Osteoporosis With High Blood Sugar: Can Diabetes Increase Your Chances of Suffering Bone Loss?

Osteoporosis is a condition in which the bones become less dense, more fragile and easy to suffer a fracture. Fractures from osteoporosis can often result in extreme pain and disability. According to the report by The World Health Organisation (WHO), over 53 million people globally are suffering from one or the other type of osteoporosis or are at high risk due to low bone mass. There are many contributing factors to this condition, however, some of the most common are:

Lack of calcium in the body
Excessive alcohol intake
Physically inactive
Having a family history
Smoking
Being thin or having a small body frame

Apart from all the risk factors mentioned above, there is also high blood glucose, or diabetes which has been found in maximum patients suffering from Osteoporosis. Today, we will understand how they are linked and what are the symptoms that a patient with diabetes and osteoporosis can notice.

What Is Diabetes?

Diabetes is a disorder or a health condition in which the body’s ability to chemically change foods that we consume into energy gets disrupted. It mainly happens due to the lack of insulin production. Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas. This hormone plays the role of changing or converting glucose from the bloodstream into the cells to provide the energy needed by the body for daily activities. As with any other health condition, diabetes also comes with some trigger factors or factors that raise a person’s chances of suffering from diabetes. These factors include:

Overweight
Have prediabetics
Physically inactive
Insulin resistance
Genes or family history
Hormonal diseases

Osteoporosis and Diabetes: The Link

The basic understanding of the link starts with the symptoms of the two health conditions. A diabetic patient suffers from low bone density and Osteoporosis is a condition where the patient notices low bone density. Therefore, the easy explanation about the link between the two is — People with type 1 diabetes tend to have a lower bone density and hence at an increased risk of osteoporosis, a condition resulting in weakened bones.

Also, there is another important role of the medications that a type-1 diabetic patient takes to keep the condition under control. According to studies, those patients who are suffering from diabetes for a longer period, and who take insulin on a daily basis are usually at higher risk of developing extremely low bone density symptoms or have the highest fracture risk.

Also, symptoms that a diabetes patient can suffer or notice are linked to the onset of osteoporosis. Some of the health complications that a diabetes patient may notice are — damage, muscle weakness, episodes of low blood sugar, and vision problems. According to the experts, these symptoms can increase the risk of falls and fractures, causing bone tissue damage and this can increase the risk of developing osteoporosis later in life.

How To Manage Osteoporosis?

There are many preventive strategies that one can follow to prevent or treat osteoporosis in people with diabetes. These preventive tips include:

A good and nutritious diet
Exercising regularly
Quit smoking
Avoid drinking excessive alcohol
Go for a regular bone density test

Note from the doctor: The link between Diabetes and Osteoporosis is clear now. However, researchers are yet to fully understand the mechanism to explain why patients suffering from type 1 diabetes have lower bone density. Therefore, to keep both conditions at bay, one needs to follow the safety or preventive measures that are mentioned above. Stay alert, stay healthy.