October 20 is World Osteoporosis Day. A slight fall, a sneeze, bending over to pick up something …… these seemingly normal small actions in life often lead to spinal fractures in older people who themselves suffer from osteoporosis. Why do you drink bone broth and calcium tablets every day and still have osteoporosis? How can we eliminate the misconceptions about osteoporosis and make our bones stronger? What is the key to maintaining healthy bones? Experts point out that osteoporosis seriously affects the quality of life of the public, but at present the public is relatively low awareness of osteoporosis, and when a fracture is seen in the hospital, it is already very serious, and osteoporosis should be paid more attention to.
Don’t miss the signs of osteoporosis
The World Health Organization has identified osteoporosis as the second major disease threatening human health after cardiovascular disease, and there is no safe and effective cure for it.
The most serious consequence for people suffering from osteoporosis is fracture. Patients may suffer from fracture due to violent cough or bumpy car, and in serious cases, fracture may even occur with a slight touch or twist in daily life, and may cause neurological dysfunction or even paralysis.
However, it has no obvious symptoms, so it is easy to be ignored, and when a fracture has occurred, it is too late for prevention and treatment. Only when 12% or more of bone mass is lost will symptoms such as lumbar muscle weakness, low back pain, heel pain, hidden pain in the long canal bone, and weakness deformity appear, so middle-aged and elderly people should pay attention to the following symptoms when they appear in daily life.
1. Peripheral skeletal pain. The pain is mainly low back pain, and spreads along the spine to both sides. The pain is relieved when lying on the back, and will be aggravated by prolonged standing or sitting, and there is a phenomenon that the pain is light in the daytime and aggravated at night and early morning when waking up.
2.Decrease in height and hunchback. Since osteoporosis will cause compression and deformation of the spine, anterior tilt and increased dorsal curvature, the height will be reduced and hunchback will be formed.
3.Decrease in mobility. If you find that your joints are stiff, you feel discomfort when stretching your body, you feel easily fatigued, your lower limbs are heavy and your movements are slow, you should pay attention to avoid falls.
4.Falls. Because of the poor pain sensitivity of the elderly, some have fractures, but do not feel obvious pain, not timely consultation, easy to delay treatment. Therefore, the elderly should seek medical attention whenever they fall.
One-minute self-test for osteoporosis
The first part is the new osteoporosis test released by the International Osteoporosis Foundation. As long as you answer “yes” to one of the 10 questions, you are at risk of osteoporosis.
10 osteoporosis test questions
1.Have you ever hurt your bones because of a slight collision?
2.Have your parents ever had a hip fracture from a minor collision?
3.Do you often take hormonal drugs such as “cortisone and prednisone” for more than 3 months in a row?
4.Have you lost more than 3 cm in height compared to your youth?
5.Do you often drink a lot of alcohol?
6.Do you smoke more than 20 cigarettes a day?
7.Do you often suffer from diarrhea?
8.Answer: Did you go through menopause before the age of 45?
9.Answer: Have you ever had no menstruation for more than 12 months in a row? (except during pregnancy)
10.Men answer: Do you suffer from impotence or lack of sexual desire?
Then proceed to the second question – Asian osteoporosis self-screening formula: (weight – age) × 0.2 = risk index. If the result is greater than -1, it means that the risk of osteoporosis is relatively low; if the result is less than -4, it means that it is a high risk and you should rush to the hospital for treatment; the calculated result between -1 and -4 is a medium risk, and it is best to also go to the hospital for consultation to see what are the most suitable prevention methods for you. For example, a 65-year-old person who weighs 58 kg would have an osteoporosis risk index of (58-65) x 0.2 = -1.4, indicating that he is at an intermediate risk stage.
Get out of the misunderstanding of osteoporosis
Information shows that osteoporosis is becoming more and more prevalent and is becoming a new epidemic that is quietly spreading around the world. However, there are still many misconceptions about the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis.
Calcium supplementation is equal to the treatment of osteoporosis – osteoporosis is caused by the influence of osteoclasts in the human body being greater than osteoblasts, simply put, it is caused by the rate of bone loss exceeding the rate of formation, therefore, the treatment is not just calcium supplementation, but a comprehensive treatment to improve bone mass, enhance bone strength and prevent fractures. Patients should go to the osteoporosis-related departments of regular hospitals for standardized treatment.
Drinking bone broth can prevent osteoporosis – experiments have proven that the same amount of milk contains far more calcium than bone broth. At the same time, the large amount of fat in bone broth can cause other health hazards to the elderly. Attention should be paid to a varied diet, with less oil and salt, and not more high-protein foods.
