Osteoporosis patients are now getting help through an osteoporosis clinic offered through Rehab Unlimited at all SIH locations.
Older women are not the only ones who suffer from osteoporosis. According to a report from the National Osteoporosis Foundation, 80 percent of American women suffer from the disease and 20 percent of the country’s men are affected. It is estimated 10 million people have osteoporosis in the United States.
Gerd Hedman, therapy supervisor and Zandra Fred, physical therapy assistant, staff the clinic at the Murphysboro location. The women recently traveled to the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago where they received special training in how to work with people who suffer from osteoporosis.
Fred will now take what she has learned to rehab staff at SIH facilities in Herrin and Carbondale so patients may be treated at those locations as well.
The RIC/SIH partnership enables SJMH to make this program available. The rehab facilities do not conduct screening for osteoporosis. Patients who come for treatment are referred by their physicians.
Fred said exercises are designed to meet each individual’s specific need. A visible physical sign of osteoporosis is a slumping posture or a “hump” or curvature in the spine. Those with the disease suffer from pain and often-times fractures.
Hedman said getting the proper amount of calcium in one’s diet is crucial. Sometimes a physician will prescribe vitamin D capsules, which aid in calcium absorption, for people who have a vitamin D deficiency; but people can also get calcium through drinking milk and being in the sunlight. Though the majority of people who seek help for osteoporosis are from the senior female population, patients in their twenties and some males have come in for treatment.
For more information, call Rehab Unlimited-St. Joseph Memorial Hospital at 618-684-8018.
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