Osteoporosis — the thought of suffering from this debilitating bone disease in the future is usually enough to give you cold sweats and heart palpitations. Having it is no joke because it can certainly keep you from leading a normal life — it’s hard to be a productive human being if your bones are very weak and prone to breaking.
Prevention is imperative to saving yourself from having to face osteoporosis one day. Including calcium-rich foods in the diet, getting vitamin D, exercising on a regular basis, eliminating unwanted pounds, reducing coffee intake, quitting cigarette smoking — these are some of the things that you may do today to lower your risk of osteoporosis.
But when osteoporosis is already around, some doctors are quick to prescribe drugs for it. Unfortunately, those drugs for the bone disease are known to cause some nasty side effects. Some of the most bone-chilling (pun intended) ones include muscle pain, eye inflammation and, ironically, brittle bones if they’re taken for a long time.
Needless to say, some people who are suffering from osteoporosis are wary of taking those drugs that can actually do more harm than good. It’s for this reason why a lot of osteoporosis sufferers turn to alternative medicine, and many of them are choosing to deal with their bone disease with the help of traditional Chinese medicine.
Here are some of the most widely used Chinese remedies for osteoporosis:
Acupuncture
If you think that poking tiny needles into the skin won’t do anything to combat osteoporosis, think again. For thousands of years now, acupuncture is one of the leading Chinese remedies for the said bone disease, and there are scientific investigations conducted on it that say acupuncture actually works!
According to numerous modern-day experiments, the bone density of participants who received acupuncture was higher than those who did not receive the traditional Chinese practice.
Tai Chi
Experts say that just about any form of weight-bearing exercise can help in increasing bone density, thus lowering one’s risk of osteoporosis. One form of exercise from China that’s particularly helpful is tai chi.
What’s so nice about tai chi is it’s something that is suitable for people of any age and fitness level — it consists of slow and gentle movements. But don’t let that fool you — tai chi is actually an excellent bone builder. It also helps reduce stress which is linked to osteoporosis, and it can improve balance, too, thus preventing accidental falls.
Bone-Building Herbs
There are lots and lots of herbs that are recommended by Chinese traditional healers for strengthening the bones. Most of them can be brewed into tea. At times some of these herbs are combined for potency.
One of those herbs is horsetail, which is something that assists the bones in absorbing calcium. There is also alfalfa that wards off osteoporosis by keeping bone loss at bay. Another herb that’s used as a Chinese solution for osteoporosis is rose hip because its vitamin C content helps promote the production of collagen needed by the bones.
If you are planning on trying any or all of these Chinese remedies for osteoporosis, make sure that you inform your doctor about it first for your own safety.
