Osteoporosis wreaks havoc in many senior citizens, especially women. This is a disorder that systematically weakens the bone and can fracture the spine and the hip. If not treated early, it poses a serious threat to mobility. While medicine is a prerequisite to treating this condition, exercise goes a long way in helping patients of osteoporosis. Regular exercise can improve balance and strengthen the muscle. This being said a doctor should be consulted for a fitness assessment and bone density test before going ahead with any exercise routine.

What is the right exercise for you?
Exercises are recommended depending on the degree of osteoporosis a person is suffering from. Some exercises may not be suitable for a person while some can greatly help. It is therefore suggested that a doctor or physiotherapist is consulted before starting any exercise. Here is a list of exercise that doctors often suggest:

    Strength training: Strength training aims at strengthening the spine and other muscles. It includes the usage of free weights and lifting own body weight. In case the exercise involves the usage of weight machines, utmost care should be taken to ensure that the spine does not get twisted. Resistance training, on the other hand, should be designed in such a way that it fits the tolerance and ability to cope up.
    Flexibility exercises: When the joints are allowed to go through the range of motion, it helps in muscle function. Stretching, for instance, should only be done when the muscle is warmed up. Care should be taken that stretching is done gently which is devoid of any bouncing. The spine should not be flexed. Any exercise that demands to bend towards the waist should also be avoided. An experienced physiotherapist should be able to suggest which stretching exercise is suitable for patients with osteoporosis.
    Aerobic training: Aerobic training necessarily means that the bone supports the body weight. This exercise helps the bone from mineral loss and is good for body balance strength and flexibility. Some aerobics that can be easily performed by patients with osteoporosis include dancing, stair climbing, cycling and walking. These exercises also help in blood circulation and cardiovascular diseases.
    Exercises you must avoid: High-impact body activity exercises such as jogging, jumping and running should be strictly avoided in order to avoid bone fracture and weaken muscle. Unlike exercises with controlled movements, these exercises can twist the spine and cause severe immobility in movement.
    Twisting: For patients with osteoporosis, an exercise that involves forward bending resulting the waist to come down should be avoided. Exercise such as this can cause compression fractures leading to restriction in physical movement for a temporary to longer duration. Any sort of bending and twisting, therefore, should be avoided. 

Suffering from Osteoporosis - Know Which Exercise is Right and Wrong for You?

Breaking a bone is, needless to say, a painful experience. But, when people have their broken bone put in a cast, they tend to forget about it until it comes out. This is quite wrong! A person would want to be up and running but does not find that the hand or the leg as it has been cast up. For weeks, the person's hand or leg barely moves and also shrinks up quite a lot!

There is a lot of pain, not only due to shrinkage when a fracture occurs. The occurrence itself causes what is known as acute pain. Then, for some weeks, the sub-acute pain just seems to persist, to the person having the fracture. The reason for this is the fact that the bone and the soft tissue are in the process of healing.

Chronic pain is a worry as it does not go away even after the healing process has ended. In order to make sure that there is a quick recovery and there is no chronic pain which is experienced at all, some of the proverbial leaves need to be taken out of the book of physiotherapy.

To start with, sometime between a fortnight and a month after the injury or the bone break has taken place, the doctor will wish to see some movement in the soft tissue that has broken around the bone. The great advantage of this is that while it may be a little bit of effort and time involved, there are great benefits by the way of less pain and swelling as the blood flows as normally as is possible.

If such movements are not done, a person can have related soreness, which can be even more of a pain! An example of this would be a broken foot or ankle causing the stiffness of the knee. When a person is already in pain, adding to his or her trouble makes no sense at all, does it?

Post one month mark, the physiotherapist would want to see more functioning so that the normal levels can be attained. A person who has a fracture should not despair as if he or she is willing to stick to the schedule given by the physiotherapist and perform all the exercises that have been set out, he or she will be back at the normal level much sooner than would have been expected!

Also, getting active again will reduce the risk of a repeat injury, and that is enough justification to do so!

What To Expect When Recovering From Broken Bones?

Physiotherapy plays a pivotal role in helping a person recover after a hip replacement surgery. It brings back the old flexibility and prevents blood clots in the area where the procedure has taken place. After the surgery team gives its green signal, a physiotherapist starts working with a patient for a full recovery. 

