[건강 팁] Osteoporosis, without symptoms, suddenly’tuk’… leaving empty bones’goes to the goal’

Fractures of the femur, spine, and wrist are common

Chronic pain and mortality ↑ Quality of life ↓

Constant exercise helps prevent falls

Calcium and vitamin D supplementation is also important

Osteoporosis is a disease in which bones become weak and fracture easily even with small impacts. You can see a lot of grandmothers and grandfathers around you because your back is bent and you can’t lie upright or suffer from chronic pain in your back. It is only a slight collapse, but it is not uncommon to suffer from surgery for a fracture of the femur, or a fracture of a strawy wrist while falling. Most of these fractures are caused by osteoporosis.

Bones act as pillars that support our bodies. Like remodeling to prevent old buildings from cracking and collapsing, the process of breaking old bones (bone resorption) and making new and fresh bones (bone formation) steadily occurs in our bodies. In osteoporosis, the balance between the process of bone formation and resorption is disturbed, resulting in thinning of the bone or the increase in small holes that are not visible, making it easier to break. In particular, in women immediately after menopause, bone density decreases at a rate of 5 to 10 times faster than before.

Osteoporosis is a very common disease. Among 10 people over the age of 50, 3 to 4 women and 1 men have osteoporosis and experience osteoporotic fractures. It is known that 2 out of 10 people with a femur fracture at the age of 80 die within 1 year. Still, out of 10 osteoporosis patients, 7 women and 8 men are not receiving treatment.

Osteoporosis has no symptoms and leads to a fracture. If you have osteoporosis, you should be especially careful with fractures of the femur, spine, and wrist. Fractures easily occur during everyday activities, such as falling, collapsing, or colliding with a hard object while shaking your hand. If you think of an old man who is unable to walk on his own due to his broken bones while his mind is intact, it can be as dangerous as a disease that causes death, such as cancer.

If the femur is fractured, surgery should be performed under general anesthesia. However, most of the elderly have difficulty withstanding general anesthesia. If they do not undergo surgery, they cannot move, so they can die from pneumonia or bedsores within a few months, and even after surgery, 15-20% can die within a year. About half of the patients who have undergone surgery experience great inconvenience for the rest of their lives because they cannot do their daily activities, such as going to the bathroom on their own.

The most common vertebral fractures lead to the’back and back’, and there is no way to recover them with surgery yet. Chronic pain that does not go away even with pain relievers, posture abnormalities due to spinal deformity, and cardiopulmonary decline due to heart and lung compression are also problems. Wrist fractures can cause chronic pain and wrist deformity.

For osteoporosis, prevention is more important than treatment. In children and adolescents, enough bones should be made, well maintained in adulthood, and bone destruction in old age should be suppressed as much as possible. It is necessary to consume foods rich in calcium, protein and vitamin D and dairy products such as milk. If you are unable to drink milk due to diarrhea, consider taking a calcium supplement and have a bone density test at a health check-up.

It is also important to synthesize and supplement vitamin D, which regulates the concentration of calcium and phosphorus in the blood, helps calcium absorption and bone and muscle growth in the intestine. Vitamin D is made in the body by the sun’s ultraviolet rays from the skin, so it is good to do outdoor activities or sunbathing in sunlight. Applying a sunscreen with a sun protection factor (SPF) of 8 or higher prevents more than 95% of vitamin D production even if you sunbathe, so there is no effect. Avoid using drugs that cause osteoporosis, especially steroids, and quickly diagnose and treat diseases that can cause osteoporosis. It is better to avoid drinking and smoking, and to reduce soda and coffee.

Osteoporosis patients have fractures even with light impact, so bone strength must be increased. If you exercise consistently in the method and amount that suits your health condition, it will help prevent falls by increasing your bone strength as well as balance and muscle strength. / Seung-Hoon Lee, Professor of Ulsan University of Medicine, Seoul Asan Hospital (Endocrinology)

※ When a bone density test is required

Postmenopausal women with risk factors, men 50-69 years old

Women over 65 years old and men over 70 years old

・If you have already had an osteoporotic fracture

・When secondary osteoporosis is suspected

·When osteoporosis or spine fracture is suspected in radiological examination

/ Reporter Lim Woong-jae [email protected]

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