What Are The Symptoms of Osteoporosis?
Having this symptom means that one’s bone mass density is very low. One may also experience bone fracture while falling or during some other physical injuries. This condition usually affects older people and can be treated by changing their lifestyle and eating habits.
Can Osteoporosis cause shortness of breath?
When one suffers from this painful condition, they tend to breathe very fast and deep breaths to meet the required oxygen level in blood. This is a natural physiological way of getting more oxygenated blood to all body parts.
However, breathing heavily can sometimes cause shortness of breath which lasts for more than a few seconds at a time. Such individuals should immediately contact their doctor to help them treat their problem or if the case is very severe, recommend them to go for other tests such as x-rays and ECG.
How can one know that their mother has Osteoporosis?
The best way to diagnose this disease is by doing a blood test showing the presence of the bone substance in the body. Some of its symptoms include: Feeling tired all the time, extreme difficulties while climbing stairs, cracks on back or wrist bones, and loss of height. They should immediately consult with specialists so he or they can examine them and get treatment if necessary.
Osteoporosis is sometimes confused with what disease?
Although its symptoms are very similar to that of Osteomalacia (another bone-related state), there isn’t much in common between them. Both diseases differ significantly as far as the cause and symptoms are concerned.
While Osteoporosis lowers our body’s total bone mass density level without any apparent cause; Osteomalacia occurs because of vitamin D deficiency which results in softening or weakening bones.
The other difference can be seen in how these two conditions affect our life expectancy. While Osteoporosis makes the patient’s life shorter than average, people who suffer from Osteomalacia enjoy a better life expectancy rate than others living in the same community.
what is the leading cause of Osteoporosis:
The leading cause of Osteoporosis is the lack of the hormone estrogen. This leads to the weakening of bone tissue, which causes it to become porous, fragile, and susceptible to fracture. The build-up of acid in the bone consuming calcium salts decreases this further, leading to brittle bones that are more apt to break at any impact.
Other causes can be inherited or acquired bone disorders, physical inactivity, malnutrition, or certain health conditions like cardiovascular disease /hypertension, autoimmune disorders/ rheumatoid arthritis, etc.
People who consume excessive amounts of alcohol regularly are prone to this disease due to its high acidic content that slowly erodes bones making them weaker with time.
What is Osteoporosis:
Osteoporosis is an age-related disease. As you grow older, your bones tend to lose calcium and become less dense, losing their ability to bear weight. Osteoporosis refers to the thinning of bones till they become weak, brittle, and prone to fracture.
The most common symptoms include backache with gradual onset of pain in the lower back that gradually spreads towards the upper body, pain in the hips along with tenderness on pressure points; bone deformities with an increased risk of fractures or injury during daily activities like walking or running, difficulty in getting up from a chair/sitting position without support (rising from sitting).
It can also lead to severe conditions like heart failure, where there is diminished blood flow for the heart, leading to tissue rupture. This type of condition can prove fatal as it is a highly critical life-threatening situation where your death can occur suddenly without any prior sign or symptom.
What is the contributing factor for this disease:
More often than not, this disease occurs at old age, and you tend to inherit it from your immediate family member (mother, father, brother). However, there are certain cases wherein the factors like lifestyle, physical activity, etc., also contribute towards its cause.
It affects both men and women equally; however, postmenopausal women are more prone to this disease due to their bodies’ loss of estrogen levels. With age comes a decline of several hormones like sex hormones like estrogen and progesterone that can trigger Osteoporosis.
Your diet, physical activity, and other medical conditions also contribute to bones’ deterioration over time. They are responsible for weakening bone tissue, making them vulnerable to fractures or breaks when subjected to impact at any point in time.
There is no definite cure for the disease, but regular exercise, a correct diet, and an adequate intake of calcium allow you to prevent Osteoporosis. Medications, supplements, etc., help relieve pain and discomfort related to this disease and strengthen your bones, further improving their density preventing cracks or breaks at delicate areas like hips, back, neck/spine region. Having a healthy lifestyle will increase the chances of living longer without tremendous joint pain or difficulty in rising from a sitting position.
What is the difference between Osteoporosis and Arthritis:
Osteoporosis is a condition that refers to loss of bone mass and density affecting both men and women, having an increased risk of fractures, especially at an older age (above the 50s). Arthritis, on the other hand, is a medical condition where there is inflammation of one or more joints in your body, making them extremely painful and challenging to move around.
People with arthritis tend to experience stiffness in their muscles. It becomes difficult for them to carry out normal day-to-day activities such as walking longer distances standing straight, etc. It causes discomfort leading towards extreme pain during movement, adhering to daily activities like taking a shower/dressing up/walking/getting up from a rickety chair, etc.
stages of Osteoporosis:
Bone tissue tends to weaken with age; however, the degree and rate of loss vary from person to person. The standard aging process can make you lose 1% or more of your bone density every year after 50.
This gradual bone deterioration results in frequent falls and fractures due to brittle bones. If this degenerative condition is left untreated, it causes severe health problems such as heart diseases (due to diminished blood flow for the heart), respiratory problems (because your lungs tend to collapse frequently), etc.
As discussed earlier, several factors determine how fast you will lose your bone mass. Still, most can be attributed to genetic changes and lifestyle followed by physical activity throughout your lifetime.
Prevention of Osteoporosis:
The main objective of preventive treatment is to make sure that your bones are strong enough to support your body without any difficulty.
Diagnose the cause for loss of bone density:
A health care professional will carry out a simple test called DEXA scan or dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry that will detect the overall bone density depending upon age, gender, ethnicity, etc. You can determine whether you have Osteoporosis or not based on the result obtained from this test.
Osteoporosis causes:
Osteoporosis is caused by the loss of bone mass, which decreases the density and strength of your bones, causing them to become brittle. This can lead to uncomplicated fractures due to impact or trauma to the affected area. The disease mainly affects women after menopause because their bone mass tends to decline during this time in life due to the lack of estrogen levels in the body.
Women experience peaks in bone formation and resorption rates while developing and about 20 years after menopause. Osteoporosis is considered a silent disease because it may not show any symptoms until a fracture occurs; therefore, early diagnosis and treatment are crucial for preventing further complications with Osteoporosis, such as a fracture of the hip that can be life-threatening.
It is essential to understand that Osteoporosis is not a natural part of aging but rather a disease caused by lack of physical activity, poor nutrition, smoking cigarettes,/drinking alcohol excessively can speed up bone loss leading to this condition.
Risk factors of Osteoporosis:
Osteoporosis affects women more than men because of various reasons. Females have Osteoporosis due to several factors like:-
Aging:
Osteoporosis tends to affect both men and women; however, it is more common in women after 50 years due to reducing estrogen levels. This causes a lack of bone mass, leading them towards Osteoporosis.
This condition mainly occurs after puberty when bone growth rate increases resulting in peak height velocity, which results in height gain until adulthood. On the other hand, men experience a slower increase in their body weight and muscle strength, typically do not reach such fast speeds as children, which leads to a lesser risk of Osteoporosis for them.