1.How can I tell if I have osteoporosis?
Patients with osteoporosis may feel some discomfort, which usually occurs in women over 50 years old or men over 60 years old, and they may feel soreness in the back if osteoporosis occurs.
Some elderly people get up with a little force to be helped up can lead to fracture of the lumbar spine, which is caused by severe osteoporosis.
2, osteoporosis may fracture accidentally, what other serious consequences will it cause?
The most serious problem of osteoporosis may be fracture. When the osteoporosis of the elderly is serious, fracture may occur even when carrying some things or lifting a bag.
If the leg or pelvis is fractured, they cannot move and have to lie in bed, and a series of complications come out, including bed sores, pneumonia, blood clots, etc., which can even be fatal in serious cases.
3.Is there any relationship between osteoporosis and heredity?
It has not been confirmed that there is a relationship, but there may be regional differences.
For example, more Caucasians have osteoporosis, especially in cold weather places. They go out in cars and don’t get any sun, so even though they take a lot of calcium supplements, the incidence of osteoporosis is still quite high.
In contrast, although Africans have a shortage of food and medicine, Africans have relatively less osteoporosis. Consider that they often exercise outdoors and get the sun; and the other side of living a hard life may be the need for labor, which may be a good prevention of osteoporosis.
This again reminds us to exercise more when we are young and get proper sunlight to accumulate bone mass.
4, many women will diet to lose weight, what is the relationship between weight loss and female osteoporosis?
This question should be considered from two aspects.
(1) If you say very fat people, all exercises are very little, it is not good for the body, especially for the bone and joint. For them, as long as a reasonable weight loss, and to ensure that the dietary structure is adequate, there is also sufficient energy intake, in this case will not affect osteoporosis.
(2) On the contrary, some people choose to diet, eat nothing or picky food, lack of nutrition necessary for the body, that will certainly affect the bone structure.
5.How do I know how much calcium I am lacking, do I have to take a test?
X-rays can be taken and blood tests can be done to check the concentration of calcium ions. The most recommended method is to check bone density, which is a more accurate method.
6.Calcium supplementation is closely related to the prevention of osteoporosis, what are the possible misconceptions about calcium supplementation?
There are many misconceptions about calcium supplementation among patients.
(1) What kind of calcium is good to take?
In fact, it is scientifically proven that the effect is the same regardless of which calcium supplement is taken. We emphasize the importance of reasonable calcium supplementation, not the abuse of calcium supplements.
(2) Is it good to take only calcium?
Prevention of osteoporosis or prevention of osteopenia does not depend solely on calcium supplementation, but also on vitamin D. Vitamin D promotes the uptake of calcium by our intestines and also induces the conversion of calcium.
(3) Is organic calcium better than inorganic calcium?
I can’t say that, but for patients with atrophic gastritis, or the elderly with indigestion, priority should be given to organic acid calcium products such as calcium citrate to replace calcium carbonate, because these products don’t need as much stomach acid to help dissolve the calcium into ions.
7.How to prevent osteoporosis?
For women over 30 years old, it is recommended to consciously go for outdoor exercise, in addition to emphasizing a balanced diet, not to be partial, and to eat all fish, meat, eggs and milk. Although primary osteoporosis does not occur in the thirties, this time is needed to build quality bones through diet and outdoor exercise.
When you reach about 45 years old, it is recommended that you can check your bone density, and you can check it again every 10 years.
8.What exercises are recommended to prevent osteoporosis?
In terms of bone health, we emphasize that any exercise should not increase the load on the joints, such as climbing stairs and mountains, which is good for the heart but not for our joints.
Recommended exercises: swimming, slow cycling, jogging, walking, etc. It is also good to add a little weight-bearing exercise with dumbbells and barbells to exercise muscle strength.
Of course playing soccer, basketball, volleyball can also be done, but this kind of exercise is conflicting, to avoid sports injuries. Young people can, older people are less suitable, because the coordination of the elderly muscles, joint stability are not so good, so in the movement is easy to accidental injury, it will not achieve the purpose of exercise.
9.If I have osteoporosis, how do doctors treat it?
The treatment of osteoporosis includes basic treatment, medication and fracture management of osteoporosis.
Among them, basic treatment means calcium and vitamin D supplementation, and drug treatment includes bisphosphonates, calcitonins, estrogens, parathyroids, selective estrogen receptor modulators and some other drugs.
However, prevention is more realistic and important than treatment of osteoporosis in any sense.