Osteoporosis
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OSTEOPOROSIS — PREVENTION WITH NATURO-FOOD THERAPY
WHAT IS OSTEOPOROSIS ?
1. Osteoporosis, a metabolic degenerative skeletal disease affecting the whole body, simply means “ porous bones” which increase the risk of breaks and fractures, worsens your posture and shaves inches off your height because of collapsing spinal bones.
2. Bones are alive just like other parts of the body and are continuously reshaped, remodeled and overhauled by getting rid of old bone cells and replacing them with new cells. Bones are hollow inside and are filled with spongy red or yellow bone marrow. If too much old bone is lost, and too little new bone is formed (due primarily to deficiency of calcium and the protein building matrix of bones too), bone density loss can occur making the skeleton porous and weak.
3. Our bones grow at their fastest between the ages 10 -15 years during childhood and adolescence and stop growing around age 21. Bones are at their strongest in the late 20s. As middle age approaches the bones — while remaining strong — very gradually begin to lose their density. This loss or thinning of bones in both men and women continues as we get older.
4. The process speeds up in women in the ten years after the menopause. This is because the ovaries stop producing the female sex hormone oestrogen and oestrogen is one of the substances that helps keep bones strong. Men suffer less from osteoporosis, because their bones are stronger in the first place and they do not suffer as much because they go through the male menopause much later than women. Therefore, women who have less bone mass to begin with, are at a much higher risk than men of getting affected by osteoporosis. Women account for about 80% of all osteoporosis cases.
Osteoporosis Symptoms
5. Like high blood pressure and diabetes, osteoporosis too strikes silently. Amongst most people affected by osteoporosis, bone loss is gradual and generally occurs without discernible symptoms or warning signs until the condition is advanced and is diagnosed after a bone break or fracture. Sometimes, you could fracture a bone and not even know it. Most fractures cause pain, but some don’t. For examples, bones of the spine can fracture without causing pain. Even when the fracture does cause pain, it can be mistaken for, say, arthritis. Which is why, if you have back ache, it is important to find out whether it is from osteoporosis, so that it can be treated appropriately. It is these spine fractures that cause you to become shorter and develop a curved back, a deformity known as “ kyphosis” or “dowager’s hump”.
