UNDERSTANDING BACK TROUBLE OTHER BACK PROBLEMS-OSTEOPOROSIS
This is a bone condition associated with growing old, and may affect any bone, not just those of the back. It takes the form of loss of bone material (calcium and minerals), making the bones fracture more easily. The spine tends to shrink in overall length, so that the person becomes shorter. In advanced cases, the affected vertebrae may collapse in a series of crush fractures, so that the sufferer develops a curvature of the spine, becoming round-shouldered. The ‘dowager’s hump’ seen in elderly women may be caused in this way.
There is some association with the sex hormones, because osteoporosis is common in
post-menopausal women and women whose ovaries have been removed. In them, it responds dramatically to treatment with oestrogen-hormone replacement therapy.
Physically active people are less likely to develop osteoporosis. Exercise is thought to have some protective function. Bone loss can be the result of prolonged immobility, and is one reason why doctors discourage patients from staying in bed longer than absolutely necessary. Astronauts spending weeks and months in space beyond the reach of earth’s gravitational pull also suffer bone loss – but this is not yet a common hazard!
The loss of bone is not in itself painful, but there may be pain anywhere in the spine and in the joints between the spine and the ribs, as the spine adapts to its new conformation. Loss of spinal bone leading to crush fractures may lead to trapping of pain-sensitive structures, such as nerve roots.
A related but much less common complaint is osteomalacia, a softening of the bones caused by vitamin D deficiency in adults (in children the result is rickets). It is thought that osteoporosis and osteomalacia may respond to increased calcium and vitamin D in the diet. But this is in no way proven, and people should certainly not dose themselves with calcium supplements – these may even make you ill.
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