HEALTH ISSUES WITH ACHEEVER: OSTEOPOROSIS

As promised last night, I am resuming work fully today.

I will be discussing with you, a health condition that is mostly dominant in the elderly ones and also common in women especially at their menopausal stage.

This topic will be treated based on the following headings;

**FACTS ABOUT OSTEOPOROSIS and WHAT IT MEANS?

CAUSES AND RISK FACTORS OF OSTEOPOROSIS?

ITS SYMPTOMS AND SIGNS?

ITS CONSEQUENCES?

HOW IT IS AN IMPORTANT PUBLIC HEALTH FACTORS?

FACTORS THAT DETERMINE BONE STRENTH?

TESTS USED BY HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS FOR DIAGNOSIS OF OSTEOPOROSIS?

TYPES OF HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS THAT TREAT IT?

WHO SHOULD HAVE BONE DENSITY TEST?

TREATMENT FOR IT AND HOW IT CAN BE PREVENTED;
Exercise, quitting cigarettes, and curtailing alcohol
Calcium supplements for osteoporosis
Vitamin D for osteoporosis.

CAN ADDING CERTAIN FOODS TO ONE'S DIET HELP TO PREVENT OSTEOPOROSIS?

ARE THERE ANY FOODS TO AVOID WHEN IT COMES TO OSTEOPOROSIS?

HORMONE THERAPY; Menopausal hormone therapy

MEDICATIONS THAT PREVENT BONE LOSS AND BREAKDOWN

CHOOSING AN OSTEOPOROSIS MEDICATION

PREVENTION OF OSTEOPOROSIS DUE TO LONG-TERM CORTICOSTEROIDS

MONITORING OSTEOPOROSIS THERAPY

PREVENTION OF HIP FRACTURES IN ELDERLY PEOPLE WITH OSTEOPOROSIS

WHAT ARE THE COMPLICATION OF OSTEOPOROSIS

WHAT IS THE PROGNOSIS or OUTLOOK FOR PATIENTS WITH THIS CONDITION?

Yeah, we will be talking on the bolden headings.

• FACTS ABOUT OSTEOPOROSIS and WHAT IT MEANS

**Osteoporosis means porous bones, from the Greek word; οστούν, pronounced as ostoun,
meaning bone and πόρος, pronounced as poros meaning pore.

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• Osteoporosis is a health condition that increases the susceptibility of an individual to fracture and as earlier said it is mostly common among elders and women, especially at their menopausal stage due to the decrease or stoppage in the production of an important hormone(oestrogen) or *oophorectomy i.e surgical removal of the ovaries.

• Osteporosis weakens the bone and decreases the bone mass which might lead to the breaking of bones easily.

• The amazing thing about this health condition is that there are no recognized symptoms till fracture occurs. However, the diagnosis can be suggested by X-Ray and confirmed by conducting test to assess the bone mass or density.

• Treatments for osteoporosis, in addition to prescription osteoporosis medications, include stopping the use of alcohol and cigarettes, and assuring adequate exercise, calcium and vitamin D, as supplements.

MORE ABOUT OSTEOPOROSIS

According to the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, osteoporosis statistics show a greater burden for women in the following ways:

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"68 percent of the 44 million people at risk for osteoporosis are women. One of every two women over age 50 will likely have an osteoporosis-related fracture in their lifetime. That's twice the rate of fractures in men — one in four. 75 percent of all cases of hip osteoporosis affect women."

There are multiple reasons why women are more likely to get osteoporosis than men, including:

1. Women tend to have smaller, thinner bones than men.

2. Estrogen, a hormone in women that protects bones, decreases sharply when women reach menopause, which can cause bone loss. This is why the chance of developing osteoporosis increases as women reach menopause. It could be as a result of hypogonadism (low level of testosterone) in men.

Osteoporosis becomes more common with age.[3] About 15% of white people in their 50s and 70% of those over 80 are affected.[7] It is more common in women than men.[3] In the developed world, depending on the method of diagnosis, 2% to 8% of males and 9% to 38% of females are affected.[11] Rates of disease in the developing world are unclear.[12] About 22 million women and 5.5 million men in the European Union had osteoporosis in 2010.[13] In the United States in 2010 about eight million women and one to two million men had osteoporosis.[11][14] White and Asian people are at greater risk.

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• CAUSES AND RISK FACTORS OF OSTEOPOROSIS

Some of the factors that could increase the risk of developing osteoporosis are highlighted below;

1. Female gender which basically lies on secretion of oestrogen and this can be greatly influenced by menopause or removal of the ovaries as discussed above.

2. Some acquired attitudes which pose a very deadly effect on our healths might also result to osteoporosis, such attitudes include; cigarette smoking, taking of alcohol.

3. It could also be as a result of Anorexia(loss of appetite as a result of disease), hyperthyroidism, gastrointestinal diseases, kidney disease, and certain medications.

4. Also, it could be as a result of Amenorrhea(loss of the menstrual period) in young women which is associated with low levels of estrogen and osteoporosis; Amenorrhea can occur in women who undergo extremely vigorous exercise training and in women with very low body fat (for example, women with anorexia nervosa)

5. It could also be as a result of Inherited disorders of connective tissue, including osteogenesis imperfecta, homocystinuria, osteoporosis-pseudoglioma syndrome and skin diseases, such as Marfan syndrome and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (These causes of hereditary secondary osteoporosis are treated differently)

6. Vitamin D deficiency; vitamin D aids the absorption of Calcium and its absence will undoubtedly reduce that.

7. Family history of osteoporosis, for example, having a mother with an osteoporotic hip fracture doubles an individual's risk of hip fracture)

8. Some other causes include; Poor nutrition; diet low in calcium, and also poor general health,Chronic inflammation(due to chronic inflammatory arthritis or disease), Caucasian or Asian race.

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• SYMPTOMS AND SIGNS OF OSTEOPOROSIS
  Osteoporosis as it is, does not show any symptoms till one experience fractures. This made me wondered why some people slip on the floor and their bone(s) gets broken! At first, I thought it was location but at a point in time, I got to know it isn't!!!

Checke these out;

Osteoporosis can be present without any symptoms for decades because osteoporosis doesn't cause symptoms until bone breaks (fractures). Moreover, some osteoporotic fractures may escape detection for years when they do not cause symptoms. Therefore, patients may not be aware of their osteoporosis until they suffer a painful fracture. The symptom associated with osteoporotic fractures usually is pain; the location of the pain depends on the location of the fracture. The symptoms of osteoporosis in men are similar to the symptoms of osteoporosis in women.

Fractures of the spine (vertebra) can cause severe "band-like" pain that radiates from the back to the sides of the body. Over the years, repeated spinal fractures can lead to chronic lower back pain as well as loss of height and/or curving of the spine due to collapse of the vertebrae. The collapse gives individuals a hunched-back appearance of the upper back, often called a "dowager hump" because it commonly is seen in elderly women.

A fracture that occurs during the course of normal activity is called a minimal trauma, or stress fracture. For example, some patients with osteoporosis develop stress fractures of the feet while walking or stepping off a curb.

Hip fractures typically occur as a result of a fall. With osteoporosis, hip fractures can occur as a result of trivial slip-and-fall accidents. Hip fractures also may heal slowly or poorly after surgical repair because of poor healing of the bone.

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Hope you enjoyed it.
Thanks for reading
TO BE CONTINUED!!!!