According to the data of the White Paper on Osteoporosis in China, there are nearly 70 million osteoporosis patients among people over 50 years old in China. According to the prediction of China Surgical Implants Committee, by 2050, the number of osteoporosis patients in China will rise to 2120,000.
Among them, the elderly are the high-risk population of osteoporosis.
So many people have this question: "Is it that the older you get, the looser your bones are, and the easier it is to get osteoporosis?"
What is osteoporosis? This is a systemic osteopathy characterized by decreased bone mass and damaged microstructure of bone tissue, which leads to increased bone brittleness and prone to fracture.
Therefore, when suffering from osteoporosis, the internal structure of our bones will become fragile. When the quality and strength of bones become weak, a slight fall or collision may lead to fractures.
Age is a risk factor for osteoporosis.
First of all, because of the influence of hormones, the prevalence of osteoporosis in people over 50 years old in China accounts for 20.7%.
This is because after menopause, the inhibitory effect of estrogen on osteoclasts is weakened, and the increase of osteoclasts leads to the enhancement of bone absorption function, which in turn leads to osteoporosis.
Secondly, with the increase of age, the physical function of the elderly gradually weakens, the speed of bone reconstruction and repair decreases, the decomposed bone tissue exceeds the new bone tissue, and the speed of bone loss accelerates, leading to osteoporosis.
In addition, when the elderly get older, the amount of exercise decreases and the number of osteoblasts in the bones decreases. In the regulation of osteoblasts on osteoclasts and its relationship with osteoporosis, it is pointed out that the imbalance of bone remodeling caused by the change of osteoblasts' own characteristics is one of the fundamental causes of osteoporosis.
Therefore, the older you get, the looser your bones are, which makes sense.
In addition, the silent killer of osteoporosis should be treated correctly in order to prevent and treat it correctly. The following three misunderstandings must be avoided.
Myth 1: It is normal to get osteoporosis when you are old.
Many friends will think that osteoporosis, like senile plaque, is inevitable when you get old, and you don't need prevention or treatment.
Although age is one of the risk factors of osteoporosis, it does not mean that it cannot be prevented. In addition, the harm of osteoporosis is not only prone to fractures, but also causes some life-threatening diseases such as pulmonary embolism and falling pneumonia because of its limited activities.
Therefore, it is the right choice to actively deal with osteoporosis.
Myth 2: Osteoporosis is calcium deficiency, and calcium supplementation is enough.
First of all, we should know that the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis, in the final analysis, is to increase the content of bone matrix and bone minerals in bones, prevent the decomposition and loss of bones, and alleviate the pain caused by osteoporosis.
Calcium is the key substance to keep bones strong. Once it is lacking, it will accelerate the loss of bone mass. Therefore, many people think that it is understandable that osteoporosis needs calcium supplementation.
However, it should be noted that calcium is not the only key substance to keep bones strong, so osteoporosis cannot be prevented by simply supplementing calcium.
Because osteoporosis is a disease of interaction between heredity and environment, estrogen, heredity, nutrition and physical factors are closely related to it. Therefore, in order to improve osteoporosis, we must first find the cause of osteoporosis and prescribe the right medicine instead of simply supplementing nutrition.
Myth 3: Because the bone is loose and afraid of fracture, I simply don't exercise.
As we said, osteoporosis may cause us to break after a slight fall or bump, so many friends refuse to exercise after learning that they have osteoporosis, fearing that they will break if they move.
But in fact, patients with osteoporosis should exercise reasonably, and proper mechanical stimulation is beneficial to repair bone micro-injury and increase bone density. Patients with osteoporosis can choose relatively low-intensity exercise, such as jogging, yoga and Tai Chi. , so as to achieve gradual progress.
From the above, I believe many friends have correctly understood osteoporosis. Next, let's talk about the three major symptoms of osteoporosis.
More than 30% of elderly fracture patients are related to osteoporosis, and the older they are, the higher the probability of osteoporosis. Therefore, elderly friends must pay attention to the following three symptoms, or suggest that you may be osteoporosis.
The most common symptom is back or whole body bone pain. It usually happens when sleeping, turning over, sitting up and standing for a long time, sometimes accompanied by muscle spasm. In addition, the obvious decline of load-bearing capacity and fatigue after simple labor are also one of the symptoms of osteoporosis patients.
Another obvious symptom is that it is easy to fracture in the thoracolumbar spine, hip, ribs, pelvis and other parts. It is possible that a slight bump can lead to a fracture, and the healing time is longer than that of a person who is not sick, and it is easy to fracture again.
Patients with severe osteoporosis, because of the vertebral compression fracture, that is, the vertebral load increases and compression deformation occurs, there will be spinal deformities such as short height and hunchback.
