Bone Health
Symptoms and treatment of osteoporosis in men and women
Osteoporosis arises due to a decrease in bone mass in the skeleton, causing a deterioration of bone tissue resulting in weaker bones (the bones are less compact) and making them more prone to fracture.
Osteoporosis is the main cause of broken bones in women after menopause and some elders in general.
Osteoporosis symptoms
Osteoporosis itself does not cause pain or noticeable symptoms, but frequent bone fractures that can alert us about this disease. The most common fractures in the elderly are the wrist and hip in postmenopausal women are prevalent vertebral fractures that cause a major back pain and deformities, together with loss of height due to reduced bone mass in the spine.
Diagnosis of osteoporosis
The diagnosis is made by densitometry that measures bone mineral content in order to determine its density and calcium content. It is therefore necessary densimetry adults ages 45 to 50 years, especially in menopausal women due to hormonal changes that lose more bone.
To diagnose osteoporosis is measured bone density in spine and hip, but can also be measured in the forearm.
Osteoporosis Treatment
To treat osteoporosis can go to pharmacological measures such as antiresorptive drugs (bisphosphonates, raloxifene, calcitonin, parathyroid hormone, strontium salts) Nonpharmacologic measures consist of a diet rich in calcium and vitamin D, physical exercise and smoking cessation if applicable. Read the rest of this entry »
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Osteoporosis Treatment
Once diagnosed, the main form of treatment is the use of medication to prevent or delay the continued loss of bone or more rarely, increase bone mass.
Medical treatment is most commonly prescribed hormone replacement therapy. Prescribed estrogen with or without progestins, at low doses with the idea of recovering the lost endogenous hormone levels with menopause or after surgery in which the ovaries have been removed. Other treatments include calcitonin, bisphosphonates, vitamin D and PTH.
The best treatment for osteoporosis is prevention. An adequate intake of calcium and physical activity during adolescence and youth, may increase the peak bone mass, resulting in reduced bone loss and lower fracture risk in later years. Adequate intake of calcium and vitamins during maturation is essential for bone health.
In cases of early menopause, women should take estrogen to prevent post-menopausal loss of bone is due to add a progestogen if uterus is intact.
Estrogen replacement therapy is effective in preventing post-menopausal loss of bone and is also effective in preventing osteoporotic fractures. Hormone replacement therapy requires close monitoring and careful gynecologic patient selection.
Post-menopausal women with low bone mass or osteoporosis and have established contraindication to hormone replacement therapy, bisphosphonates (alendronate or etidronate) and calcitonin are effective medications to prevent bone loss. Read the rest of this entry »
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Vegetarian Diet and Bone Health
This feeding is associated with lower bone mineral density, but no cause for clinical concern. The association between vegetarian diets and bone mineral density is controversial.
The debate centers on the possibility that this type of food results in a lower bone mass, as some studies, compared to other investigations that have found no statistical significance in this relationship.
The issue concerned because BMD is the strongest and most consistent predictor of fractures associated with osteoporosis.
In Western countries, a considerable proportion of the population has adopted a vegetarian diet that includes foods not found in traditional diets as the best for the formation and growth of bones.
The quality and quantity of ingested nutrients (calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, vitamin D, A, K) and the consumption of other dietary elements that promote or hinder the absorption of minerals that nourish the bone, have a significant imprint on health marrow.
These factors add up to each individual’s genetic predisposition to develop bone disorders.
The latest review on the possible association between diet and bone mineral density, a controversial issue, is a meta-analysis conducted by the Bone and Mineral Research Program Garvan Institute of Medical Research, picked up this October in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Posted in Bone Health | Tags: bone, Bone Health, diet, healthy diet, Osteoporosis, Vegetarian Diet | 4 Comments »
Prevention for Good Bone Health
It is estimated that osteoporosis affects 3.5 million people in Spain and more than 200 million people worldwide. In our country every year is responsible for at least 100,000 bone fractures.
“It is a major problem for its prevalence, morbidity and mortality caused by it and by the consumption of medical resources involved,” specifies Manuel Diaz Curiel, president of the Hispanic Foundation for Osteoporosis and Metabolic Bone Diseases (FHOEMO).
To combat its consequences, this organization has promoted a campaign in collaboration with the pharmaceutical industry and throughout the Spanish territory, which emphasizes the need to maintain adequate levels of vitamin D and calcium to maintain good bone health .
Aware of their magnitude
Supplementation of therapies that prevent bone resorption (total or partial loss of bone tissue) vitamin D dramatically reduces the risk of bone fractures in the elderly as a result of osteoporosis.
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Weight Training and Bone Density
The bone is strengthened or weakened, depending on whether it does or does not exercise and the type of exercise performed. Other influences are food, nutritional supplements such as soy isoflavones, sunlight exposure, heredity and age. The areas mainly involved with bone demineralization are the lumbar vertebrae and the upper end of the femur. This is mainly due to the predominance of trabecular bone or spongy bone on the compact. Since trabecular bone is influenced by mechanical forces it is subjected, a sure way to accelerate bone loss is inactive bedridden. The way to increase bone density is exercise.
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Suffer a Bone Fracture Due to Osteoporosis
One in two women and one in four men over age 50 will suffer a bone fracture due to osteoporosis
A quarter of people who break a hip die within the first anniversary of the injury. A study of the Spanish Society of Orthopedics and Traumatology warns that one in two women and one in four men over age 50 will suffer a bone fracture due to osteoporosis. The broken bone is the result “more serious” of this disease as “one of every four people who fracture a hip die before the year,” said study coordinator, Dr. Manuel Mesa Ramos.
The researchers stressed the importance of preventing a disorder that affects a majority of females from menopause. Once menstruation is lost, it creates a deficit in the production of estrogen or female hormones that, among other functions, has a mission to fix calcium to the bones. This explains why the patient type of osteoporosis is a woman who is over 60 years and goes to the consultation because it hurts his back, in the area of the dorsal vertebrae, the height of the blades, detailed the department head of Orthopedic Surgery Chiron and Traumatology Hospital of Bilbao, Inaki MÃnguez. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Bone Health, Osteoporosis | Tags: bone fracture, calcium-based treatments, medical X-rays, Menopause, Osteoporosis | 6 Comments »