I was trying to lose weight, but I got a hole in my bone...Too much diet, osteopenia, osteoporosis ahead of time
Aug 08, 2025
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In particular, for patients with back disease, excessive dieting can be a poison to bone health. Excessive dieting can destroy the body's immune system and damage bone health due to sudden fasting and insufficient nutrients for the body.
According to statistics from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, the number of osteoporosis patients was 1,276,222 last year, an increase of more than 200,000 in four years from 1,054,892 in 2020. In particular, women have more osteoporosis patients than men, and according to the number of people treated in 2023, there are 1,203,043 women and 73,179 men, which is more than 16 times more patients than men.
Park Dong-woo, an orthopedic surgeon at Mirae Bon Hospital, said "As the weather gets hotter recently, more and more patients are visiting the hospital due to knee joint or spinal damage due to excessive diet."Considering that osteopenia or osteoporosis usually progresses rapidly around the age of 50 when menopause begins, these excessive diets may be the main cause of the disease."
In addition, "The higher the age group, the more patients there are, but recently, due to incorrect nutritional intake and excessive diet, many young housewives in their 30s and 40s visit the hospital due to osteopenia, an early symptom of osteoporosis."
◇It may cause excessive diet, osteopenia, and osteoporosis
Osteopenia and osteoporosis are diseases that occur frequently in women with calcium deficiency or menopause. In other words, when women reach menopause when they get older, skeletal metabolism is abnormal due to a sudden decrease in hormones, or when calcium metabolism is broken, bone mass and bone density decrease, resulting in osteoporosis that holes in the bone.
Recently, however, osteopenia and osteoporosis have also occurred in young women. These are the causes of young women's excessive weight loss or 'one-food diet' in order to maintain their body shape, leading to osteopenia, an early symptom of osteoporosis.
One of the diets that young women on a diet often follow easily and often eat only one food is 'One Food Diet'. However, suddenly reducing the amount of food and eating only one food not only leads to an imbalance in nutrition, but also weakens bone density due to insufficient supply of nutrients such as calcium to bones, and eventually leads to osteopenia or osteoporosis.
◇Dieting may worsen existing back diseases
Bones that are sloppy due to osteopenia promote degenerative changes in the spine and disk, which directly or indirectly affect the deterioration of spinal diseases such as lumbar discs and spinal compression fractures. Therefore, patients with existing back diseases should not be on a unbalanced diet or a diet through intense exercise.
In addition, for osteoporosis patients, it is recommended to remove several risk factors that may cause falls around them in advance to prevent fractures, and to refrain from smoking and drinking excessively. On the other hand, it is better to do it steadily because continuous exercise can help prevent bone density from decreasing.
◇ Even a small impact can break bones easily
If you look at a cross-section or X-ray picture of a bone with osteoporosis, you can see a sloppy bone, and as the condition worsens, the bone becomes more sloppy and breaks easily even with a small impact. Also, people with osteoporosis do not stick to their bones well when they fall or bump into each other, unlike normal people.
In order to prevent osteoporosis, it is important to eat food with enough calcium, keep exercising such as walking or hiking, and get some sunlight. In addition, it is recommended to refrain from excessive dieting that can harm your health. A well-being diet that takes care of health is needed as a diet method that avoids high-calorie diets and increases regular exercise.
◇Calcium, vitamin D intake required...Life style improvement is important
For osteopenia or osteoporosis patients, lifestyle improvement is of paramount importance prior to treatment. You should take protein, calcium, and vitamin D in a balanced way. For calcium, 1000-1500 mg should be taken per day, and for vitamin D, 400 IU per day (800 IU/day for women at high risk of deficiency). In the case of vitamin D, intake is also important, but it is recommended to increase body synthesis with proper exposure to sunlight.
※Healthy diet to prevent osteopenia and osteoporosis
-Calcium intake is the most obvious preventive measure (milk, bone-eating fish, beef bone, green leaf vegetable, kelp, etc.)
-Light exercise (Don't exercise too much)! climbing stairs, walking, light jogging)
-Making a good posture habit (Positioning is not only excellent for body correction but also important for back and neck joint health / A lifestyle that is straightened so that it is tense enough from head, neck, back, and waist to heel)
-Don't smoke! Don't drink! The wrong common sense of losing weight destroys bones. (When you smoke, you temporarily lose weight because it transfers fat accumulated in your arms and legs to your abdomen. Smoking increases the risk of developing osteoporosis by three times and accelerates menopause by two to three years)
※Healthy diet to protect back and knees
- Riding a bicycle
The exercise of riding a stationary bicycle in the gym can be a healthy exercise method because it is effective in burning fat as an aerobic exercise and does not strain the knee joint compared to the treadmill. In addition, it is also effective in abdominal exercise, so it can prevent herniated disc.
-Swimming
Swimming (backstroke and free swimming) can be said to be an exercise method that increases flexibility without stressing the joints due to buoyancy in the water.
-an exercise that relaxes one's tight back
Spread both feet and put both hands on your waist, slowly bend your back, and maintain a standing position again. If you repeat this movement slowly about 10 times and suddenly bend your back, you may strain your back, so be careful.
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This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
