It shouldn’t be a surprise that as you get older, your bones don’t rebuild themselves as quickly. But when your bone loss exceeds regrowth, it could be due to a condition called osteoporosis. This medical condition causes your bones to become brittle, which in turn leads to fractures. This is especially true in your back, where compression fractures are common.
At Pinnacle Health Chiropractic, our team are experts in many different forms of back pain, no matter what the cause. Our team is led by Dr. Jason Ablett, who is a chiropractic specialist. He helps get you the treatment you need when osteoporosis has affected your spine.
Osteoporosis is a medical condition that affects the integrity of your bones. It often occurs in older age, especially to women because of menopause.
When you’re young, your bones go through a series of breaking down and rebuilding. But when you hit your 40s, your bones begin to break down faster than they can rebuild themselves. While this is a normal part of the aging process, if it becomes severe, it can lead to brittle bones, or osteoporosis.
Normal, healthy bone has a texture that looks like honeycomb inside, with small little spaces that give your bones strength. However, as you get older, osteoporosis can make those tiny spaces much larger, which decreases the durability of your bones.
Unfortunately, there are very few symptoms of osteoporosis in its early stages. Most of the time, you don’t even know you have the condition until you suffer a fracture. However, brittle nails or trouble with your grip strength could be early signs.
Fractures due to osteoporosis can happen anywhere in your body, but your back is one of the areas that’s affected the most.
Osteoporosis affects all of the bones in your body, especially those that make up your spine. Your vertebrae are the bones that protect your spinal cord, and give you the ability to stand up straight and move around.
These bones have to be very strong to be able to keep your spinal cord from getting injured. But as you age, the stress on the vertebrae along with osteoporosis can create the perfect storm and lead to compression fractures in your spine.
Compression fractures are very common with osteoporosis, especially in your vertebrae, because of the weight they carry daily. When your bones become brittle from osteoporosis, it leads to small cracks in your vertebrae, which can worsen over time.
There are other complications in your spine from osteoporosis as well. While compression fractures may be the first sign of the disease, other problems that may develop in your spine include:
You’ll also likely experience pain in your back where osteoporosis has caused compression fractures. This can lead to many other issues, including problems walking or moving in general.
If you have osteoporosis and you’re suffering from pain in your back, Dr. Ablett can help. He uses several different techniques to ease the pain in your back and allow your muscles to relax. With chiropractic care and manual manipulation, you can ease your back discomfort.
It’s also important to get your osteoporosis treated as soon as possible to prevent further bone loss. Talk to your primary healthcare provider to talk about your options.
If you have osteoporosis and are concerned about your back pain, don’t hesitate to call our office today to learn more about our different therapies, or you can schedule an appointment online using the booking tool on our website.
