Osteoporosis – Preventing sudden fractures
**Osteoporosis**
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------**Prevent sudden breakage**
This is a disease that is common in elderly women; it causes the bones to become thinner and more fragile.
For women, the trouble stems from a decrease in sex hormones, which are important hormones that, along with other factors, help maintain bone mass.
Menopause can also cause a drop in sex hormones, accelerating bone degeneration.
But while you're still exercising and saying "I'm fine," remember that thousands of men also suffer from fragile bones.
No one knows exactly what causes osteoporosis in men, but genetics, low testosterone levels, low libido, smoking, drinking, and dietary habits can all play a role.
**Maintain the septal bone**
The skeleton can be roughly divided into three layers.
The outermost layer is hard and densely packed with bone, and is called cortical bone.
The innermost layer is like the jelly in the middle of a tofu cake; that's the bone marrow.
The layer between these two is called the septal bone, sometimes referred to as the spongy bone.
It's not because it's soft, but because it has many small pores like a sponge.
The septal bone is composed of protein and inorganic substances.
These substances begin to decrease as we age.
Generally, this reduction begins around age 35 in men, and many men will experience a reduction of 15% to 45% in their septal bone over their lifetime.
Dr. Michelle Horrick, an osteoporosis specialist at Boston University Medical Center, explains that problems arise when the septal bone is reduced to a certain extent, leading to severe osteoporosis where the bones no longer have enough support to prevent them from breaking.
The problem with this disease is that it doesn't show any signs of osteoporosis beforehand; you only find out how much bone you've lost in your septal region after a fracture occurs.
**Latest Information**
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• Commonality: Although everyone loses bone mass as they age, only 15% of people develop severe osteoporosis before the age of 85.
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Risk factors: malnutrition, smoking, alcohol abuse, lack of exercise, and genetics.
White people are more prone to osteoporosis than African Americans.
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> • Affected age groups: The older the age, the higher the incidence rate.
The vast majority of patients are elderly, but data shows that people under 45 can also develop severe osteoporosis that can lead to vertebral fractures.
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> Gender differences: The incidence rate in women is 4 times that in men.
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· The person you should seek help from: your family doctor.
He might suggest you see an osteopath or an endocrinologist.
You must be careful if you are diagnosed with osteoporosis.
When a person is 21 years old, a fall on the football field might only result in a minor scrape, but 30 years later, such a fall could lead to a hip fracture.
In addition, decreased bone density can also cause vertebral fractures, reduced height, and compression or damage to the sciatic nerve.
Losing too much bone mass is irreplaceable.
If you have severe osteoporosis, you are destined to live a life of cautious exercise and extreme care.
**Prevention**
Osteoporosis is such a serious condition, so why not take preventative measures? A balanced diet and an active lifestyle can effectively prevent bone deterioration. Here are some suggestions to help prevent fractures:
For men, increasing calcium intake is crucial. The most common cause of osteoporosis is an unbalanced diet, favoring soft drinks and potato chips over milk and vegetables, which can lead to premature bone fragility.
Milk is a panacea for bones.
Because it is rich in the essential components needed for bones, especially calcium, vitamin D, and phosphorus.
Dr. Robert Henney, a professor of medicine at the University of Nebraska’s Omaha Clayton School of Medicine, says that instead of just adding milk to coffee, you should drink at least 8 ounces of low-fat milk every day.
Cheese should also be a staple in your daily diet, as it is also rich in calcium.
Dr. Henney also said that you must ensure your diet consists mainly of low-fat foods.
**Pay attention to food labels** because the Food and Drug Administration allows foods high in calcium to state on their labels that they can reduce the risk of osteoporosis.
In addition, calcium is also found in supplements, including some multivitamins.
Therefore, it is important to read the labels of these foods carefully, and experts recommend ensuring that you consume 1000 mg of calcium daily.
In addition, it's important to know that salt and protein can cause you to excrete more calcium than you absorb.
This isn't about reducing your salt and protein intake, but rather about letting you know that consuming too much of these two things can affect your bones.
Finally, when making soup with bones, remember to add some vinegar. Vinegar helps to break down the calcium in the bones into the soup.
**Get plenty of exercise** All doctors agree that physical exercise is key to strong bone marrow.
In fact, research shows that weight-bearing exercises can increase bone mass in people who do desk work.
Weight-bearing exercise refers to all exercises that support your own body weight (such as walking, skating, and push-ups) or exercises that involve loading external weights (such as gardening or weightlifting). Swimming and cycling are not considered weight-bearing exercises because your body weight is supported by an external force.
But the real value of exercise lies in the fact that it keeps you active and proactive as you get older.
"Inactivity is a death kiss on your bones," says Barbara Drinkwater, MD, a physiologist at Seattle Pacific Medical Center.
As a reward, exercise can also strengthen your muscles and improve your coordination.
Go for a walk, a jog, play tennis, go hiking, or do some other ball games.
In short, anything that gets you moving is fine.
**Change bad habits** You may have read about this in half of the chapters of this book, but I want to remind you again: quit smoking and drinking.
It is not yet known why osteoporosis is related to smoking, but severe osteoporosis is often associated with emphysema and chronic bronchitis, both of which are mostly caused by smoking.
Excessive alcohol consumption can also cause severe osteoporosis, perhaps due to poor nutritional habits among drinkers.
Pay attention to your genes.
Of course, severe osteoporosis may be hereditary, but the specific genetic causes are still under investigation.
If you have a family history of osteoporosis, you should pay special attention and heed these tips.
Take care of your hair.
Dr. Horrick has discovered a puzzling signal.
He and his colleague, Dr. Clift Rosen, discovered that people who turn gray prematurely, whether men or women, are four times more likely to develop severe osteoporosis than those who turn gray normally.
Premature graying refers to having more than half of one's hair turned gray by the age of 40.
Dr. Holrick said, "One of my patients, who is also an employee of our center, started getting gray hair when he was just over 20 years old."
He's just over 40 years old and already suffers from severe osteoporosis.
However, Dr. Holrick says that late graying of hair is not a sign of a low chance of having the disease.