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Coping With Osteoporosis Chronic Pain? 3 Expert Tips To Manage

Coping With Osteoporosis Chronic Pain? 3 Expert Tips To Manage

"Step up for bone health" and encourage people to check their bone health regularly.

Written by Tavishi Dogra |Updated : December 8, 2022 2:51 PM IST

"Step up for bone health"encourage people to check their bone health regularly and adopt a healthy lifestyle that strengthens their bone health. In addition, we need to create more awareness of this disease amongst the general population.

What Is Osteoporosis?

  • Osteoporosis means porous bones. It is a medical disorder in which bone density and mass decrease gradually, making the bones brittle, fragile, and prone to fractures, mainly of the hip, wrist, or spine. The human body requires adequate calcium and phosphate to keep its bones healthy.
  • Bone is a living tissue, and bone remodelling is a formation. When the former occurs more than the latter, it leads to a loss in bone mass, and the bones become thinner. It is more common in older people, particularly the female gender, but it could occur in people of any age or gender.

Symptoms

Dr Vivek Loomba, the Consultant Pain Physician at The Indian Spinal Injuries Centre in Vasant Kunj, New Delhi, explains that osteoporosis has no symptoms and develops gradually. So if you suffer from a fracture after an incident that usually does not lead to bone breakage, you could have osteoporotic bones. Also, weakened bones by osteoporosis could lead to height loss with time-stooped posture.

Diagnosis

Looking at the risk factors or family history, a doctor may recommend diagnostic tests such as:

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  1. BMD (Bone Mineral Density) scan: Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scans the bone density of your wrists, hips, or spine.
  2. Biomarkers: Using biomarkers such as C-telopeptides or cathepsin K can detect if you have osteoporotic bones.

Factors causing osteoporosis

  1. Ageing
  2. Decrease in sex hormones.
  3. Menopause
  4. Medical conditions include Cushing's syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, certain cancers, eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, etc.
  5. The long-term usage of certain medications such as steroids, antiepileptic medicines, cancer medications, glucocorticoids and adrenocorticotropic hormones, etc.

Elaborating this further, Dr Vivek Loomba says that high-dose steroids in covid patients have increased the incidence of osteoporosis in this group of patients.

Treatment

  • Balanced diet and exercise
  • Medication management
  • Calcium and Vitamin D
  • Selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs) like Raloxifene

Surgical options:Vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty for patients with severe pain and recent fractures < 6 weeks

  1. Bisphosphonates: oral once-a-week tablets like alendronate and risedronate
  2. Teriparatide: daily subcutaneous injections, usually for at least two years
  3. Denosumab: subcutaneous injections once every six months

Pain Management Procedures

  1. Facet joint blocks
  2. Trigger point injections
  3. Iliolumbar block

The above procedures are indicated in patients who continue to have severe pain with/without surgery. These procedures are done by a Pain Management Physician under fluoroscopic and ultrasonic guidance and provide good relief to patients. Dr Vivek Loomba says he has successfully managed several patients through the above procedures. One of his recent patients was a 97-year-old freedom fighter who had fractured her D 12 vertebra and continued to experience pain after vertebroplasty. She has had good pain relief after the above procedure.

Take home message:Osteoporosis is increasingly common these days. Please seek medical help so proper treatment can be initiated early in the disease.