Protecting your bone health is easier than you think. Understand how diet, physical activity, and other lifestyle factors can affect your bone mass and prevent effects of osteoporosis”
As you are aware, Bones play many roles in the body – Providing structure, protecting organs, anchoring muscles and storing calcium. While it’s important to build strong and healthy bones during childhood and adolescence, you can take steps during adulthood to protect bone health, too.
WHY IS BONE HEALTH IMPORTANT?
Your bones are continuously changing – New bone is made and old bone is broken down. When you are young, your body makes new bone faster than it breaks down old bone, and your bone mass increases. Most people reach their peak bone mass around age 30. After that, bone remodeling continues, but you lose slightly more bone mass than you gain. So after 40 years, everyone loses bone mass every year which is faster in females, especially postmenopausal.
WHAT IS OSTEOPOROSIS?
Osteoporosis is a systemic skeletal disease characterized by low bone mass and microarchitectural deterioration of bone tissue, with a consequent increase in bone fragility.
Bone strength reflects the integration of two main features:
- BONE DENSITY
- BONE QUALITY
The disease often does not become clinically apparent until a fracture occurs.
How likely you are to develop osteoporosis – A Condition that causes bones to become weak and brittle – depends on how much bone mass you attain by the time you reach age 30 and how rapidly you lose it after that.
The higher your peak bone mass, the more bone you have “in the bank” and the less likely you are to develop osteoporosis as you age.
HOW COMMON IS OSTEOPOROSIS?
Approx 200 million people worldwide is affected with OSTEOPOROSIS
In India approx 35 million people is affected with osteoporosis.
WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS OF OSTEOPOROSIS?
Possibilities of vertebral, hip, wrist and other fractures significantly increase with osteoporosis.
In severe cases of osteoporosis, person can develop fracture without any trauma:
VERTEBRAL FRACTURE
- Most common osteoporotic fracture
- It may occurs with day to day activities
- It is associated with increased mortality
HIP FRACTURE
- Second most common osteoporotic fracture
- Approx 2 million worldwide such fracture happens every year
- It is associated with prolonged immobilization and associated complications.
WRIST FRACTURE
- Third common fracture
- Happens due to trivial fall
- Prolonged rehabilitation and disablement
RISK FACTORS FOR OSTEOPOROSIS AND FRACTURE:
- Low BMD
- Advancing age
- Prior fragility fracture
- Family history of osteoporosis or fragility fracture in first degree relative (Genetics)
- Current smoker
- Low body weight
- Falls
- Sarcopenia
- Dementia
HOW TO DIAGNOSE OSTEOPOROSIS?
- BMD TEST (BONE MINERAL DENSITY) / DEXA SCAN
- Blood reports
- Serum Calcium
- Alkaline Phosphatase
- CBC with ESR
- RFT
- TSH (B)
- 25 (OH) D
- In Hypo – Hypercalcemia
- Testosterone in man
- Tryptase (evt)
- Bone resorption marker
- X-rays
WHAT CAN I DO TO KEEP MY BONES HEALTHY / HOW TO PREVENT OSTEOPOROSIS?
The amount of calcium in your diet: A diet low in calcium contributes to diminished bone density, early bone loss and an increased risk of fractures.
- Physical activity: People who are physically inactive have a higher risk of osteoporosis than do their more-active counterparts.
- Tobacco and alcohol use: Research suggests that tobacco use contributes to weak bones. Similarly, regularly having more than one alcoholic drink a day for women or two alcoholic drinks a day for men may increase the risk of osteoporosis.
- You’re at greater risk of osteoporosis if you’re a woman, because women have less bone tissue than do men.
- You’re at risk if you are extremely thin (with a body mass index of 19 or less) or have a small body frame because you might have less bone mass to draw from as you age.
- Your bones become thinner and weaker as you age.
- Race and family history: You’re at greatest risk of osteoporosis if you’re white or of Asian descent. In addition, having a parent or sibling who has osteoporosis puts you at greater risk — especially if you also have a family history of fractures.
- Hormone levels:Too much thyroid hormone can cause bone loss. In women, bone loss increases dramatically at menopause due to dropping estrogens levels. Prolonged absence of menstruation (amenorrhea) before menopause also increases the risk of osteoporosis. In men, low testosterone levels can cause a loss of bone mass.
- Eating disorders and other conditions: Severely restricting food intake and being underweight weakens bone in both men and women. In addition, weight-loss surgery and conditions such as celiac disease can affect your body’s ability to absorb calcium.
- Certain medications: Long-term use of corticosteroid medications, such as prednisone, cortisone, prednisolone and dexamethasone, is damaging to bone. Other drugs that might increase the risk of osteoporosis include aromatase inhibitors to treat breast cancer, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, methotrexate, some anti-seizure medications, such as phonation (Dilantin) and Phenobarbital, and proton pump inhibitors.
- Adequate intake of dietary calcium and vitamin D
- Calcium: at least 1200 mg/day in divided doses
- Vitamin D: at least 800-1000 IU/day.
- Regular weight-bearing and muscle-strengthening exercise including walking.
- Avoidance of smoking and excess alcohol
- Fall prevention esp. in elderly:
- Codeless phone near bed at night, Towel at floor of bathroom, light in staircase, eight sights etc..
- Hip protectors (Hip Pelvis arms useful, may not be in leg and trunk)
DR. SANJIV RAVISAHEB
DR. HARSHVARDHAN JADEJA
DR. SURESH PARMAR
DEPARTMENT OF ORTHOPEDICS, TRAUMA & JOINT REPLACEMENT SURGERY
BIMS HOSPITAL
BHAVNAGAR – GUJARAT
FOR APPOINTMENT: 0278-6644446 / 6644447
