Toronto-Centre Naturopathic Medicine is a Toronto naturopathic clinic dedicated to providing safe and effective treatment of a wide variety of health conditions using natural therapies and the principles of naturopathic medicine.
Osteoparosis is well treated using naturopathic medicine. The literal meaning of osteoporosis is “porous bone” (in medical terms “low bone mass”), which in practical terms results in weak, brittle bones. Although generally considered a disease of women, osteoporosis affects men as well. As bones become progressively more brittle, you become more prone to fractures, so prone that even the mildest stressors (e.g., coughing, stepping off a curb) may cause fracture. Bone mass density increases until your mid-30s, and decreases for the remainder of your life. Professional advice should be sought at any point in the life cycle: Early in life to maximize your bone mass, and later in life to retard rate of bone mass decrease. As with all health conditions, early action yields the most positive outcomes.
Symptoms of osteoporosis
Possible symptoms of osteoporosis include:
- Loss of height
- Stooped posture
- Fractures
- Back pain
Osteoporosis treatment at Toronto-Centre Naturopathic Medicine
At Toronto-Centre Naturopathic Medicine, the goals of osteoporosis treatment are to maximize bone mass in younger patients, and retard decrease in bone mass in aging patients.
Conventional treatment for osteoporosis may include a variety of medications, including hormone therapy (e.g., calcitonon), biphosphonates, selective estrogen receptor modulators, teriparatide (Forteo) and tamoxifen, which may have short- or long-term side effects. For this reason, you may choose to try natural treatment to possibly avoid use of conventional medications, or together with conventional medications in order to decrease dosages of conventional medications required to manage your osteoporosis symptoms.
Naturopathic treatment of any chronic health concern must be recognized as a process that involves identifying specific treatment goals, a thorough understanding by your naturopathic doctor of all factors affecting your health, including physical, psychological, emotional and lifestyle factors, development of a comprehensive treatment plan and execution of that plan through periodic monitoring and adjustment.
At Toronto-Centre Naturopathic Medicine a typical approach to treating osteoporosis is to first identify and address underlying factors in your lifestyle (e.g., sedentary lifestyle; diet deficient in nutrients essential to bone strength; estrogen exposure; excessive tobacco, alcohol, caffeine and soft drink consumption; use of any of a number of medications that decrease bone mass density) or general health (e.g., eating disorders, inflammatory bowel disease, depression). Where appropriate, a number of therapeutic options are available, to be used alone, or more often in a complementary fashion, including:
- Nutritional supplements
- Botanical (herbal) medicines
- Exercise prescription
- Relaxation techniques
- Lifestyle counseling
- Homeopathic medicines
Reference
Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. Osteoporosis [Online]. [cited 2009 Feb 18]; Available from: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/osteoporosis/DS00128