7 common misunderstandings about osteoporosis. Are you one of them?

As society ages, the number of osteoporosis patients in my country ranks first in the world. Osteoporosis has become a chronic disease that poses a serious threat to the health of the middle-aged and elderly. However, there are still many misunderstandings about osteoporosis. 7 major misunderstandings about osteoporosis, come and see if you have been fooled?

Myth 1: As you get older, your bones become looser!

Many people believe that when people age, they will experience symptoms of osteoporosis, such as bone pain, hunchback, and height loss. In fact, although osteoporosis is an aging disease that is common in postmenopausal women and elderly men, it is not a physiological phenomenon, and not every elderly person will suffer from osteoporosis .

Osteoporosis is a preventable and treatable disease. Maintaining good living habits and taking appropriate amounts of vitamin D and calcium can prevent osteoporosis . Once diagnosed with osteoporosis, relevant drug treatment should be received as soon as possible.

Myth 2: Osteoporosis has nothing to do with young people!

Osteoporosis is not exclusive to the elderly . If you neglect exercise in your youth, are often picky about food or diet, and have an unbalanced diet, which leads to low calcium intake and a thin body, and you do not reject bad habits, you will not be able to achieve the ideal bone peak volume and quality, which will give young people, especially young women, the opportunity to develop osteoporosis. Therefore, the prevention of osteoporosis should start early so that you can achieve the ideal bone peak in your youth.

Myth 3: Women are more susceptible to osteoporosis, but men are not!

Most people think that osteoporosis is a "women's disease" and has nothing to do with men. In fact, osteoporosis is also a common disease in men . The prevalence of osteoporosis in men over 60 years old in China is about 15%. Osteoporosis in men is related to bad living habits, such as smoking, alcoholism, and lack of activity. Hypogonadism is also an important risk factor for osteoporosis in men.

Myth 4: Simply supplementing calcium can cure osteoporosis!

Many people believe that calcium supplementation alone can cure osteoporosis. In fact, this is not the case. Although calcium supplementation can prevent bone loss, for osteoporosis patients, supplementing with adequate calcium is the basis, and more importantly, receiving effective anti-osteoporosis drug treatment . These drugs can inhibit the function of osteoclasts or promote the function of osteoblasts, thereby achieving the therapeutic purpose of increasing bone density and reducing the risk of fractures.

Myth 5: Bone pain in the elderly is definitely caused by osteoporosis!

Although osteoporosis is a common disease among the elderly, diseases such as bone hyperplasia, osteoarthritis, lumbar disc herniation, tumor bone metastasis, and osteomalacia all have "bone headache" as the main clinical manifestation , and there are many elderly people with osteoporosis and bone hyperplasia. Therefore, elderly people with bone headache should go to the hospital for necessary examinations in order to make a clear diagnosis and prescribe the right medicine.

Myth 6 : Eating too much calcium will cause kidney stones and gallstones!

The formation of gallstones is mainly related to the imbalance of bile pigment metabolism and has no direct correlation with calcium intake. As for kidney stones, many studies in recent years have shown that increasing calcium intake can reduce the risk of kidney stones. Researchers believe that the cause of kidney stones is not too much calcium, but a disorder in calcium metabolism in the human body, resulting in abnormal "calcium movement". When bone calcium decreases and blood calcium and soft tissue calcium increase, kidney stones are prone to occur. Long-term calcium supplementation increases calcium absorption, bone calcium, and blood calcium is stable, so stones are not easy to occur .

Myth 7: “You are what you eat”, bone soup is effective!

Someone once did an experiment: 5 kg of pork bones and 5 kg of water were boiled in a pressure cooker for 10 hours. The results showed that the calcium content in a bowl of bone soup was only 10 mg . The same bowl of milk, on the other hand, has a calcium content of more than 200 mg, which is equivalent to drinking 20 bowls of bone soup. In addition, since bone soup contains a lot of fat, frequent consumption by the elderly may also lead to other health problems such as increased blood lipids and arteriosclerosis. It can be seen that if you want to strengthen your bones, it is better to drink milk than bone soup.

I hope everyone can have a correct and scientific understanding of osteoporosis, detect and intervene in osteoporosis as early as possible, help themselves, their families, and friends stay away from osteoporosis, and avoid the "harm" caused by osteoporosis.

References:

[1] Bian Pingda, Shou Zhangxuan, Chen Jinping. Relationship between compound calcium supplements and the prevalence of kidney stones in the elderly[J]. Chinese Journal of Osteoporosis, 2017, 23(12): 1609-1611.
[2] Tian Aimin, An Ruihua, Yang Lei, et al. Current status of research on the causes of calcium oxalate kidney stones [J]. Progress in Modern Biomedicine, 2014, 14(27): 5394-5396. DOI: 10. 13241/ j. cnki. pmb. 2014. 27. 053 Author: Ni Bingyan (Wenzhou Medical University)

Instructor: Ma Jun (The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University)