Of course, we can also accurately detect whether we have osteoporosis through bone mineral density examination. The value on the bone mineral density examination report is also called "T value". For the "t value", according to the interpretation of the World Health Organization, it can be interpreted as:
When the t value is greater than or equal to-1.0, it is normal bone density;
When the t value is between-1.0 and -2.5, the bone mineral density is low;
When the t value is less than -2.5, it indicates osteoporosis.
Osteoporosis has affected hundreds of millions of people in China, seriously endangering the quality of life of middle-aged and elderly people. Therefore, the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis is a health problem that we must pay attention to.
According to the health guidelines, within 1 year after pelvic fracture, as many as 20% patients died of various complications, and 50% survivors could not take care of themselves, which seriously affected their quality of life. But it is precisely in the thoracolumbar spine, ribs, pelvis and other parts that osteoporosis patients are prone to fracture.
Therefore, it is particularly important to improve osteoporosis. Do "three don't eat and two insist", or you can strengthen your muscles and bones.
Three don't eat: don't eat the following three "bone grinding" foods.
Don't eat high-salt food.
Many elderly people are in a tasteless state for a long time because of the decreased sensitivity of taste buds, so they especially like foods with heavy salt and heavy taste, such as canned food, pickles and preserved fruits.
But these high-salt foods are actually closely related to the occurrence of osteoporosis. Because too much salt is ingested in the body, when the renal tubules are reabsorbed, the increased sodium ions and calcium ions will compete with each other and accelerate the excretion of calcium in the body.
In addition, high salt can stimulate human parathyroid gland, cause adenylate cyclase on osteoclast cell membrane, destroy normal bone metabolism, easily lead to osteoporosis and increase the probability of fracture.
A high-salt diet will not only affect our bones, but also increase the burden on our kidneys and the risk of hypertension and edema. The World Health Organization recommends that the daily salt intake of each person should not exceed 5 grams. If it is a patient with hypertension, the daily salt intake should be controlled below 4 grams.
Second, don't eat foods with high fat content.
Obesity and osteoporosis point out that adipose tissue can affect the differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells by secreting cytokines, and at the same time, the level of pancreatic sex hormones in obese people will increase, forming a complex network with adipocytokines, thus affecting bone formation and bone density.
The journal Radiology also mentioned that people with high liver and muscle fat levels will have relatively high bone marrow fat levels. It was found that the higher the triglyceride content in blood, the higher the fat content in bone marrow and the lower the bone mineral density.
This is because fat accumulation leads to bone loss, and bones become fragile, which increases the risk of fracture and osteoporosis.
Therefore, in order to prevent and improve osteoporosis, we should eat less foods with high fat content, such as nuts, fried cakes, cream cakes and fat meat. And control our weight within a reasonable range.
Sanbuchi alcohol and tobacco
China Smoking Health Hazard Report clearly points out that smoking will accelerate the decrease of bone mineral density and increase the risk of osteoporosis. Among them, nicotine can stimulate osteoclasts, increase bone absorption, lead to decreased bone mass and weakened bone function.
In addition, harmful substances in cigarettes can also promote the decomposition of estrogen, and the inhibitory effect of estrogen on osteoclasts is weakened. The increase in the number of osteoclasts will lead to the enhancement of bone absorption function, and then osteoporosis will occur.
Alcohol will lead to the loss of minerals such as calcium and magnesium in bones, inhibit the normal metabolism of bone cells, and at the same time, alcohol will also affect the absorption of calcium, thus aggravating osteoporosis.
After saying "three don't eat", let's talk about "two persistences": insist on doing the following two things.
First, we must adhere to reasonable exercise.
Although the bones of patients with osteoporosis are very fragile, exercise is essential to prevent and improve osteoporosis.
Reasonable exercise, one can exercise muscles, strong muscles can protect bones and reduce bone loss; The second one can keep the body balanced and prevent falling. You know, for osteoporosis patients, even a slight bump and fall may lead to fractures.
In our daily life, we can do walking, jogging, Tai Ji Chuan, yoga, table tennis and other sports. And try to choose outdoor activities. You can also supplement the vitamin D needed by the human body by sunbathing to promote the absorption of calcium in the body.
Second, we must insist on supplementing enough calcium.
The loss of calcium and the reduction of calcium absorption will lead to the thinning of trabecular bone and the decrease of bone density, which will lead to osteoporosis, so calcium intake is particularly important.
According to the data published in the Reference Intake of Dietary Nutrients for China Residents, the elderly need to consume about 1000mg of calcium every day. Foods with high calcium content include dairy products, broccoli, spinach and seafood.
Summary:
Osteoporosis is a silent health killer, and its fracture is one of the main causes of disability or death of elderly patients.
Although osteoporosis is extremely harmful, we can still start with our daily habits, actively prevent and deal with it, and adhere to the principle of "early prevention, early diagnosis, early treatment and early benefit" to reduce its impact on our health.
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