silently and ends with fractures
Tomorrow, health sectors celebrate the International Day of Osteoporosis, which falls on October 20 of each year, in order to raise awareness and publicize the disease and ways to prevent it, as osteoporosis is considered one of the diseases spread around the world and affects millions of people.
The Secretary-General of the Federation of Arab Hospitals, Professor and Consultant of Public Health, Family and Community Medicine, Professor Tawfiq Ahmed Khoja, warned members of the Saudi society of the factors that pave the way for osteoporosis, which is considered a silent disease, as it causes bones to weaken gradually until it leads to a decrease in bone density and strength, explaining The World Health Organization ranks osteoporosis among the 10 most prevalent diseases in the world, considering osteoporosis a silent serious disease that affects 30% of women after the age of 50 years and 10% of men after the age of 50 years, and leads to a deterioration in bone density and strength. lead to fractures.
For his part, Professor and Consultant of Endocrinology and Diabetes at the Faculty of Medicine at King Abdulaziz University, Professor Abdul Moeen Al-Agha, explains that paying attention to a good balanced diet by eating protein materials, as well as drinking milk rich in calcium, and exposure to the sun are among the most important basic factors for building and strengthening bones.
And he indicated that it has been scientifically proven that the bone tissue is in the highest state of construction from childhood to adulthood and youth, and after the age of forty, bone stiffness begins to gradually decline over many years until the bones become more thin and fragile with the increase in human life, and this disease was mentioned in The Noble Qur’an when Zakariyya, peace be upon him, called to his Lord (He said, “My Lord, I have weakened my bones, and my head has turned gray, and I was not wretched with your supplications.”) Dr. Dia Hussein, a specialist in rheumatism and osteoporosis, gives three important tips for osteoporosis patients, which are to exercise, reduce weight and reduce obesity, and get enough healthy sleep.
He said that exercising reduces the pain caused by osteoporosis from the ability to perform some movements and exercises, but this does not mean that the individual should give up exercise permanently, as regular exercises help to strengthen the muscles around the joints, and this would help To avoid unnecessary complications, and exercising for 20-30 minutes a day reduces movement stiffness, prevents episodes of pain, and the individual can walk, swim or do stretching exercises.
On the importance of vitamin D and avoiding early fragility, family and community medicine consultant Dr. Khaled Bawaked says: Many members of society already suffer from the problem of vitamin D deficiency and are lenient in treating it, indicating that this vitamin is known as the sunshine vitamin, and 50 years ago, doctors noticed that only a few Of the children of developing tropical countries suffer from abnormalities in the growth of bones and teeth similar in characteristics to those distortions resulting from rickets, while many children who live in temperate climate countries or advanced industrial countries suffer from these abnormalities in the bones and teeth, and the reason is in the vitamin sunlight (D) That''s because children in tropical countries are exposed to the sun all year round.
In this context, Dr. Wael Awwad, a consultant obstetrician and gynecologist, described osteoporosis as a disease that makes the bones weak and rapidly brittle to the point that any bruise or simple fall can lead to a serious fracture, indicating that about half of women over the age of sixty suffer a fracture as a result of this disease, as Osteoporosis is called the silent disease, as it usually has no symptoms until a woman sustains a fracture, and the most vulnerable places are the hip, spine, joint and pelvis. He pointed out that bone is a living tissue consisting of blood vessels, cells, nerve fibers and mineral salts. Such as calcium, which is an important part of the components of the bone, and gives it the hardness that characterizes it, and bones, like other components of the body, witness continuous and balanced demolition and building processes, and it depends to a large extent on the level of the estrogen hormone in the body. Starting at about the age of 45 years, a woman’s body usually produces less amounts of estrogen, so the destruction increases more than the building, and the bone strength decreases at a rate of about 1 to 2 percent per year. to about 2 to 4 percent per year.
