What is osteoporosis?
Osteoporosis, or porous bone, is a disease characterized by low bone mass and structural deterioration of bone tissue, leading to bone fragility and an increased susceptibility to fractures of the hip, spine, and wrist. Men as well as women suffer from osteoporosis, a disease that can be prevented and treated.
Osteoporosis is often called the "silent disease" because bone loss occurs without symptoms. People may not know that they have osteoporosis until their bones become so weak that a sudden strain, bump, or fall causes a hip fracture or a vertebra to collapse. Collapsed vertebra may initially be felt or seen in the form of severe back pain, loss of height, or spinal deformities such as kyphosis, or severely stooped posture.
The bones in our skeleton are made of a thick outer shell and a strong inner mesh filled with collagen (protein), calcium salts and other minerals. The inside looks like honeycomb, with blood vessels and bone marrow in the spaces between bone. Osteoporosis occurs when the holes between bone become bigger, making it fragile and liable to break easily. Osteoporosis usually affects the whole skeleton but it most commonly causes breaks (fractures) to bone in the wrist, spine and hip.
Bone is alive and constantly changing. Old, worn out bone is broken down by cells called osteoclasts and replaced by bone building cells, called osteoblasts. This process of renewal is called bone turnover
Magnetic therapy treatment for osteoporosis.
Magnetic therapy treatments for osteoporosis follow the same rules that apply to the treatment of arthritis. That is the magnets need to be applied as close to the point of pain as possible. The same devices can be used for osteoporosis: magnetic therapy straps, wraps, insoles, pads and jewellery. Because osteoporosis is predominantly found in the long bones (although all bones with low density can be affected) most major load bearing joints are affected. For this reason painful symptoms can be very severe as mobilising becomes extremely painful, to ensure the fastest possible result from magnetic therapy super strength magnets (2500-3000 gauss/ 250-300 m tesla) should preferably be used.
Fractures are very common with osteoporosis and magnets can increase the bodies ability to heal bone fractures. If you sustain a bone fracture magnets should be applied to the site of the fracture as soon as possible after the break. If the bone is in a plaster cast then it will not be possible to use magnets until it has been removed but as soon as the cast is removed magnets can be applied. They will increase the rate at which the bone knits together plus encourage new cellular growth around the fracture site.
Debbie Shimadry is as an expert guest on magnetic therapy for BBC Radios and is also the managing director of leading magnetic therapy company world of magnets. If you are interested in natural pain relief visit the magnetic article directory at magnetictherapymagnets.co.uk | |
