Often around the age of thirty, bone formation and strengthening of bone structure stops. You must know that with age, bone strength decreases. Are there any ways to increase bone density after the age of sixty? You may have heard the two terms osteopenia and osteoporosis from your doctor. What do osteopenia and osteoporosis mean?
In this article, we want to answer a series of common questions about reducing bone density.
How to increase bone density after 60?
You will find the answer to the above question below
In this article, we are going to give a brief overview on reducing bone density and say what can be done to maintain healthy bones in old age.
When your doctor uses the term osteopenia, it means that your bones are at risk of severe degeneration, known as osteoporosis. If you have osteopenia, now is the time to take a short break to strengthen the bone structure to prevent it from becoming too weak.
Doctors call osteoporosis a silent disease because it has no symptoms, this means that if the bones develop osteoporosis, you will not have pain in your bones. The only symptom of osteoporosis, unfortunately, will be bone fractures, which can sometimes be very serious and difficult for the affected person.
So if you have seen a doctor and heard the term osteopenia from him, be vigilant and be determined to strengthen and improve your bone density.
Exercises that put proper weight on your bones, stopping alcohol and smoking along with getting enough calcium and vitamin D will help prevent bone density loss, perhaps depending on your needs and circumstances, Depending on your needs and circumstances, your doctor may ask for a bone densitometry test.
Contact your doctor regularly and regularly, Your doctor may prescribe certain medications that reduce bone loss.
In the following we will say that:
How to increase bone density after 60
what you will read next :
- Definition of Osteoporosis
- Definition of osteopenia
- Factors involved in bone density
- Women and reduced bone density
- Men and reduced bone density
- Risk factors for reduced bone density
- What can we do to increase bone density after the age of 60?
- Non-pharmacological measures to increase bone density after 60 years of age
- Medications to increase bone density after the age of sixty
- Medications in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis
- Hormone therapy in postmenopausal women
Definition of Osteoporosis
It is a disorder that with a loss of bone microstructure quality, a decrease in bone density is known and increases the fragility of bones, and exposes the sufferer to severe bone fractures.
(A more scientific definition is provided by the World Health Organization as follows: Decreased bone density by as much as two and a half standard deviations from the average bone density of young people in that community)
Definition of osteopenia
Decrease in bone density between 2, 5-1 standard deviation lower than the average bone density of young people in that community
Doctors believe that fifty to eighty percent of the differences in bone density of different people are related to their genetics and heredity. So genetics and heredity are the strongest factors influencing your bone density.
Factors involved in bone density
Other factors involved in bone density include:
- Environmental factors
- Physical mobility
- Nutrition
Interestingly, in some authoritative articles, the process of intrauterine development of the fetus has been implicated in its bone density during puberty and worse.
It is said that there is a relationship between birth weight, growth rate in childhood and maximum bone density.
From about the age of thirty-five to forty-five in both sexes, the decrease in bone density begins, in women after menopause, the rate of decrease in density increases.
It is estimated that women lose five to seven percent of their bone density five to seven years after menopause.
The rate at which bone density decreases is highly age-dependent. It begins around the age of 40 and will decrease by about five to one percent per year.
- Overweight
- Cigarette
- alcohol
- immobility
- Hyperthyroidism
- Disorders in the mechanism of vitamin D metabolism
Also affect this speed.
Women and reduced bone density
Sex hormones, especially estrogen, play a very important role in maintaining bone density in women. With the loss of estrogen after menopause, the rate of decrease in bone density intensifies.
Men and reduced bone density
Sex hormones in men are also important in bone density. Studies have shown that men who suffered lumbar spine fractures following osteoporosis had lower estradiol blood levels than other men.
There is no strong evidence between testosterone and the prevalence of osteoporosis.
Bone density depends on race, for example, bone density in the Middle East is higher than in Japan and lower than in the United States.
Whites are more likely to have pelvic fractures in osteoporosis than non-whites.
White people in Scandinavia are more likely to develop pelvic fractures from osteoporosis than whites in North America and Australia.
Risk factors for reduced bone density
- High age
- Female gender
- Very low body weight
- Caucasian race
What can we do to increase bone density after the age of 60?
To prevent or treat osteoporosis, keep in mind that the goal is to prevent bone density loss as soon as possible with treatments and measures, and do not let the so-called health and uniformity of your bone structure be lost, to prevent abnormal (pathological) fractures.
There are both pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments for increasing bone density, which are discussed below:
Non-pharmacological measures to increase bone density after 60 years of age
- Nutrition:
Getting enough calcium and vitamin D in a variety that can be absorbed through food and appropriate supplements.
