As you age, your body changes; your joints might start to hurt, your metabolism may slow down, and even your hormones become affected. In addition, you may also become more prone to developing diseases such as heart disease and dementia. Caregivers in Chicago and all over America are tasked with the daunting responsibility of assisting elderly people with these medical conditions.
However, even if home care facilities can offer the care and assistance that you might need as your body matures, you should still take the time to educate yourself regarding the common diseases that you might contract. One of them, especially if you are a woman, is osteoporosis.
This is a medical condition that affects the bones and can often lead to broken bones in your wrist, hip, or spine. To learn more about this disease, check its four symptoms below:
Back Pain
This is a common symptom of osteoporosis and may lead to other more serious symptoms. The problem with this is that back pain is a sign for several other conditions that can be serious or not. This gives people an impression that back pain is normal, that it could be caused by fatigue or just muscle pain. As a result, people normally take it as a normal condition that a little rest could cure. Little do they know that the back pain they are waking up with could be a sign of bigger problems like osteoporosis.
Bone Fractures
If you find yourself in the clinic regularly and notice that you develop bone fractures too often, then that could be a sign that you have this bone disease. It means that your bones are becoming too brittle and that you may have calcium deficiency. This might lead to pain and limited movements. If you have experienced this, contact a specialist immediately and get an x-ray.
Loss of Height
This is a symptom that comes in the latter stages of osteoporosis. It is actually possible for you to get shorter if you have untreated and severe osteoporosis. The bones on your back will curve in such a way that youwill not be able to maximize the full length of your spine anymore. This will not just make you appear shorter, it may also lead to further damages to your spine.
Bad Posture
Your posture is the result of the curvature of your spine, it leads to loss of height and more back pain. Bad posture, more specifically stooped posture, will put improper stress on the different parts of your spine and back. It can also lead to more damage to your spine because of the stress it is experiencing. Bad posture is one of the earlier signs of osteoporosis and can be fixed through correctional braces and just by practicing better posture. Otherwise, this might result to more serious symptoms that can be harder to treat.
Early recognition is truly critical in this case as osteoporosis is the type of condition that gets worse through time, especially sincethe symptoms keep on increasing. As a result, itgets harder to correct and treat this problem as time goes by because its symptoms stack up. Don’t wait until you start experiencing excruciating pain and irreversible symptoms; instead, be active and aware! More importantly, visit your doctorwhen your body tells you to.
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