One of the dangers of recognizing the symptoms of osteoporosis is that this disease can go undetected for years before any tangible signs are detected.
The gradual onset of osteoporosis will mean that while the bones are slowly being weakened, it's not until something slightly out of the ordinary may occur to your health, that people may explore the possibility that they may have this bone crippling disease.
Signs to look out for:
- Dull pains around the muscles or bones especially in the lower back.
- Gradual loss of height or a slight stoop and change in posture.
- Early stages of the menopause.
- Taking corticosteroids over long period of time.
- An innocuous bone fracture.
- Family history.
If you feel that any of these signs are applicable to you then you should contact your local doctor.
There are two types of osteoporosis, type I and type II:
Type I is much more prevalent in women and often occurs after the menopause as the bones resorption increases - i.e they lose their substance and symptoms tend to occur from the age of 50 upwards with a loss of strength in the spine and wrists.
Type II is more common after 70 and effects women more than men although less so than type I, and is typically the result of the decline in the bones outer hard shell and the spongy tissue inside.
The most likely place type II osteoporosis will develop is in the spine, neck, wrist, hand, hip or foot, where fractures that occur at a young age without detection like a stress fracture in the foot from stepping of a bus or bruising your hip from a fall in the snow - injuries we take to be part and parcel of everyday life - are often the precursor for this ailment.
Symptoms of Osteoporosis:
When you've been diagnosed with this disease, depending on where it's present in your body, the symptoms and treatment will vary.
Osteoporosis Back & Neck Symptoms:
Dull pains may lead to sudden sharp jolts of pain in the lower back or neck as it spreads, lasting from only a few days to a few months.
Spinal osteoporosis will often lead to "dowager's hump" - a stoop. This curvature of the spine is due to the compression placed on the vertebrae and is slightly more common in women.
Osteoporosis Foot Symptoms:
When it occurs in the foot, the patient often finds the pain hard to locate as this disease can radiate quite fast at times, where most of the bones in the foot become slowly demineralized, which can cause multiple arthritic pain in the joints.
Unfortunately when this occurs, to date it's irreversible as the lattice network of the bones has become completely eroded, so treating the symptoms as opposed to instructing remission is the only option. Wearing good arched thick comfy soles with tight laces will help as a practical measure.
Osteoporosis Hip Symptoms:
Until you fracture your hip they may be few if any signs or symptoms except slight aches in the joint. Once the disease is in advanced stages then deformity of the spine, back ache and stooping are common.
Not all osteoporosis of the hip is the same though. Transient osteoporosis of the hip occurs in middle-aged women and men and is normally brought on by obesity, but it is treatable and normally only lasts 6 months to a year.
Osteoporosis Hand and Wrist Symptoms:
Once again it's the lack of bone density that should be the tale-tale signs as to whether this disease is beginning to radiate through the hand, where movement of joints in the wrist and fingers are hindered and often painful on colder days.
It's not too common for this disease to become too degenerative in the fingers, but symptoms may include dislocating your thumb or fracturing a finger. It's damage to the wrist which is more disabling.
* With regards to all forms of osteoporosis, getting a bone density test is the easiest way to assess how bad the disease is.
Below you will find what doctors in the West will and won't prescribe to treat the symptoms of osteoporosis, but your own research should be the judge of this.
Treatment of Osteoporosis:
- Take 800 units of vitamin D per day.
- A rich calcium daily intake if your on a high acid diet, although there is much debate today as to whether this might contribute to the spread of the disease and that it has little effect on rebuilding the bone.
- Rich vitamin K intake through diet and supplements.
- Magnesium supplements.
- Change from a high acid diet to a high alkaline one which include foods like boc choy, broccoli and romaine lettuce.
- Stop, dramatically curb drinking and smoking habits.
- Natural joint supplements that include omega 3, 6, 9 proteins plus additional anti-inflammatory ingredients like tongkat ali and reishi.
- HRT's: Now this is considered a highly controversial treatment. Undergo estrogen therapy, or hormone replacement therapy at your own peril as the risks to your health are high.
- Natural progesterone: As opposed to HRT's which don't build the bone but just slow the rate of the diseases progression, natural progesterone is argued to increase your bones strength and density by stimulating the osteoblasts, cells which build bone.
- Exercise is key - period, especially swimming, yoga and low impact sports.
Bottom line:
What doctors will often not recommend are magnesium supplements, however in the Journal of Nutritional Medicine, 1991; 2:165-178, women who took these for 9 months were able to increase their bone density by some 11%, something calcium has not been medically proven to do.
Take for example cows. How do cows grow such large strong bones to support their frame when all they eat is grass each day?
High in magnesium which is the chlorophyll of the plant and low in calcium, you put that fact up against the dietary culture of Eskimos, who consume 2000 mg on average of calcium a day, but hold the record for the highest hip fracture rate among a community globally, it would suggest that even today what doctors in the West offer as the mandatory supplemental treatment for osteoporosis is somewhat questionable.
Yes, calcium supplements are beneficial if you consume a high acid diet as this is known to strip the calcium from the bones to counter the acid content, but there's little proof that calcium instructs remission and helps rebuild the bone, rather it just most likely dampens the damage your diet is inflicting.
Either way, the above recommendations should have some if not a marked impact on dulling the joint and muscle pain and restoring fluidity to movement, while potentially repairing damage to the bone.
However if it's the arthritis and joint pain from the osteoporosis that you want relief from, then fortunately unlike the disease itself, there are supplements that can treat this.
