Osteoporosis

What is osteoporosis?

A condition where your bones become fragile, brittle and thin, osteoporosis is a degenerative condition where more calcium is taken from your bones than your body is able to replace. This means you have reduced bone density (“honeycombing”) and often a higher risk of bone fractures. It’s usually only spotted if you’ve had a high number of fractures over a short period, and is usually diagnosed using a bone densitometry scan.

What causes osteoporosis?

Your bones are in a constant cycle of renewal, where old bone is broken down and new bone is created to replace the old. Usually in balance, this process happens throughout your life, but is known to slow down with age.

With osteoporosis, this process is out of kilter. There’s no one cause, but there are a few known risk factors that are thought to contribute, including a vitamin D deficiency, lack of exercise, the menopause, having other bone conditions including rheumatoid arthritis, having an overactive thyroid, suffering from coeliac disease, chronic liver or kidney disease, type 1 diabetes, some cancers, smoking, and a diet with inadequate levels of calcium.

How do you treat osteoporosis?

Your doctor will look at ways to reduce some of the above factors to improve your overall bone health. Physiotherapy can also help to relieve the painful symptoms you may experience, and we offer acupuncture or dry needling, stabilisation and postural exercises, balance techniques, massage, electrotherapy and joint mobilisations to help you manage your condition.