Osteoporosis Treatment Modes

Elder people have a lot of diseases which they may suffer from—in fact there is a wide array of degenerative diseases in line for them. Degenerative diseases are those conditions which elder people develop over time. Many of these diseases usually just occur due to old age, while there are also those diseases which occur as a result of some health events, habits or conditions that a person had earlier in his or her life.

How Does Osteoporosis Occur?

Of these degenerative diseases, Osteoporosis is one of the most common disorders. Osteoporosis is simply the “demineralization” of the bones in a person’s body. Osteoporosis may be due to nutrition, preexisting diseases or medications which a person takes to treat other diseases. Osteoporosis is mainly a problem of retaining the calcium deposits in one’s bones—where calcium is normally stored. Due to the above mentioned conditions, the bones are unable to keep the calcium deposits inside rendering the bones weak and easily broken.

Normally, a person’s bones should appear hard and compact. In a person with osteoporosis, the bones appear porous and weak—easily breakable and fragile. With the presence of osteoporosis, one can become very prone to developing fractures and bone related problems like osteopathic pains and discomforts.

Exercise and Lifestyle Changes

This is an important means of osteoporosis treatment. We may think that exercise is a contraindication for people suffering from osteoporosis; however, the opposite is true. Exercise is not all the time contraindicated for people with osteoporosis. The types of exercise that can be used in people with osteoporosis are those weight-bearing and resistance exercises. Examples of weight bearing exercises are walking, hiking and climbing up and down the stairs. As for resistance exercises, these may include lifting tolerable weights and swimming, too.

Eating Foods Rich In Calcium and Calcium Supplements

We all know that the calcium deposits in our bones become depleted in terms of this disease…thus it is important to keep your calcium intake in normal levels. Too little calcium in the diet can make the disease more complicated—however do not overdose in Calcium as it may also lead to other complications which can be dangerous.

Medications for Osteoporosis

There is a certain hormone which can allow the calcium to enter the bones. This hormone is called the parathyroid hormone (secreted by the Parathyroid Glands). The problem with people with Osteoporosis is that there may be a deficiency in this certain hormone which does not allow the calcium to enter the bone matrix. Thus, one of the common medication treatments for osteoporosis is PTH. Also, in some cases, osteoporosis can be brought about by a decrease in the hormone of women called estrogen. For this matter, hormone replacement therapy is needed.

Vitamin D

Vitamin D works like PTH as it also promotes calcium in entering the bone structure. Vitamin D rich foods need to be taken—and apart from that, exposure to sufficient and tolerable amount of sunlight can lead to synthesis of vitamin D.

source: healblog.net