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Living with any disease or disorder on your own is never easy. Osteoporosis is the physical illness that causes bones to become brittle and affects the elderly, especially women in the postmenopausal stage. Fracturing of the bones, especially the hip bone, is a common symptom of osteoporosis and is a danger to all those suffering under this. When there are others to support you, like friends, family, relatives and neighbours, or even paid help, than dealing with osteoporosis becomes much easier and helps alleviate the burden. Also, living and daily activities become much easier to handle when it is being taken care of by a known caretaker.
Help and support for osteoporosis comes in different ways. First, it is of course being helped with daily activities that require a lot of movement or travelling outside to places that is not friendly for osteoporosis patients. Second, when dealing with any sort of illness that is not part of the natural make-up of the body, people tend to face emotional and mental wounds as well to come to terms with it, especially if it is as long-lasting and as debilitating as osteoporosis. If there are loved ones around to help cheer up a patient, especially if the patient is homebound and healing from a fracture, then it benefits the patient immensely.
If you have a known person, maybe a loved one or a neighbour who is going through osteoporosis, then do not hesitate to give them a helping hand. Daily activities that require going out and getting work done, like grocery shopping or tending the garden are ways that you can give of your free time and help the person in need. Another way is to help in household chores, especially those that require a lot of movement and could cause bumping and ultimately fracturing of the patient’s bones. Assisting with cleaning the house, moving furniture around when needed, drying clothes, etc may seem mundane to an ordinary person, but to an osteoporosis patient, it would go a long way.
Apart from helping them with daily activities, it is also imperative to keep a track of their mental well being. Anyone going through something that requires strain on the body will end up having stress on the mind as well. Since osteoporosis means less calcium and vitamin D in the system, provide them with a lot of calcium rich foods, milk being the first option for an osteoporosis sufferer. Also, short walks in the sunlight and change of scene by letting them out of the house and into a park with a lot of nature and other people around is also recommended. Sitting with patients and talking to them, distracting them from their unfortunate circumstances is also a good deed that can be done on free time. Support groups for osteoporosis patients are popping up all over, so ask your local hospital or where the patient gets treated as well as a church or someplace where they might have groups of people who help each other and are a shoulder to each other for some support.
Helping a patient going through osteoporosis will help alleviate their sufferings to a great extent.
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