What is Osteoporosis?

Osteoporosis is a disease that can creep up on you, in which the bones gradually become porous and weaker making a person more susceptible to bone fractures.

Bones are strongest when we are around the age of thirty, and then we slowly start losing bone mass as we get older.

There are several factors that can help us understand the causes of this diseases and how we can improve our lifestyle to eliminate this debilitating disease from entering into our lives.

Anyone can be at risk in developing this condition though it is more common in seniors, particularly women.

Women are more susceptible for two main reasons:

Women have 30 percent less bone mass then men to begin with and when a woman hits menopause they are at a greater risk because of the decrease in estrogen levels, a key factor in maintaining bone strength.

However, by the time men and women reach the age of 65 years of age and older, they start to lose bone mass at about the same rate.

This disease comes in 3 different types:

Primary Type 1
Is believed to be caused by hormonal changes, particularly a loss of estrogen which mainly impacts women after they reach menopause, also referred to as post menopausal osteoporosis.

Primary Type 2
Occurs in both males and females after the age of 75, again affecting more women than men due to the differences in hormones and bone mass as mentioned above.

Secondary
This type may arise in either sex and can hit at any age depending on the circumstances. It can be caused by certain medical conditions, disease or prolonged use of certain medications that can deplete the bone’s minerals.

Are There Any Symptoms?

This can be a sneaky disease and has been known to creep into a person’s life without any warning signals or symptoms and may take several years before being noticeable.

No wonder this condition is called the “silent disease” as some people experience no symptoms at all and others experience just a few discomforts which they may not even link to the possibility of bone loss until it becomes far advanced or they fracture a bone.

Some symptoms may include joint pain, loss of height and stooped posture.

Complications:

The main complication is fracturing a bone. In most cases this happens if you fall, but in extreme cases some people have even broken rib bones after a hard sneeze. Typical areas of fractures are usually the hip, wrist, ribs or one of the spinal bones.

Conclusion:

It’s no wonder that with such an aging population that millions of people are concerned and want to know more on how to prevent osteoporosis from entering their lives.

Many books and journals suggest you take good care of your bones when you are young. What a nice thought, but many of us have long passed those years.

We can’t change the past but we can certainly improve the present and the future.

With a few adjustments to lifestyle, such as eating healthy foods and including some kind of daily exercise choices, we can try to prevent, treat or at least curb the symptoms of osteoporosis.

Wishing you health and happiness

Return to Benefits of Exercise

 Return to Healthy Weight Loss Help