1.Improve body balance through exercise
Many people who suffer from osteoporosis worry that exercise will be too dangerous. In a nutshell, if you go for a stroll or outing on your bicycle, then isn’t it more likely that you will fall? Sitting in a comfortable wheelchair should be the best way to prevent falls, right?
Intuitively, this seems to make sense, but the opposite is true. Exercise can actually reduce the chances of falling.
Regular exercise is good for keeping your reflexes quick and your muscles strong. Exercise is good for body coordination and reduces the likelihood of falls. If you are physically fit, then your balance is good, so your chances of falling are much lower compared to those of bedridden or weak patients. In addition to improving your balance and strength, exercise also has a direct effect on your bones. Bone is a living organ tissue. Just like muscles, if you don’t exercise, your muscles will be flabby and weak. By staying fit, your bones are stronger and less likely to dislocate when you fall. Experts generally recommend a combination of weight-bearing exercises (such as walking, resistance-building exercises (such as weight lifting), and flexibility and balance-building exercises such as yoga or Tai Chi.
However, it is important to note that
Seek medical advice before starting a series of exercises. For some patients with osteoporosis, high-impact exercises, such as jogging or tennis, may not be safe. This is because heavy body blows may cause fractures. Even some seemingly mild exercises can be dangerous for some people with weaker vertebrae.
Fracture prevention tip 2: Be careful when walking
If you suffer from osteoporosis, when buying shoes, you should not only consider the fashionability of the style. Buying an ill-fitting pair of shoes can increase the incidence of falls.
But happily, you don’t have to buy only the so-called “right” shoes. Go for those low-heeled shoes, stand more firmly, instead of buying leather shoes, buy rubber shoes. Sneakers can also be used to avoid falls when walking in large strides. Again, shoes should be worn in the house. Wearing socks or slippers at home can make it easy to fall. When you go out for a walk, be safe. When it’s raining or snowing, walk on a grassy path. Because it is easier to fall on a concrete floor. Remember, don’t pile up any waste materials near your home. If you have arthritis or other conditions that make it difficult for you to walk, be sure to use a doctor-recommended assistance device, such as a cane.
Fracture prevention tip #3: Know the side effects of medications on you
Unfortunately, as you get older, you may need to rely on medications on a daily basis. Any medication has side effects, and some may increase your incidence of falls.
Some of the medications that can cause dizziness or loss of balance include the following.
1. painkillers or sleeping pills
2, blood pressure drugs, these drugs can sometimes cause blood pressure too low
3, antidepressants, antidepressants
4, anticonvulsants, antitussive drugs, these drugs are used to treat epilepsy and some psychological disorders
5, muscle relaxants, used to treat back pain or other diseases
6.Some heart medications
7, other drugs such as some corticosteroids, which can easily cause osteoporosis or fractures.
Even if you take a small amount of drugs can increase its risk. Studies have shown that 4 or more servings of any drug can cause a higher incidence of falls. But what should you do when you, due to other physical illnesses, cannot stop taking these medications? Check the medications prescribed to you by your doctor and take a list of medications or some bottles of medications to your doctor. This is because your doctor, such as your first doctor, may not be aware of the medications prescribed to you by your other physicians such as cardiologists or doctors who specialize in colds. If you are taking medications that increase your likelihood of falling, then you should find a way to fix it. Consult your doctor and ask him or her to reduce the amount of your medication or change it to something else, both of which will help reduce the likelihood of a fall.
Remember, alcohol and illegal drugs are dangerous. Any drug that affects your physical ability will increase your chances of falling.
Dietary contraindications for people with fractures
We all know that calcium is an important ingredient in the composition of bones, and some people think that taking more calcium after a fracture will speed up the healing of broken bones. However, scientific research has found that increasing calcium intake does not accelerate the healing of broken bones, and for patients with long-term bedridden fractures, there is a potential risk of increased blood calcium, accompanied by decreased blood phosphorus. Therefore, fracture patients should not take calcium supplements blindly. Patients with fractures, as a result of prolonged bed rest, inhibit the absorption and utilization of calcium on the one hand, and increase the reabsorption of calcium by the renal tubules on the other hand. Therefore, for fracture patients, there is no lack of calcium in the body, as long as the condition and according to the doctor’s orders, strengthen the functional exercise and early activity, it can promote the absorption and utilization of calcium in the bone and accelerate the healing of broken bone.
Especially for patients who are bedridden after a fracture, blindly taking calcium supplements is not beneficial and may be harmful. In order to promote fracture healing faster and better, fracture patients should also take different foods according to the early, middle and late stages of fracture healing, depending on the development of the disease, to promote hematoma absorption and bone scab production.
Early stage (1 to 2 weeks).
The injured area is stagnant and swollen with blood stasis, the meridians are blocked, and the qi and blood are blocked, so the treatment in this period is mainly to activate blood circulation, remove blood stasis, move qi and dissipate. In principle, the diet should be light, such as vegetables, eggs, soybean products, fruits, fish soup, lean meat, etc. Avoid eating spicy, hot, sour and greasy food, especially do not prematurely apply fatty and nourishing products, such as bone soup, fatty chicken, stewed snapper, etc. Otherwise, the stagnation of blood stasis will be difficult to dissipate, which will delay the course of the disease, delay the growth of bone scabs and affect the recovery of joint function in the future. At this stage, the dietary treatment can be 10 grams of Panax ginseng, 10 grams of Angelica sinensis and 1 pigeon, stewed and cooked, with meat and soup together, once a day for 7 to 10 days.
