Symptoms and Treatment for Osteoporosis
Osteoporosis is a disease of the bones characterized by a decrease in bone mass and structural deterioration of bone tissue, leading to bone fragility and increased susceptibility to fractures of the hip, spine and wrist. Osteoporosis affects millions of older adults, usually striking after 60. Although it is most commonly found in women, it is not unheard of in men. Osteoporosis can be very far along before it became noticeable. Sometimes the first sign is a broken bone in the hip, spine, or wrist after a bump or fall. As the disease gets worse, other signs may appear such as pain in the back and ultimately, a curved backbone.
Causes of Osteoporosis
Causes of osteoporosis are heredity and lifestyle. Whites and Asians, tall and thin women and those with a history of osteoporosis are those at the highest risk of getting osteoporosis. The behavioral causes of increasing the risk of osteoporosis are smoking, alcohol abuse, prolonged inactivity and a diet low in calcium. There are also some diseases that are associated with aging that cause osteoporosis, which include kidney failure, liver disease, cancers, Paget´s disease, endocrine or glandular diseases, gonadal failure and rheumatoid arthritis. There are some medications like steroids, seizure drugs, thyroid hormone and blood thinners that are also found to cause osteoporosis.
Symptoms of Osteoporosis
In the beginning of the disease no symptoms of the disease are seen because osteoporosis doesn’t cause symptoms unless bone fractures. Some osteoporosis fractures may escape detection until years later. Patient may not be aware of the disease until they experience painful fracture. Typical osteoporosis fractures occur in hip, vertebral column and wrist. These type of fractures can cause acute radiculopathic pains in the back. Multiple vertebral fractures can cause loss of height and defect in posture.
Having Osteoporosis symptoms means that your bones will become very brittle and that without to much effort your bones will break or fracture. A simple fall or a knock can break things like your leg bones, hip bones, and wrist bones. Osteoporosis symptoms are usually very hard to detect and in most cases the first you will know about whether you have Osteoporosis or not is when you end up in hospital due to a broken or fractured bone.
Treatment of Osteoporosis
Treatment for osteoporosis includes eating a diet rich in calcium and vitamin D, getting regular exercise, and taking medication to reduce bone loss and increase bone thickness. It’s important to take calcium and vitamin D supplements along with any medicines you take for osteoporosis. Even small changes in diet, exercise, and medicine can help prevent spine and hip fractures.
There are also advances in osteoporosis medication occurring every day. One of suggestion for you is ACTONEL to prevents and treats osteoporosis. It’s the only oral monthly osteoporosis treatment approved to help prevent fractures at both the spine and other areas where fractures commonly occur (other areas were measured as a group, not separately). ACTONEL is clinically proven to help decrease the chance of a spinal fracture in just 1 year. Talk to your doctor to find out if ACTONEL is the right fit for your bone health routine.
Blood Pressure Medication – EXFORGE
The use of medication as the primary form of treatment for High Blood Pressure has come on in leaps and bounds over the past fifty years and what was once a very inexact science has now become one where by and large it is very exact. The treatment programmes that were instigated seem very primitive in hindsight and thankfully now with the introduction of increasingly sophisticated drug therapy matters have moved ahead somewhat.
The major treatment approach of High Blood Pressure Medication at the time largely consisted of advising patients to have a diet that was low in salt, lots of “bed rest” and possibly the use of sleeping pills. Drug treatment for those suffering from High Blood Pressure (Hypertension) can significantly increase the lifespan and reduce mortality rates accordingly and to millions of people the world over (myself included) these drug related therapies have been very much a life saver.
However as with most things, the use of drug therapy, whilst extremely useful in most cases, is not always the best choice for people in certain cases.
For those suffering with moderately raised blood pressure, mild incidences of Hypertension and no incidences of Heart Problem, you can usually bring blood pressure down to normal levels in a bout a year of starting lifestyle changes. Changes like these can help sufferer’s of high blood pressure manage HBP over the longer term as well since as we all know Hypertension does not go away. Successful management of high blood pressure like this ensures that in some cases (and it does have to be stressed here that we are talking about some cases) the use of medication can and does become unnecessary.
Whenever and wherever, the instigation of non drug therapies is encouraged and even if not successful in isolation, the end result means that the amounts of drugs and the types used can be of a more reasonable amount and type.
Talk to your doctor about what your blood pressure goal should be. Once you establish a blood pressure goal, work with your doctor to reach that goal and keep your numbers at a healthy level. This may mean making healthy lifestyle changes. Some people are able to successfully lower their blood pressure this way. However, most people also need the help of prescription medications to further lower their blood pressure. And most people need more than one medication to reach their blood pressure goal.
EXFORGE and EXFORGE HCT are prescription medicines for the treatment of high blood pressure. EXFORGE contains two prescription medicines: amlodipine, a calcium channel blocker (CCB), and valsartan, an angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB). EXFORGE may be used when any one of the following medicines to lower your high blood pressure is not enough: a dihydropyridine CCB or an ARB. It may also be used as the first medicine to lower high blood pressure if your doctor decides you are likely to need more than one medicine. EXFORGE HCT contains three prescription medicines: amlodipine, valsartan, and hydrochlorothiazide (a diuretic or water pill). EXFORGE HCT may be used to lower blood pressure in adults when any two of the following medicines to lower high blood pressure have been tried first: a CCB, an ARB, and a diuretic.