis but there are quite a few major causes of osteoporosis that we can detect.

First we need to understand why the bones become so weak in a person with osteoporosis.

Bones are a living tissue that is constantly being renewed through a process called “remodeling”. This is where cells called osteoclasts search through bones in your body looking for old bone that needs replacing. When they find such an area the cells destroy that old bone leaving a small space in the bone. While this is happening cells call osteoblasts are also searching through the bone, however this cell is looking for the spaces left by the osteoclasts. When the osteoblasts find these empty spaces they have the power to fill that space with new bone. This process goes on our whole lives constantly regrowing the bones in our body.

Someone who has osteoporosis means that those spaces left by the osteoclasts are not being filled quickly enough and leave the bone with a kind of honeycomb effect making it less dense and more prone to breakage. So this is the direct cause of the condition, but why do we have this imbalance in bone renewal?

Healthy bones are a product of a healthy body and a healthy body has healthy blood. However in today’s western society we do not always have a healthy body or blood. In fact our blood often becomes acidic which is very bad for us. The body responds by stripping calcium from the bone to redress the acid levels but this calcium is not deposited back into the bone leaving a shortfall that the bone cannot make up while we continue to pollute our blood.

The cause of this acidic blood is varied but mainly based on what we eat. A diet high in protein with lots of meat, processed food and dairy products causes our blood to change and start down the road to osteoporosis, only by changing our diet can we hold off conditions like this and in turn many other problems like heart disease and diabetes. Smoking and excessive drinking also pollute the body and add to the condition while a lack of exercise, especially weight based training will accelerate it.

So we see the cause of osteoporosis is not some hereditary disease, in fact it is a condition not a disease as it is just a byproduct of our lifestyle, eating habits and exercise. It is therefore possible to stop these causes of osteoporosis and lead a healthier life by controlling our lifestyles to eat more alkaline based food, exercise with weights and resistance training and generally try to live healthier!

Todd

Toria K asked:


I’m working for a lady who has osteopenia (a form of osteoporosis) and she wants to try some alternative methods of treatment. She’s also trying to find some sort of vitamin or supplement that would have calcium, vitamin D, Boron, Mangesium, and/or other components that help protect bone mass. If you know of any or can give any tips, please let me know!

Wayne

Jeff Foster asked:


A loss of bone density and strength can ultimately lead to a diagnosis of osteoporosis and the potential of years ahead of morbidity that you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy. Diagnosing osteoporosis must be taken seriously and it must be diagnosed as early as possible so that you can salvage as much bone loss as you can.

There are very high health costs associated with an inaccurate or a missed diagnosis of osteoporosis since this can lead to unnecessary bone loss and additional fractures that could have been prevented.

When you see your physician for an exam and she is trying to determine if you have osteoporosis, and if this is a positive diagnosis, she will also look to determine if you have either primary or secondary osteoporosis.

Primary osteoporosis means the osteoporosis itself is the root of the problem. Secondary osteoporosis means that there is an underlying health condition that is creating the osteoporosis. Some of the causes of secondary osteoporosis can be chronic alcohol use, diabetes, Cushing’s disease, lymphoma, multiple myeloma or even Marfan’s syndrome. Your healthcare provider must know whether you have primary or secondary osteoporosis since the treatment is different for both.

The gold standard used when diagnosing osteoporosis is the DEXA scan, which disperses very low amounts of radiation. This test takes about 10 minutes to complete and is totally painless. With the DEXA scan the bones in the hip, the spine or the wrist are examined to determine the accurate density of the bone.

Your physician will interpret the results and based on standardized findings will be able to The DEXA scan will be able to establish if you are at a higher risk than others in the norm group to sustain a bone fracture.

Current recommendations suggest that all women over the age of 65, postmenopausal women under the age of 65 who have multiple risk factors, patients who have taken a long-term course of oral corticosteroids, and patients with a hyperparathyroidism should have a DEXA scan to determine bone density and risks.

Diagnosing osteoporosis is a painless and rather simple thing for your health care practitioner to do. Particularly if you are in the risk group, see your healthcare provider for a complete history and physical exam along with any appropriate bone scans, such as the DEXA scan so that you can have a definitive diagnosis of osteoporosis or not. Your health depends on it.

We all want to live healthy and when there is something so simple that you can do about it, take action. There’s no pain involved…well, that is unless you choose to ignore your osteoporosis and then you will have to contend the rest of your life with the results of bone fractures that you possible could have avoided.

Make the call! Your health deserves it!

Lynn