Osteoporosis Awareness

Awareness of osteoporosis is so important to women that they should consider it daily as, although men do suffer from osteoporosis, 68% of sufferers are women. Prevention of osteoporosis starts now, not when you are already older and beginning to suffer from the effects. Women thirty years of age and older should take preventive measures.

OsteoporosisOsteoporosis is a condition of weakened bones that have become porous, fragile, brittle and therefore easily fractured. Fractures most commonly occur in the hips, wrists, and spine, although no bone is exempt.

You may not realize this, but bone is a living tissue that, much like your skin, is constantly generating new cells. Your old skin cells just fall away, but the bone cells are reabsorbed by your body in the form of calcium and phosphates and so these vital nutrients key to bone development need to be replenished.

Keep in mind also that with depleted supplies of calcium and phosphorus in your system your teeth will suffer too. If you are not providing your body with calcium and phosphorus your body will take it from the bone and this is the cause of osteoporosis.

Healthy bone and bone with osteoporosisIn order to rebuild the bone, your body needs an appropriate supply of calcium and phosphates to replenish what was lost. Calcium rich foods like milk, cheese, yogurt, and ice cream, or calcium supplements can be consumed as a source for the calcium your body needs to maintain strong, healthy, bone regeneration.

Phosphates are needed as well, usually a supplement will provide you with a good source of easily absorbed phosphates, but if you wish to consume them from natural foods, spinach is an excellent source. The body actually needs calcium phosphate, which is obtained through vegetable matter as although calcium from animal sources such as milk and cheese provide calcium, you still need a phosphorous supplement.

OsteoporosisCalcium has many more important functions in the human body other than bone growth. Calcium is also needed for proper muscle function, the sending of nerve impulses, blood coagulation, and proper cardiac function. In other words, your body needs ample supplies of calcium to function properly.

Women, or men for that matter, that suffer from advanced stages of osteoporosis will have a “stooped” or bent over appearance as the vertebrae have become so weakened that they sometimes can actually “cave in” on themselves. People in this stage of the disease will likely have lost inches of height do to the collapse of the vertebrae.

Old woman walkingWhen the person has become stooped over for extended periods of time this improper position of the body can cause undue stresses on other parts of the body including the internal organs. Lung function may become impaired and this in turn may have a negative effect on heart function due to a decrease in oxygen supplies. The long and short of it is that osteoporosis is not only an unpleasant condition for a person to endure but can be downright unhealthy.

The vertebrae have a sort of protrusion called a process, these are thin already and when weakened by osteoporosis can break easily and this becomes a great source of pain, further lowering the quality of life. Remember, prevention is the key, make sure that you are getting plenty of calcium phosphate in your diet even before you are of the age to be concerned. Persons, women especially, over thirty should pay more attention to their diet and strive for adequate consumption of these vital nutrients.

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HealthStatus has been operating since 1998 providing the best interactive health tools on the Internet, millions of visitors have used our blood alcohol, body fat and calories burned calculators. The HealthStatus editorial team has continued that commitment to excellence by providing our visitors with easy to understand high quality health content for many years. Our team of health professionals, and researchers use peer reviewed studies as source elements in our articles. Our high quality content has been featured in a number of leading websites, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, Live Strong, GQ, and many more.

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Written by HealthStatus Team
Medical Writer & Editor

HealthStatus has been operating since 1998 providing the best interactive health tools on the Internet, millions of visitors have used our blood alcohol, body fat and calories burned calculators. The HealthStatus editorial team has continued that commitment to excellence by providing our visitors with easy to understand high quality health content for many years. Our team of health professionals, and researchers use peer reviewed studies as source elements in our articles. Our high quality content has been featured in a number of leading websites, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, Live Strong, GQ, and many more.

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