Middle stage (2 to 4 weeks).
The stasis is partially absorbed, the treatment in this period is based on harmonizing the camp and relieving pain, eliminating stasis and creating new ones, connecting bones and renewing tendons. Diet is changed from light to appropriate high nutrition supplement to meet the needs of bone scab growth. Bone broth, chicken with Tian Qi, animal liver and so on can be added to the initial recipes to supplement more vitamin A, vitamin D, calcium and protein. Food therapy can be used with 10 grams of angelica, 15 grams of bone marrow, 10 grams of sequestra, 250 grams of fresh pork chops or beef ribs, stewed for more than 1 hour, soup and meat together, and used for 2 weeks.
Late stage (more than 5 weeks).
After 5 weeks of injury, the swelling at the fracture site is basically absorbed and bone scabs have started to grow, this is the late stage of fracture. It is advisable to treat the fracture by tonifying liver and kidney qi and blood to promote stronger bone scab production, as well as to relax the tendons and activate the joints adjacent to the fracture part to enable free and flexible movement and restore the previous function.
Diet can be released from taboos, and recipes can be accompanied by old hen soup, pig bone soup, sheep bone soup, deer tendon soup, stewed turtle, etc. Those who can drink wine can use Duzhong bone tonic wine, chicken blood vine wine, etc. Food therapy can be used wolfberry 10 grams, 15 grams of bone crushed tonic, 10 grams of sequelae, 50 grams of coix seeds. Decoct the dregs of bone crushed tonic and sequestra first, then add the remaining 2 flavors to cook the porridge to eat. Once a day, 7 days for a course of treatment. The interval between each course of treatment is 3 to 5 days, which can be used for 3 to 4 courses of treatment.
In addition, fracture patients need to supplement zinc, iron, manganese and other trace elements. Some of these elements are involved in the composition of enzymes in the metabolic activities of the body, and some are raw materials for the synthesis of bone collagen and myoglobin. It has been determined that the serum concentration of all these substances in the body of patients after fracture decreases significantly. Therefore, appropriate supplementation in the early stages of fracture may be beneficial for healing. Animal liver, seafood, soybeans, sunflower seeds and mushrooms contain more zinc; animal liver, eggs, beans, green leafy vegetables and flour contain more iron; cereals, mustard, egg yolk and cheese contain more manganese, which can be eaten by fracture patients appropriately. In addition to this, drugs containing these substances can also be taken.
Bedridden patients with fractures should pay attention to.
(1) Avoid eating more meat and bones: some people think that eating more meat and bones after fracture can make the fracture heal early. In fact, modern medicine has proven many times that eating meat and bones after a fracture does not lead to early healing, but delays the healing time of the fracture. The reason for this is that the regeneration of bone after injury mainly depends on the role of periosteum and bone marrow, which can only function better under the condition of increasing collagen, while the ingredients of meat and bones are mainly phosphorus and calcium. If a large amount is ingested after a fracture, it will contribute to the increase of inorganic components in the bone, resulting in an imbalance in the ratio of organic matter in the bone, so it will have a hindering effect on the early healing of the fracture. However, fresh meat and bone soup tastes delicious and stimulates appetite, so there is no harm in eating less.
(2) Avoid partial food: fracture patients, often accompanied by local edema, congestion, bleeding, muscle tissue damage, the body itself has the ability to resist repair, and the body repair tissue, bone growth, bone scab formation, stasis and swelling of the raw material is to rely on a variety of nutrients, it is clear that the key to ensure the smooth healing of fractures is nutrition.
(3) Avoid indigestible things: Patients with fractures are restricted in their activities due to the fixation of casts or splints, coupled with the swelling and pain of the injury and mental anxiety, therefore, they often have a poor appetite and sometimes constipation. Therefore, food should be nutritious and easy to digest and laxative, avoid eating yams, taro, glutinous rice and other easily flatulent or indigestible food, it is appropriate to eat more fruits and vegetables.
(4) Avoid drinking less water: bedridden fracture patients, especially those with spine, pelvis and lower limb fractures, are very inconvenient to move, so try to drink less water to reduce the number of urination, so that although the number of urination is reduced, but greater trouble has arisen. If bedridden patients have less activity, intestinal peristalsis is weakened, coupled with reduced water intake, it is easy to cause constipation. Long-term bed rest and retention of urine can also easily induce urinary stones and urinary tract infections. Therefore, bedridden fracture patients want to drink water, do not have to worry a lot.
(5) Avoid over-eating white sugar: the large intake of white sugar will cause the rapid metabolism of glucose, thus producing intermediate substances of metabolism, such as pyruvic acid and lactic acid, making the body acidic and toxic. At this time, the alkaline calcium, magnesium, sodium plasma, will be immediately mobilized to participate in the neutralization effect, in order to prevent the blood acidity. Such a large consumption of calcium will not be conducive to the recovery of fracture patients. Also, too much sugar reduces the amount of vitamin B1 in the body, which is necessary for the conversion of sugar into energy in the body. Insufficient vitamin B1 greatly reduces the activity of nerves and muscles, and also affects the recovery of functions. Therefore, fracture patients should not consume too much sugar.
(6) Avoid taking Panax ginseng tablets for a long time: at the early stage of fracture, local internal bleeding occurs, blood stagnation, swelling and pain, at this time, taking Panax ginseng tablets can constrict local blood vessels, shorten clotting time and increase thrombin, which is very appropriate. However, one week after the fracture is repaired, the bleeding has stopped and the damaged tissues start to repair, and the repair must have a large amount of blood supply.