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  • Q&A with Australian Health Practitioners

    How can I keep a strong healthy spine?

    Related Topics
    Osteoarthritis Osteoporosis & Bone Health Rheumatology
    I know there is alot out there about exercise, diet, supplements and all that, but is there anything else that I can do to make sure my spine doesn't become osteoporotic and break?
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  • Dr Ryan Hislop

    Chiropractor

    Ryan Hislop is the Clinical Director at the Orange Chiropractic Health and Wellness Centre. As an experienced and evidence-based diagnostician, Ryan works largely by medical … View Profile

    As you have already noted, healthy bones and joints require not only a good diet and exercise. The joints also have to be able to move well, be supported well and from a functional perspective, be equally sharing the load.

    People more commonly know this as posture. More technically, the way that posture helps with a healthy spine in relation to preventing osteoporosis (which I assume is the line of thought you're coming from) is that a healthy bone will adapt to loads that is is placed under. Thus if posture is ideal, all the normal forces are transmitted evenly through the spine.

    When this goes wrong, we see a decreased loading through areas such as the thoracic spine which can result in decreased density (as there is less load). This can lead to local osteoporosis of these vertebra.

    Chiropractors specialise in posture and ensuring that you have a strong and healthy spine.

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  • Dr Ryan Hislop

    Chiropractor

    Ryan Hislop is the Clinical Director at the Orange Chiropractic Health and Wellness Centre. As an experienced and evidence-based diagnostician, Ryan works largely by medical … View Profile

    Further to this.. For more information on this phenomenom see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolff%27s_law

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    Dr Ben Guminski

    Osteopath

    At Brunswick West Osteopathic Clinic we set ourselves apart from other health practitioners by trying to find the cause of your problem rather than just … View Profile

    All those things will help. Exercise, diet, and the supplements will all help with Osteoporosis. One of the other things that tends to happen with our spine as we get older is degeneration. The disks that are in between each vertebrae of the spine will have a lot of wear and tear and they can become flattened and squashed. Also, the joints of the spine; when one vertebrae sits on top of another vertebrae, it forms a joint on each side. Those joints, like any joints, can go through some degeneration and wear and tear, and they do not move as freely as they should. With Osteopathic treatment, we can assist that and help those joints move more freely so the spine is healthier. With the disks and the aging process, we cannot really stop that but what we can do is slow down that degradation of that disk. By helping to keep the spine nice and strong and healthy, it will give your spine a longer lifetime and hopefully lessen the chances of having a disk injury or other injury.

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