Just diagnosed with osteoporosis in my hip

[Sabre27]

I was just diagnosed with osteoporosis at 54. I am a fitness instructor and personally weight train 6 days a week in addition to teaching 7 classes a week. I eat healthy, don't drink or smoke. I am in total shock. Other than increasing my vitamin D and calcium not sure what else I can do. Should I see a specialist if so what type? My gyn discovered my condition thru a bone density test. Also, any thoughts on stem cell treatments?

[lolly64]

Hi sabre I know it's such a shock when you find out especially if your a healthy eater non smoker etc but unfortunately it's just sometimes in the genes, I was diagnosed last April mine was a very early hysterectomy I did have HRT but unfortunately when all the bad press started my GP took me off of it so now it's alendronic acid calcium d3 etc and cross everything you are already doing all the right things.I am 65 in March but I suspect I must have had it for a while and it's usually not until you break something that you find out luckily for me I didn't find out that way but on general blood test my calcium was very low luckily I asked for a dexa scan GP didn't bother sending me I had to ask!! Good luck

[sweetsusie in reply to lolly64]

I'm a 70-year-old woman who won't take those awful bone meds. My doctor has allowed me to take HRT for my bones.

[Kaarina]

It does come as a shock doesn't it? It is called the silent disease. Do you take any medications? Some meds can cause bone loss if taken for a long time. Have you had your Vitamin d levels tested? Quite a few of us also take magnesium, boron unless you like eating prunes daily, K2, cod liver oil or similar and Vitamin D to keep a good level all year. Some of us drink Kefir. It is ideal if you can get Vitamin D levels tested twice a year if possible as we do not store Vitamin D. We also find as we age that even if we are out in the sun a lot it does not appear to automatically give us good vitamin D levels. Exercise wise, you are doing excellently. You could have your parathyroid checked....Hyperparathyroidism is where the parathyroid glands, which are in the neck near the thyroid gland, produce too much parathyroid hormone. This causes blood calcium levels to rise (hypercalcaemia). Left untreated, high levels of calcium in the blood can lead to a range of problems including osteoporosis.

[LynneH-19]

Hi Sabre. Welcome.

Just to add a few more points. Do you know the likely cause of you OP? Perhaps this can be addressed.

Look at your diet, how much Ca does it actually provide? We only need 1000 to 1200mg maximum a day. It’s better obtained from diet rather than supplements. Too much Ca can cause arterial deposits and kidney stones.

See the following about the importance of protein

blogs.creighton.edu/heaney/...

I found the book; Vitamin K2 and the Ca Paradox’ by Kate Rheaume Bleue helpful. She talks about the importance of how D3, Mg, vit K2 and vit A retinol all work together to aid the absorption and utilisation of Ca.

As for stem cells. It probably depends on whether you live in the US and have plenty of money. Looking at the dire state of our NHS, It certainly wouldn’t be an option in the UK. I cannot even get a vit D test ordered via my GP and have to arrange it myself.

Depending on which country you live in, you may find the National Osteoporosis Foundation (NOF) forum helpful. Although US based, it has members from all over the world, therefore different treatment options get discussed.

Best wishes

[Snow18]

Hi Sabre , my story is similar to yours although my exercise is running,walking and cycling. Following a broken wrist ,a Dexa scan revealed severe osteoporosis of the lumbar spine but my hips were only just into the osteopenia range. I have since been diagnosed with Coeliac disease which links in with osteoporosis, I’m desperately hoping with a gluten free diet I will be able to improve my bone health as I can’t imagine not being active. Good luck.

[jamr]

The positives are that you know you have osteo before getting any fractures, you have a good diet and exercise, so you probably have good quality done despite not being dense. Your muscle support around the muscle should also be good, so keep all this up. As others already said, there are many factors affecting bone density. Vit D transports calcium, Vit K2 makes sure it goes to bone and not to kidneys or blood vessels. Issue with Vit D is differing views on what level is deficient and how much one should supplement (note diet gives little Vit D, sunshine or supplement required). Some say Vit D of 50nmol is minimum, others 75nmol. From what I have read I would say you need at least 100nmol. Also be careful on how Vit D is measured, in either nmol and in pg/l depending upon country. Recommended daily intake on Vit D is 600iu/day, yet for me on 1300-1600iu/day my levels dropped, so now I take 5000iu/day and get 5-10 mins/day summer sunshine. Vit K2 and Vit D are fat soluble so do not need to take daily as fat holds for at least a week (unlike say Vit B which is taken daily). Vit K2 best source is natto - Japanese fermented soybeans. Aside from that Calcium we only absorb around 500mg in a dose, so take 1000mg day as 2x500mg not 1x1000mg. Then there is Magnesium, Boron, Silicon, Manganese, Zinc and a few others - don't despair managing osteo is urgent but its a long journey and you will need to educate yourself on exercise regime (research osteogenics and isometric for ways to stimulate bone regeneration), diet and supplements (diet is best but some supplements required). Finally, what caused your osteo. Thin light people more susceptible, female menopause and hormones etc. But also other pathology in endocrine glands so you need to get an endo specialist to check all your hormones system are working OK with no pathologies. Final advice is to write a plan with all the puzzle pieces, as you are learing a lot, dealing with new terminology, doctors pointing in different directions sometimes, and possibly telling you to take drug treatments for osteo. Some of these have nasty sideffects and if you choose these, suggest you think very carefully before doing so and have exhausted natural alternatives. Welcome to the club, be positive and proactive, share and help as many others as you can while you help yourself.