Here is a list of some common exercises that a physiotherapist suggests after a hip replacement surgery:

Walking: It is important to use the crutches for a time period of 4-5 weeks post the procedure. Until the surgeon or the physiotherapist advises against using the crutches, it makes sense to use it while walking. It makes sense to retain the normal walking posture by using the crutches rather than limping without it. A physiotherapist reviews the pressure exerted by the arm while holding a crutch, before advising the patient to get rid of the crutches.
Increasing hip flexibility: This is a basic form of exercise where an individual lies on one side of the body with knees and hips bent. A pillow is placed in between the knees. While doing this, it should be ensured that both the feet is kept together and the back muscle is not twisted. The top knee should be slowly raised like an opening of the calm shell. This position should be maintained for 4-5 seconds.
Strengthening the hips: The body should rest on the stomach. The buttocks should be tightened and one leg should be slowly lifted. This position should be maintained for a stretch of 3-5 seconds. The same should be repeated for both the legs.
Strengthening the hip and the stomach muscle: The body should rest on the back with a leg bent. The stomach muscle should be tightened and the bent leg should be lifted carefully while ensuring that the bend does not supersede more than 90 degrees. While keeping the stomach muscle tight, the lifted leg should slowly come down to touch the surface. This act should be repeated for 5-6 times.
Strengthening the thigh muscle: While sitting in a steady chair, an elastic loop should be wrapped around the ankles. The elastic loop should be stretched with one leg while keeping the other foot firmly rooted to the ground. The lifted foot should slowly come down to the normal position. The same act should be repeated for 4-5 times.
Improving balance: An elastic loop should be tied to one leg of a table and the other end of the loop should be tied to one ankle. The table should be held on for maintaining balance. Maintaining an erect position, the tied up ankle should be stretched sideways. The position should be maintained for 3-5 seconds to return back to normal standing position.

How Physiotherapy Can Improve Recovery After Hip Replacement Surgery?

In the recent years, with the building work pressure and the increasing stress in our everyday activities, our regular lives have become choc-a-bloc with all sorts of engagements. This often renders our bodies prone to fatigue and listlessness. This phenomenon can often be observed in an intensified form by way of a disorder called Fibromyalgia or as it is deemed in common parlance, "rheumatism". 

Fibromyalgia is an ailment, which causes pain in the body tissues. The tender and fibrous tissues like muscles, ligaments and tendons are often affected by this disease. As a consequence of Fibromyalgia, one feels incapacitated to work or perform any physical activity. Sometimes Fibromyalgia is accompanied by extreme headaches, sleep disturbances, muscle pain and consistent dizziness. 

The degree of chronicity of the disease may vary but the underlying cause remains the same. Given the high incidence of the disease, the treatment for the same is also widely available. However, for a more effective and lasting cure, many resort to homeopathy. Homeopathy offers several remedies to Fibromyalgia, classified on the basis of the discrete symptoms of the disease. 

1. Rhus Tox: Rhus Tox is an excellent antidote for rheumatism induced stillness and muscle pain. When paired with suitable exercises, it can afford a lot of relief. 

2. Ruta Grav: Ruta Grav aids in relieving tendon pains and sustained usage helps in restoring muscle strength in case of Fibromyalgia.

3. Rhododendron: Often the Fibromyalgia pain gets aggravated with a marked change in the season. Rhododendron mitigates the intensity of the pain. 

4. Arnica: For any injury induced body ache, Arnica is an extremely effective cure. It also functions as the foremost option, when the precise causes or the symptoms are unknown. 

5. Causticum: Certain forms of Fibromyalgia are accompanied with soreness, weakness and a feeling of stillness. Causticum soothes such ailments.

6. Bryonia: Bryonia alleviates chronic pain in the soft tissues of the body. Exposure to heat needs to be avoided mandatorily in order to optimize the effect of Bryonia. 

7. Kalmia Latifolia: When besides the obverse symptoms of Fibromyalgia, the pain in the muscle is accompanied with a feeling of cold and numbness, one of the best homeopathic cures is Kalmia Latifolia. 

Fibryomalgia is an ailment, which not only manifests physical troubles but also affects one's emotional status adversely. Therefore, to mete out the best remedy, homeopathy carefully assess both the physical and the psychosocial bearing of the patient before recommending a particular cure.

