Osteoporosis is a very common systemic metabolic bone disease. According to the epidemiological data of osteoporosis in the mainland, the incidence of osteoporosis in people over 50 years old accounts for 19.2%, while the prevalence of 65-year-old women is as high as 51.6%.
Although osteoporosis is very common and familiar to everyone, but the specific knowledge of this disease is not too well understood, coupled with the fact that osteoporosis is chronically progressive, the initial symptoms are not obvious, many elderly people and family members do not pay attention to the early stage of the disease and actively intervene, which leads to the condition at the time of treatment has been very serious.
Osteoporosis can prevent and treat diseases, as long as it is found and treated in time, you can avoid serious hazards such as fractures caused by osteoporosis. Today, let's take a look at 5 body signals that are easily overlooked, which may indicate that you are likely to have osteoporosis.
1. Low back pain.
Low back pain in patients with osteoporosis has a certain characteristic, that is, the pain will be aggravated in the resting state and relieved after activity. Some patients describe it this way: sitting there without moving feels all over the body, and it will be better to get up and walk; when you just fall asleep at night, you feel that it is OKAY, but when you just fall asleep or fall asleep, you will be full of pain, and you must get up and move, which seriously affects sleep. If we have such low back pain, we must consider that it may be osteoporosis.
2. Hunchback.
Friends who have observed may find that some grandparents around them have hunchbacks, and the entire back is "rounded" and standing up is like a question mark. This condition is most likely related to osteoporosis.
3. Fracture.
Osteoporosis is the loss of organic calcium from the internal bones of the human body, the decrease in calcium content and bone content, and the increase in bone fragility. In this case, being hit by the same external force or possibly only a particularly small external force, such as coughing, sneezing, bending over and tying shoelaces, etc., may cause inadvertent fractures, which are a very common phenomenon of osteoporosis.
4. Height becomes shorter.
As mentioned earlier, people with osteoporosis will have a hunchback and a compression fracture, and these two points together can also cause shorter height. Generally speaking, when we are around 18 years old, our height is the peak of our entire height; in our 60s and 70s, if our height drops significantly, such as more than 3 centimeters, this time it is likely to be related to osteoporosis. Because in addition to a certain degree of dehydration in each disc, humpback and vertebral compression fractures can also cause significant loss of height. So, if you find yourself or the elderly around you are much shorter than when you were younger, consider the possibility of osteoporosis.
5. Breathing restriction.
Osteoporosis causes the entire thoracic kyphosis to increase, which makes the cavity of the entire lung smaller. When the chest cavity becomes smaller, the activity of the entire lung (lung capacity) decreases. Therefore, many patients with osteoporosis will have cough and sputum production ability after winter, and they are prone to pneumonia and other diseases. Once pneumonia occurs, it is difficult for patients to expel sputum, which in turn will further aggravate the pneumonia. At the same time, because our chest cavity is lowered, the mediastinum will also be affected, so while breathing is not smooth and short of breath, it will also lead to limited heart contraction.
These are the more common symptoms of osteoporosis, but they are very easy to ignore, resulting in patients not getting timely treatment. This requires us to go to regular hospitals for osteoporosis screening in time when these physical abnormalities occur. In addition, it is recommended that people over the age of 40 can go to the hospital regularly for bone density checks to determine the state of bone health and early detection of osteoporosis.