Osteoporosis and you?

The statistics are daunting. How is it possible that 54 million Americans have osteoporosis or low bone mineralization and 60 percent of them are over 50 years old.

Anyone with these conditions are likely for traumatic and non-traumatic bone fractures. The most common way this occurs is due to falls and over 2 million people will have incidents per year, with a cost of over $19 billion. This type of fracture is more common in women, where one out of two women will have fractures after 50 and only one in four males will have fractures after 50. By 2025 however, the statistics for fractures due to osteoporosis, will increase by 50 percent and it will cost the American people over 25.3 billion dollars in healthcare.

So what is osteoporosis or low bone density and why should you care about it? Oddly enough some of us are at more risk than others. Genetics appears to play a role in osteoporosis, along with other key issues like altered hormones after menopause and lowered testosterone as men age, lifestyle, other disease processes like cancer and diabetes. Osteoporosis, by definition, is a disease described by low bone mass and structural deterioration of bone tissue, that then leads to bone fragility and an increased risk of fractures to the hip, spine and wrist. The crazy part is that it is a disease that can often be prevented and treated and many people have no understanding of this.

My profession of physical therapy is in a key position to educate, prevent and care for this population at risk for osteoporosis and low bone density, as we are experts in movement, balance and agility training and functional strength training, such as doing sit to stand with no hands and walking on changing surfaces. Who better than to teach you how to prevent falls, train you in simple balance techniques and get you on to a healthy exercise regime, so your risk of falls decreases and you can return to the gym, than your physical therapist.

What you need to do is simple. Choose your health first otherwise you will be a statistic. See your MD if you are not sure if you are cleared for an exercise regime. Do not any of these exercises if you are at risk for falls or have fallen this past year without the direction of your medical providers. See your physical therapist once you are cleared by your MD. If you are not at risk the below exercise are ideas to get you thinking about what is needed if you have a history or are at risk for osteoporosis or low bone mineralization. Just because you may already do some of these exercises does not mean you do not need to do the others in the list. Osteoporosis responds to a multimodal approach when doing exercise regimes, and I have had fit marathon runners, bikers and long-distance walkers that have had osteoporosis and I have 80 and 90-year-old patients that have no osteoporosis.

1) Aerobic exercise daily — at least 30 mins a day. Things like the walking outside or at the mall, doing the elliptical or stair stepper all are good weight bearing exercises. Swimming is not as the weight bearing is just not as much as you need to prevent and rehab osteoporosis. You must start with surfaces that are even and flat in nature first.

2) Balance and Agility — Do daily. First stand by the counter and lightly touch it only, then lift one foot off the ground and see how long you can stand on that foot with the other foot lifted off the ground without touching your raised foot on the floor. Write down your answer. Do single leg standing while brushing your teeth, washing the fishers, combing your hair etc. Try other balance exercises like heel and toe walking, walking on a pretend tight rope. Remember do none of these exercises if you are at too high of a risk or ask others to help you or use ski poles.

3) Functional Strength training — At least 3-5 days a week. Why so much? Your bones need the stimulation of your muscles pulling on them to increase their bone mass. When an astronaut goes into space, everyday he is gone his bone and muscles decrease in their mass due to the loss of the gravitational pull on them. Your bones and muscles are no different as they age, they peak at age 28-30 and after that we are on a steady decline. So the more we are asking our muscles to work, the more they increase the stress to the bones and the bone mass increases. Holding weights in your hands and loading the long bones and our spine with things like mini squats with arm weighted overhead lift, alternate mini lunges with arm weighted lifts in rotation, side shuffles with arm weighted elbow curls and heel drops with weighted arm lifts out to the side, all increase bone mass. Don't start with heavy weights, begin with a weight you can at least lift 8-10 reps with fatigue but no pain. Do do at least 2-by-10 reps of your exercise.

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Sheree DiBiase, PT, is the owner of Lake City Physical Therapy and she and her staff are happy to help you as you are making choices for your health this year. Please don't be a statistic just because you don't understand your risks. You can take charge of your health and we can help. Please call us in our Coeur d'Alene office at (208) 667-1988, in our Spokane Valley office at (509) 891-2623 and in our Hayden office at (208) 762-2100.