Osteoporosis Symptoms
Osteoporosis Causes

Osteoporosis Symptoms

One of the most common symptoms associated with this disease, is some sort of fracture that takes place. Whether it's your hip, forearm, or backbone, they could be signs of osteoporosis. However, while the initial accident seems to come out of nowhere, you could see this start to happen more frequently.

Another thing to remember is the type of accidents that are taking place. We're not talking about getting a broken or fractured bone from a car accident. Actually, it's all about those normal day to day things we do. For instance; if you bend over to pick up a pen off the floor and a fracture takes place, the bones are in a weak state.

Those experiencing osteoporosis will also deal with ongoing pain. This could occur as soon as you wake up in the morning until you go to sleep at night. Some sufferers also claim to feel extensive pain when there is a major change in weather (hot to cold or when it's raining). This symptom often occurs during perimenopause.

Unless you are checked for osteoporosis on a scheduled basis, it's possible you have it but don't know it. Eventually major issues could take place like your spine collapsing. This could create a hunched over walk and a loss of about a half a foot in height. Keep in mind; this is something that occurs in the later stages of the disease.

Severe back pain can be another one of the osteoporosis symptoms. Most of the time we believe our back pain is a product of some other issue. What it comes down to is osteoporosis doesn't have early signs of the disease. The only way to overcome them without heading to the doctor is through assessing your risk factors and making lifestyle changes to help prevent the disease.


Osteoporosis Causes

Although many people think that adding bone mass will prevent osteoporosis, this is not necessarily true. What you need to do is make your bones stronger.

Osteoporosis causes include risk factors such as gender, age and ethnicity. Women have much higher rates of osteoporosis than men, and the older you get, the higher your risk is. And Hispanic women and black women have a lower risk than white women and Asian women.

Women with smaller bone structure and less fat also have a higher risk. In fact, Dr. Thomas Cowan, author of The Fourfold Path to Healing says that a big part of the problem of osteoporosis is related to being too thin.

Even if you're not dealing with osteoporosis right now, keeping an eye on causes and risk factors will help you prevent bone loss.

Nutritional Status

There are many vitamins and minerals involved in growing and maintaining healthy bones. Vitamins A, B12, D, E, K and minerals such as calcium and phosphorus need to be properly absorbed and in the right ratios to keep bones healthy.

Lack of Vitamin D: Recent research on Vitamin D has revealed a much higher requirement for this vitamin than was previously thought. Most Americans do not get anywhere near enough of this vitamin. Optimum levels of Vitamin D are critical to prevent bone loss.

When I was first tested for Vitamin D levels, I was taking 400 I.U. Daily. My levels were way too low, and my doctor prescribed a supplement of 3000 IU per day. The best way to get Vitamin D is through sun exposure, but most of us do not have time to get enough to acquire optimum levels of D in our blood.

If you smoke, drink lots of alcohol, eat sugar, have undiagnosed thyroid issues or are being treated with thyroid medication, you will have a higher risk of getting osteoporosis.

Steroid Hormones

Perimenopausal osteoporosis can begin with estrogen and progesterone decline. It is thought that replacement hormones will help prevent osteoporosis. If you do not want to take hormones but have high risk factors for osteoporosis, you might want to consider bioidentical hormone therapy

Women are most susceptible to osteoporosis when they reach the age of 65. If you have passed the menopause period, it's a good idea to have an exam, even if you don't feel any symptoms. However, this is even more important if you already have a symptom present.

Broken Bone History- If you have reached the age of 50 and have a history of broken bones; get checked out. Studies have shown that you are at a higher risk of developing osteoporosis symptoms in the next 10 to 20 years.

Along with thyroid medications, anything that contains prednisone or aromatase inhibitors may put you at a higher risk for osteoporosis. This also goes for any type of anti-seizure drug.

Osteoporosis symptoms are not easy to identify until late in the game, but with the right knowledge and some lifestyle changes, you can keep or recover your strong bones.

One of the best ways to do this is with osteoporosis exercises


And for some surprising information about the vital role of nutrients in osteoporosis symptoms, see Vitamin A and osteoporosis

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