Physical Therapy and Osteopenia: Aggressive Bone Health Treatment Options

Physical therapy can be used in a variety of ailments and conditions and often is a type of alternative medicine that we do not associate with specific diseases. If you are living with complications associated with osteopenia - a form of bone disease that causes loss of bone density - you may want to consider physical therapy to boost your overall health.

Traditionally, osteopenia is considered by most physicians as a type of early bone health complications that can lead to bone cancer. In more recent medical service, physicians are more inclined to label this type of bone disorder as a type of health condition that can lead to osteoporosis and may not be life threatening. Because osteopenia is reversible, doctors are less inclined to label the condition as a cancer risk. For patients who may need to undergo a bone marrow transplant in breast cancer treatment, this type of condition should be taken even more seriously as reversing disease is essential to long term health.

If you have been diagnosed with osteopenia, it is important to consider how physical therapy may not only boost your bone health but also reverse the indicating factors of this disease. Using supervised physical therapy, in a rehabilitation center, is ideal but oftentimes insurance companies will not readily pay for long term therapy for this diagnosis. Instead, you may seek out the supervised physical therapy for osteopenia and then transition to home based, unsupervised, physical therapy where you practice home exercise routines.

A physician should first confirm that you are, indeed, suffering from osteopenia at which time a prescription for therapy can be written, outlining the goals, frequency and duration. Once treating in the structured physical therapy setting, your physical therapist and physician can then work on extending your therapy for osteopenia by working with your insurance company directly. Once treatment with the supervised setting is finished, then transition to a home-based program is always recommended.

No matter how your doctor views the long term health issues of osteopenia, if you have been diagnosed with the condition it is important to take the diagnosis seriously and seek out medical treatment accordingly. Whether you have a case risk or simply a bone density and risk for bone breaks, physical therapy may hold the key to slowing progression of the disease and, in some cases, mitigating long term complications. Always consider physical therapy for osteopenia even when it does not seem logical as a primary source of healthcare.

Sources: Reversing Osteopenia, by Harris McIllwain