Take Steps to Improve Your HealthTake Steps to Improve Your Health

In order to live a healthy and enjoyable life whilst coping with osteoporosis, it's important to do everything in your power to prevent compression fractures. Whilst your doctor will be able to prescribe medication to help you, there are a few changes you can make to your life in order to cope with your condition:

Get Upside Down

Inversion therapy is a form of therapy that aims to reverse the pull of gravity on your spine. As you age, gravity can take its toll on your body and this can cause significant damage to the discs and nerves in your spine. If you suffer from osteoporosis, the pull of gravity on your weakened bones can lead to compression fractures if not protected against. As such, inverting on a daily basis can help to reverse the effect on gravity on your body.

If strapping yourself into an inversion table and hanging upside down sounds scary, don't worry—you can start off slowly. Rather than inverting all the way, you can start at 45° and work your way up to full inversion. This will allow you to ease into the benefits of inverting whilst ensuring that you don't become overwhelmed.

Stretch Your Spine

In order to prevent osteoporotic fractures, you need to avoid any structural or postural imbalances in the spine. If you put too much load on any particular area of the spine, the discs can become compressed and tight muscles can act to pull the spine out of its natural alignment. As such, you should practice regular deep stretching in order to loosen up your muscles and give your body the flexibility it needs to maintain your spine.

Stretching is also important to ensure that your spine can act as a shock absorber. The suppler your muscles are the larger impact they will be able to absorb without damaging your vertebrae. As such, consider starting a regular stretching routine to help your heal.

Supplement Your Diet

The key to a healthy body is a great diet, but you can improve the effectiveness of your diet through proper supplementation. One of the best supplements you can use to protect against compression fractures is glucosamine sulphate. Glucosamine sulphate has long been recognised as contributing to the growth of cartilage, and strong cartilage is extremely important to support your spine.

In addition to glucosamine sulphate, you should consider adding chondroitin to your diet. Where glucosamine acts to repair damaged cartilage, chondroitin acts to grow completely new cartilage and can increase the flexibility in your spine.  

To learn more, contact services that provide osteoporotic fracture treatments.