Fighting osteoporosis

SIX years ago, Lucy is who is now 68 experienced the first of series of vertebral fractures that have caused her a great deal of pain. Spinal X-rays showed that she had at least two wedge fractures and eight crush fractures. Her height has dropped from 5’7” to 4’11”. Lucy describes how this affected her life and her attitude about herself and those around her.

The first fracture happened when she and her husband transferred from their old house to a newly built one and moving some furniture around the house. Because she was always strong and never hesitated to move things she picked up a wooden chair to take it into the garage. As she opened the door and put down the chair heard something crack in her back. It was painful but she thought it was all right. She and her husband even went to a party that night even though a friend told her she could see the pain in her face.

The pain got progressively worse over the next couple of months. Any movement of her back, chest or ribs was absolute agony. The pain was excruciating and she had trouble sleeping because even lying down hurt so badly. By this time, she was nearly crippled. She could not bend or stoop. She could not even walk around. The pain would be so bad she’d cry sometimes.

After a while the pain started to subside and she  could get around a little. Her husband would asked her to come outside with him for a bit and that would made her feel better. Eventually she could go out shopping for a short time. She did not really want to go anywhere though people who know her did not recognize her. She doesn’t want to see anybody because of the way she looked. One of the hardest things is finding clothes. She can’t dress and look like anybody because on the hump on her back. By the time she get something to fit around the hump and around her stomach, it’s too big everywhere else. Her legs are still long but so short and wide on top. It’s hard because she used to love clothes. Her husband won’t go shopping with her anymore because it hurts him so much to see her try to get clothes.

A problem most people would not think of is going to a restaurant. The tables are too high. She feels like a little kid who needs a booster seat. She can practically push the food of her plate into her mouth. Now she take cushions with her to sit on and it’s much better. Sometimes she gets very self-conscious and feel like everyone is looking at her. She doesn’t like to be with people she used to know because they look at her and wonder what happened. She’d rather meet new people who cannot compare her to what she used to look like. She knows now that what she has is osteoporosis and that it took many years for it to develop. But she did not know then.

This story is not fiction. I personally know this woman. There are a lot of cases the same as Lucy and it is so disheartening in my part that I cannot do anything anymore to help them. My advice is it would be good for young women to find out about osteoporosis and for their doctors to be conscientious and tell them what they can do to prevent it.

Do you engage in exercise?

Did you know what happened to those astronauts on their way to the moon? Those young healthy astronauts lost large amounts of calcium from their bones during only a short space flight. The reason? Restricted movement in a gravity-free environment. Similar changes occur in persons confined to wheelchairs or bed rest for as little as several weeks. This condition is called disuse osteoporosis. Clearly, you either use your bones or you lose them.

Regular exercise is absolutely critical for development and maintenance of a strong, healthy bones. this is true for everyone, from the developing child to the older woman. Exercise is believed to be the only preventive or therapeutic measure that only “HALT” bone loss but actually stimulates the formation of new bone. Many of my clients knows the importance of exercise against osteoporosis but most of  them are just taking for granted. It’s so funny that it scares them to the bone the importance of exercise against osteoporosis because even though they know how dreadful this disease but still they refuse to spend an hour of their time doing some physical activity. Although the need to exercise is a fact and most people accept that, scientist are only beginning to study the specific effects of exercise. What type and how much exercise will prevent a woman from losing bone. Or, to take it a step further, if how much exercise will actually add to your bone mass.

There are as yet no recommended daily allowances for exercise as there are for calcium and Vitamin D. Exercise has beneficial effects on the bones both locally and generally. That is, exercising the legs benefits the bones in the legs and it also benefits the rest of the skeleton, though to a lesser degree. What exactly exercise does is not completely understood. However, we do know the following:

1. Exercise places actual physical stress on bones. Like muscles, bones respond to stress by becoming bigger and stronger. And like muscles they weaken and shrink if they are not used .

2. Exercise increases blood flow to bones bringing in bone-building nutrients.

3. Exercise creates small electrical potentials in bone tissue that stimulate the growth of new bone.

4. Exercise affects various components of the body’s hormonal control of bone remodeling somehow shifting the balance toward new bone formation.

Some of my clients who are middle-aged women, many of whom had never exercised regularly before, were found to have increased their estrogen levels after a six-week exercise program.

Also, most of the studies on the skeletal effects of exercise have concentrated on world-class athletes comparing them with sedentary individuals. To no one’s surprise, the athletes had bigger muscles and denser bones than the inactive persons. Although few of us are not athletes but at least we can also acquire bigger muscles and denser bones if we just work for it. There’s always a saying: “Prevention is better than cure.”