Calcium and vitamin D should not be used alone for the osteoporosis medication regimen, these supplements are suitable in addition to medications prescribed to prevent bone density loss.
Many people do not get enough calcium and vitamin D in their diet. These people should be informed and take the appropriate supplements by a doctor according to their gender, age and condition.
Menopausal women and men over 50:
1000-500 mg of calcium daily with food
This amount should be about 1500 mg with oral doses.
The required values for different age groups are as follows (Table 1):
Remember that calcium can reduce cardiovascular problems and events in postmenopausal women.
Calcium is also good for regulating blood lipids.
Vitamin D intake varies from person to person in different groups:
Women and men before the age of 50 400 IU daily or equivalent to ten micrograms.
Men and women after 50 years 800 IU daily or equivalent to twenty micrograms.
Protein in women with osteoporosis fractures is a necessary nutritional component. Fractures have been shown to be directly related to protein deficiency in men and women with osteoporosis, and dietary fiber and beneficial and essential fats have not yet been shown to have an exact effect on bone density.
Drinking coffee if you drink more than four glasses a day significantly increases the risk of pelvic fractures. This effect has not been seen with tea.
What is the role of salt on bone density? The daily consumption of sodium salt more than two grams has a clear effect on bone density in men and women.
- Physical mobility:
Immobility plays a very important role in reducing bone mass.
Women with osteoporosis should have at least three times a week, each time 30 minutes of adequate exercise during which the bones are weighed, such as a simple walk.
With this exercise, the risk of fractures in older women is reduced.
- Quit smoking and alcohol:
Smoking is an important factor that leads to a decrease in your bone density, so quit smoking. It is interesting to know that in non-menopausal women, smoking will eliminate the positive effects of estrogen on bone density.
Medications to increase bone density after the age of sixty
Doctors now use anti-resorptive drugs, which are factors that prevent your bone mass from being removed.
These drugs prevent the bone from being removed quickly and actually maintain bone density.
These drugs are effective in reducing the risk of fractures, but if we want to be more precise, not all of them are equally effective in reducing the risk of fractures in all bones.
For example, certain drugs are effective in reducing the risk of vertebral fractures and other drugs are effective in reducing the risk of hip and pelvic fractures and…
Medications in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis
New bisphosphonates such as:
- Alendronate
- Risedronate
Studies have shown that long-term alendronate may be effective in treating osteoporosis, usually at a daily dose of 10 mg equivalent to one tablet.
Alendronate reduces the risk of lumbar and non-lumbar fractures in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis but has no effect on postmenopausal women with osteopenia (it has not yet been proven that it can definitely prevent osteoporosis in postmenopausal women with osteopenia).
Bone density is better maintained with alendronate than with Hormone therapy.
When taking bisphosphonates, you should know that there is a risk of damage to the esophagus, so alendronate should be taken on an empty stomach and at least with a full glass of water sitting or standing, and the person should remain standing or sitting for half an hour after swallowing the pill.
These days, doctors sometimes use a prescription of a 70 mg dose of alendronate, taken once a week, to reduce gastrointestinal side effects.
- Consumption of estrogen plus alendronate
- Consumption of a combination of alendronate and parathyroid hormone
We said that another type of bisphosphonates is risedronate, this drug is better tolerated than alendronate and is as effective as alendronate.
There are also types of injectable bisphosphonates that are prescribed in special cases.
Hormone therapy in postmenopausal women
This treatment is no longer relevant today because hormone therapy has been associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, heart attacks, strokes, and cardiovascular problems in general.
Hormone therapy prevents lumbar and non-lumbar fractures in postmenopausal women with all the above serious complications.
Non-hormonal drugs that bind to estrogen receptors and in some tissues have the positive effects of estrogen and in some the negative effects of estrogen.
Raloxifene: is the only drug approved for the treatment and prevention of osteoporosis.
A single daily dose of sixty milligrams
This drug has positive effects on estrogen in bone and blood lipids and opposite effects on estrogen in breast and uterus.
Bone density increases with this drug in the back, pelvis and thighs.
Another drug treatment is parathyroid hormone.
Which increases the bone density of the vertebrae and reduces the lumbar and non-lumbar fractures.
Calcitriol
Toulon
Fluocinolone sodium
Calcitonin
And …
Are other drugs, in the case of calcitonin there is a certain risk of malignant tumors.
Avoid taking the drugs listed in this article arbitrarily.