In many countries, Orthopedic doctors are arranging medical seminars to aware people about Osteoporosis and keep themselves safe from this disease. Osteoporosis is basically the loss of bone mass which may happen with age factor once you hit mid 30s or maybe caused by several other reasons too.
What is Osteoporosis?
The risk of bone breaking actually increases in Osteoporosis and in severe cases, you might end up breaking one of your ribs or maybe spinal even through sneezing. Yes, it is that deadly disease which make you unable to even sneeze freely. Most commonly, orthopedic surgeons have shown the cases of broken wrists, hips or spinal bones in osteoporosis while other parts of your body are likely to get affected as well.
Osteoporosis basically represents the pores in the bones which are very lesser in a healthy body while the holes and spaces are much bigger in the affected body. The density of osteoporotic bones is lost as soon as the holes start getting larger inside the bones resulting in an abnormal tissue structure in the bones. Actually, what happens in osteoporosis is that your bones start losing mass making your bones weaker and as a result, it may break even with a slight stress.
Generally, orthopedic surgeons’ claims that women are at higher risk of osteoporosis than men and it is because they have thinner bones comparatively. While menopause is something which contributes greatly in osteoporosis to hit women as their estrogen hormone is decreased due to menopause. Estrogen is actually a hormone which protects bones in women and begin to decrease widely as soon as women reach their menopause phase. The other factor is of course the age as women develop the chance of osteoporosis at much younger age than man which is mid 30s while man tend to develop this disease after hitting 50.
Causes of Osteoporosis
Orthopedic doctors always advise to be very careful about your calcium and vitamin D intake as it is the main source of deficiency in our bones leading to an awful disease of Osteoporosis. However, there are many other factors as well which contribute largely to cause Osteoporosis.
The worst thing about this is that you don’t know about its arrival until it actually hits you badly. Yes, you remain unaware about this unless you fracture one of your bone with a slight pressure leaving you surprised as how the heck it may happen? And that is why Osteoporosis is often known as the silent disease as you cannot feel weakness of bones in advance.
However, you need to know the main causes of Osteoporosis which is very important as per orthopedic doctors to keep yourselves safe from this disease as much as you can. Below are few of the important causes:
- Lower levels of Calcium intake
- Insufficient Vitamin D
- Poor diet, including malnutrition
- Thalassemia
- Thin and small body type
- Diabetes or Hypertension
- Chronic inflammation or bowel disease
- Cancer
- Depression
- Immobility or Stroke
- Excessive intake of Alcohol
- Cigarette smoking
- No exercising in daily routine
- Sudden Weight Loss
- Genes and inherited disorders
- Some medicines which you are consuming for another reason may also have side effects of causing osteoporosis.
Symptoms of Osteoporosis
Generally, osteoporosis may be there already for a very long time without any symptom and can only be diagnosed when the bone is fractured. The patients with this disease have claimed to get to know about it after experiencing sharp pains until they fracture their bones. The pain is then unlimited and sometimes may be there for even life time. Broken bone is a very bad complication in osteoporosis and especially if you are older in age.
However, if you feel loss of height or having limited mobility then it might be a clear symptom of problem in your bones and hence consult your orthopedic surgeon Woodbridge, VA for bone density test. Also, if you have crossed the age of 40 and you are having constant pain at any particular region especially near wrist, hip or spine then must go for this test sooner to minimize the loss as much as you can.
