Dhananjay Kumar
One injection a year is enough to spare him the trauma of being crippled by fracture.
New Delhi/ Faridabad: Do you want to measure your love for senior citizen? If you do, ditch the thinking that the age has withered him and he is fated to bone blues. And get him tested by bone densitometer which exactly tells the state of his bones. If his bones are weakening, there are many effective medicines available now to firm them up for keeping him up and doing. International Day (1 October) for Elderly People is a perfect occasion to gift him fracture free life for one year at least. One injection a year is enough to spare him the trauma of being crippled by fracture.
If densitometer gives his T– score lower than 2.5, his bones are severely eroded and his fracture time has arrived. According to Dr. I.P. Arora, Head of the Department, Sarvodaya Hospital (Faridabad), an injection a year or a nasal spray can effectively avert any fracture event. Dr. Arora, a well known joint replacement surgeon, says: ‘Fracture is a very traumatic experience for an old member of the family. Following the saying ‘a stitch in time, saves nine’, we must start keeping tab on his bones just after he crosses 50. There are enough effective medicines to take care of senior citizens’ weakening bones.’
Bone Densitometer measures your love for senior citizen
Dr. Aashish Chaudhry, renowned Orthopaedic Surgeon and Managing Director, Aakash Healthcare, also advices assessment of bone strength after 50 and remedial measures taken if need be. Dr. Chaudhry says: ‘If an old man comes for treatment of a fracture, it should not be seen as an isolated event. Just repairing it would not suffice. The fracture could be an indication of general infirmity of bone. So, an assessment of his complete bone structure is a must so as to avert further fractures. Osteoporosis (hollow bone disease) or general erosion of his bone mass might have caused fracture.’
As age advances, calcium leak sets in and downfall of bone mass continues unabated if remedial measures are not taken. This is the junction of life when bone alert is most called for. Dr. Arora of Sarvodaya, says, ‘Bone weakness in senior citizens is a silent epidemic in NCR including Faridabad. Fractures among them are also rampant. We get such old patients in good number daily. It would not have been the case had their bones been taken care of in time. There are sprays, injection, tablets and many other medicines to effectively deal with them.’
Dr. Chaudhry says, ‘Bone blues in old age can be attributed to many reasons which are peculiar to India. First, old men are much neglected lot here. We do not consider it worth spending on them because we impute everything to advancing age. As a result, test for bone density seems farfetched, while it is particularly essential to know the state of bone health of old people to make his life comfortable.
He adds, ‘Secondly, family soon becomes fed up with treatment. One year of treatment can for sure firm up the bones of old people but our patience starts wearing out barely after 2-3 months and the exercise starts seeming not worthwhile. To sum up, modern medicine is well equipped to help senior citizens cope with bone blues, provided we equip ourselves with senior citizen friendly thinking.’