Weight loss is weight loss – the mineral content of the human skeleton reaches its highest peak bone mass in the 30s. Many young people, especially young women dieting to lose weight, the weight down at the same time, the bones also produced serious hidden problems. Therefore, experts deliberately suggest that weight loss is to lose body fat, do not lose bone weight at the same time, it is best to maintain the body shape through moderate exercise. Some people believe that the main cause of damage to bone health is too much phosphate in the body, or that drinking beverages leads to osteoporosis – perennial medical research shows that the main causes of damage to bone health include lack of calcium in food (especially in adolescence), hormonal changes in women and lack of weight-bearing exercise.
Back in 1997, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences reviewed the scientific data on phosphates and found that phosphates do not negatively affect calcium absorption. This led to the conclusion that linking calcium absorption to phosphate intake is not necessary for a healthy population of most ages. Phosphate is a mineral that occurs commonly in nature and plays an important role not only in the metabolic processes of human energy, but also as a major component of human bones and teeth. Compared to other sources of phosphate, 98% of phosphate in food comes from high-protein foods such as meat, cheese, nuts and cereals, and about 2% from beverages. Therefore, with adequate calcium intake, proper consumption of soda does not directly and additionally contribute to the development of osteoporosis.
Prevention of osteoporosis starts at a young age
In addition, osteoporosis, which used to occur only in middle-aged and elderly people, is becoming younger in recent years, which is related to the long hours of indoor work and poor lifestyle of many young people. For example, frequent coffee drinking, smoking, alcohol consumption and carbonated beverages are all predisposing factors for osteoporosis. Young women in particular are prone to two major bad habits that cause osteoporosis: lack of exercise and fear of the sun. These bad habits when they are young can lay a great risk to bone health, directly leading to osteoporosis in middle age or after menopause in many women. Therefore, the prevention of osteoporosis should start early. To prevent osteoporosis, the following 4 points should be achieved.
1, regular life, quit smoking and limit alcohol.
2, not partial food, to consume adequate amounts of calcium and a variety of vitamin food. Drink more milk is very necessary.
3, strengthen exercise. Often plan to participate in outdoor activities, such as tai chi, walking, jogging, etc. The amount of exercise should be determined according to their own physique, while often sun exposure.
4.Take some preventive medicine. A person’s daily calcium demand is 1000 mg, and our diet, can only ensure that the supplemental calcium 400 mg per day, far below the normal demand, so you can take appropriate calcium drugs and vitamin D.
Correct posture can nourish the bone
Modern people’s daily life, sleeping, standing and other postures are commonly wrong, which has a great impact on bone health.
1, sleep: sleeping on your back is not conducive to breathing, but also not conducive to spinal health. Should be used flat and side lying, we generally think that sleeping on your back with your legs straight will be better, in fact, the legs are too straight, not conducive to relax the lumbosacral muscles. It is best to pad a pillow in the leg bend to maintain a certain degree of curvature. Whether lying on your back or sleeping on your side, try to avoid bending your head forward or backward, and do not lean to one side. Both hips and knees slightly flexed, so that the muscles can be naturally relaxed.
2, get up: every morning when you wake up, do not do sit-ups like a direct and fast get up. Instead, you should sit up slowly on your side with hand support. Go to bed also, lie down on your side, avoid lying on your back. This can better protect the spine.
3, standing and walking: crooked body standing will cause uneven force on both sides of the lumbar spine, resulting in low back pain. Good standing posture is: chin slightly retracted, abdomen slightly tightened, the center of gravity slightly forward. If you need to stand for a long time, one foot is best to step on the 10-15 cm high pedal, every now and then the feet can be exchanged to reduce the load on the lumbar spine.
4, driving: the seat and backrest to the angle of 100 ° is appropriate, the seat and steering wheel distance should not be too far, appropriate close to ensure that the driver can sit full seat and lean back against the seat, neck tight cushion pillow, while not affecting the upper limbs to manipulate the steering wheel is appropriate. This can reduce the head and neck sway in driving, and avoid cervical and lumbar spine injury caused by car vibration. Do not seat away from the steering wheel, the head, neck and waist body line is half-arc seated driving, which can easily lead to cervical spondylosis and lumbar disc herniation.
Be kind to your bones so they don’t strike in our old age and be a serious decline in our quality of life. In addition, although osteoporosis can cause a lot of damage to people, even fatal, but do not be intimidated by it, we pay attention to calcium nutrition on the one hand, at the same time vitamin D must be ensured, in addition to do more a variety of activities exercise.