Homeopathy and Fibromyalgia

Arthritis is a disease that affects the joints, muscles and soft tissues, which cause stiffness, disability and pain. It is one of the complex conditions and has also been discovered in the remains of people living more than 500,000 years ago.

Although it is usually found in people above 50 years, in rare cases, it can affect younger generations as well. The three most common forms are osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis. The symptoms of some arthritis, such as rheumatoid arthritis, include the following:

Joints turning red, warm, swollen
Painful joints
Unexplained fever
Fatigue
Weight loss
Swollen lymph glands
These symptoms typically last more than two weeks.

Few facts about arthritis
Most people, even though diagnosed with arthritis, are unaware of the following facts:

Snakes, bees, and ants: After years of treatment, some people have turned to specific natural therapies that come from snakes, bees and ants. As per a study by researchers in Brazil, bee sting venom helps reduce the symptoms of arthritis.
Gout is a form of arthritis: Repeated flare-ups, pain and swelling are the result of uric acid, built around the joints. This can be due to genetic predisposition, some diseases and consumption of excess meat, seafood, fructose-sweetened drinks or alcohol. The bunion joint that connects the big toe to the foot is often affected first in people who have gout.
Children get arthritis too: Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis is the most common amongst children and affects kids between the ages of 1 - 3 or 8 - 12 years. It strikes girls about twice as often as boys. As per a recent survey, 1 in every 250 children globally suffers from arthritis.
Injuries increase the risk of arthritis: Injured joints are prone to develop osteoarthritis (OA). People with knee injuries have six times the chance, while those with hip injuries are three times more likely to develop OA.
Climate cannot cure: People have a misconception that wet, cold climates cause arthritis rather than a warmer climate. Unfortunately, that's not the case. Orthopaedics confirmed the same frequency for both warm and cold climates. However, sore joints find warm atmosphere more soothing.
Obesity increases the risk: Excess weight is one of the primary causes of osteoarthritis, especially for weight-bearing joints like knees, and to less extended hips. But there is also a higher risk to joints like ankles, back, big toes and hands.
Animals can also develop: Not only humans but animals like dogs, cats and others can also develop osteoarthritis. The symptoms are almost the same as the ones faced by a human. It can also lead to a loss of appetite, which can cause weight loss.
Race counts: Both whites and African Americans experience arthritis at similar rates. However, blacks have higher chances of severe joint pain and limitations in activity as compared to whites.
Women are prone to arthritis: Statistics show that women have a significantly higher risk for all types of arthritis except gout. As per the Arthritis Community, Research & Evaluation Unit, women are twofold more prone to arthritis than men.

9 Amazing Facts About Arthritis!

Osteoporosis is a disease of the bones. It occurs when the mesh-like structures present inside the bones becomes thin. This is a condition in which the bones become extremely fragile and have a tendency of breaking easily. The broken bones cause extreme pain. There are artificial medicines available in the markets for treating this condition. However, treatment of osteoporosis can be best done by the naturally produced Parathyroid hormone (PTH). 

It is secreted by the parathyroid glands in our body. It is an 84-amino acid polypeptide. The most interesting thing about PTH treatment is that it actually builds new bones. Other medications for osteoporosis only reduce the rate of loss of bones. PTH helps in increasing the amount of calcium in body. It also prevents bone loss due to osteoporosis. It is often considered to be an anabolic agent. If an osteoporosis patient is given low doses of PTH, his or her bones get strengthened. It also helps in increasing the bone mass.

Why a doctor recommends PTH for osteoporosis? Is it better than other drugs?
Traditionally, bisphosphonates were used to treat osteoporosis. However, it has been observed in a number of cases that bisphosphonates only help in slowing down the loss of bone density. However, PTH increases bone mineral density. Therefore, it is a better option for the treatment of osteoporosis. It is usually given to patients who have extremely low bone mass. It has been found effective in cases where other medications failed to show results. Moreover, it also works for postmenopausal women. 

Doctors believe that it can also be used for treating men with osteoporosis who are at high risk for fracture. It improves the microarchitecture of the bone and can do wonders in altering the bone size. Moreover, it has lesser side-effects on the health of the patient. It is known to cause dizziness and nausea and no major discomfort. It has also been noticed that patients who are being treated with PTH develop less back pain. These are also cost-effective for the long term treatment of osteoporosis.

Parathyroid Hormones - Is It a Better Treatment For Osteoporosis?

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