[MiaLee]

Well for another take on it:

Do a lot of reading before you accept this diagnosis. The scans themselves have been repeatedly called into serious question regarding their validity. Also the drugs are very scary. Search some of the opposition regarding this wholesale selling of sickness to women in order to push dangerous drugs. You owe it to yourself to be very careful regarding this whole ‘new epidemic’ of almost every postmeno and peri menopausal woman as osteoporotic, or as having the newly made up ‘disease’ of osteopenia ( made up by the same companies that make the drugs, make the bone scanners, and set the standard for what would constitute risk of fractures.) There have been many prominent professionals that have spoken out about this. These scans were not allowed to be used in BC, Canada, to diagnose or as an indicator to prescribe drugs ( based on a research paper presented by the head of drug regulation there), until he retired, and then the big pharma lobbying started up again. All the info doctors and other health organizations have on these drugs and these scans, come from the drug company. There are other studies that are in opposition but they are not funded and not promoted.

The history behind Osteopenia and bone mineral loss as a diagnosis for osteoporosis and osteopenia is based on a marketing plan concocted by Merck. They also created the boards who arbitrarily came up with the levels of mineral density. Those have never been causal in actual fractures! These links are worth a look:

ethicalnag.org/2010/02/06/o...

ethicalnag.org/2012/03/22/t...

niemanwatchdog.org/index.cf...

Read. Search; think carefully, before you go down this rabbit hole. All the best.

[MiaLee]

A bit of a taste of the articles out there in ‘opposition’:

“Here’s a drug marketing plan that is dazzling in its brilliant effectiveness. I’m thinking of including it in any future PR workshops I do on marketing communications. It’s a plan to sell pills to treat something called osteopenia, a condition that only recently started to be thought of as a problem that even needs treatment.

It’s a plan to convince consumers and their physicians that these pills should be in the medicine cabinets of millions of women worldwide.

But more broadly, it’s a plan to change the definition of what a disease is, and the role that drug companies can play in that change.

Until the mid-1990s, only a handful of people had even heard of osteopenia. It is defined as a slight thinning of the bones that occurs naturally as women get older, and typically does not result in bone breaks.

But drug giant Merck wanted to sell a whole lot more of its drug Fosamax, prescribed to treat those already diagnosed with osteoporosis, a disease (mostly seen in the elderly) that can cause bones to become more porous and to break more easily. It was particularly important at that time, because Merck’s patent protection on the drug was due to expire, thus opening the door to cheaper generics and plummeting profits.

In order to pitch Fosamax by linking the benign condition of osteopenia with osteoporosis, Merck would need a marketing plan, and a hotshot to work the plan.

So Merck hired super-sales guy Jeremy Allen to help position Fosamax as a ‘cure’ for the new ‘disease’ of osteopenia.

To convince large numbers of middle-aged women that they needed to take Fosamax to prevent the old age bone fractures of osteoporosis, Merck first needed to convince women to get their bones scanned so they could be diagnosed with osteopenia. How to do this? Existing bone scanning systems were expensive, cumbersome and hard to come by. Here was Jeremy Allen’s brilliant marketing plan in a nutshell...” and so on...

Really. Check those links out posted above; and keep looking and reading. It’s certainly something that needs consideration.

[Fran57]

Hi. I too was in major shock when I was diagnosed with osteoporosis last year. I did a lot of reading, rather than take the medication offered and found I had hyperparathyroidism and needed a very small operation and the surgeon said if I had taken the osteoporosis drugs they would have made absolutely no difference! I have to wait until later this year to see what difference has been made.

Please read lots before making a decision; I am so glad I did!

Take care and good luck,

Fran 😊

[sweetsusie]

The dexa is a really good tool, however, the setting are compared to a 20-year-old female..so at 54 do you actually think you can have the bones of a 20 year old? Nope! Not going to happen. Please do not let your doctor talk you into taking ANY of the bone meds! They are all poison and you will be very sorry. They should all be taken off the market.

[misspops]

Sabre, Do try to get another scan to be sure. Perhaps there was a mistake.

[Savbing]

I think that pharmaceuticals have a place. Be informed. Not all health professionals are out to harm us. Adopt proven lifestyle choices.

[Seacrab]

I highly recommend avoiding Prolia should your physician suggest it.

[HeronNS]

I don't know much about stem cell treatment but I have read that it can be quite dangerous. Apparently there isn't proper regulation and not everyone who offers the treatment is competent.

[Philing]

I think most of the bases are covered here , as you are a fitness instructor you might want to look at 2 things Osteogenic Loading ( If you think about this carefully you can do it in the gym inside a cage) basically you want to compress bone with 3.2x your own body weight about once per 2 weeks, just for a few sec. Naturally you want to get this right so consult a physio and read up on it first.

There also small studies showing 'some' benefit to vibration therapy

and here osteoporosis-studies.com/ is a collection of just about every study ever performed on bone density outcomes from different agents. Good luck, I'm a 45 year old male in the same boat, no one can fathom whats going on, I'm not even excreting any calcium in my urine

[Jayge]

If someone with your background still got Osteoporous, it more or less indicates that exercise alone may not prevent it.

[DebDenise]

Hi Sabre27

Please do thorough research & be aware of the nasty side effects. I thought I asked the right questions & trusted what I was told by the doctor. I read the Prolia booklet under side effects & it mentioned femur pain. After my surgery for an intramedullary rod due to a femur fracture caused by Prolia I did find at the very back of the booklet and half the print size of rest of booklet that it stated unusual femur fractures. I just feel it’s like they are hiding the obvious when they didn’t list it under side effects but they have protected themselves by stating it at the back of the booklet. I also feel doctors should be telling us there is a risk of unusual fractures. My surgeon stated to me there was a 2% risk with the surgery. However, I was not told anything to be concerned about the drug only how it would benefit me.

Good luck with your decision for treatment choices.

Deb