Due to being diagnosed with Polymyalgia Rhuumatica (pmr) in June of this year I was sent for a dexa scan the results are back and have GP appointment Monday to discuss.
I had a total hysterectomy in 2010. I am a female 62 no health issues I was aware of before the PMR. Due to the PMR I started in June taking Adcal-D3 750mg/200unit caplets x 2 twice a day.
These are the results good -fair -bad? I am a female 62 no issues.
Lumbar spine L1-L4 T = -2.9
Lumbar spine L1-L4 Z = -1.6
Mean total hip T = -1.5
Mean total hip Z = -0.6
Starting to feel once you start with diagnosis you cannot escape🙄
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Kindlreader
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Hi Kindlreader. I was diagnosed with osteoporosis in my spine and osteopaena in my hips. I've been on steroids for PMR for 3 years. I understand how you feel about being unable to escape! However with lots of info - mainly from this forum which is brilliant - I've chosen my route for dealing with it. Excessive as far as the PMR will allow, books on bone health, vit D3 and K2 with Mg weekly and lots of Ca in my diet - I get through a lot of fat free natural yoghurt. NO alendronic acid as I can't bear the thought of the side effects and as I have silent reflux, taking it fill me with horror 😅. This has been my choice of treatment which goes against advice from the ROS nurse who strongly advised the AA or equivalent. Good luck on your journey x
How do you know that you will have side effects to anledribic acid if you haven’t even tried it? Many medicines have a list of possible side effects as long as your arm . It doesn’t mean that you will have them.
Yes thank you for your good wishes. It does feel like you are ona road to nowhere and everyone you see medically seems to have a slant on things. However I will be looking at my excercise and may into my walks add a little "trot" every now and again. Shall see what the GP says and look at the ROS site. Osteoporosis does run in the family so not surprised however will look at how to "keep" what I have stable. Thanks
I wouldn’t be too concerned with those scores but I would take it as a wake up call to look at how you can improve or at least stop further decline with exercise routines and nutrition.
Also bear in mind that DXA scans will always have an error margin, dependant upon machine callorbration and operator so it is not an absolute. DXA scans measure bone density, not bone strength so calculating your risk of fragility fractures is more of an art than a science.
I was diagnosed after breaking my wrist about 3 years ago, although I knew I had osteopenia from an earlier break some 12 years previously but as both breaks were from heavy falls and healed very quickly I took diagnosis as a health warning. I was persuaded, much against my better judgement, to take meds for about 6 months but stopped 2 years ago. I am 73 and my risk of fragility fractures is low. I eat very well, took nutritional advice, take a supplement to help build bone, eat prunes & nuts every day, I don’t drink milk but do have yogurt, kefir and cheese and use a low intensity vibrational plate alongside exercising.
My mantra is always healthy lifestyle before Pharma. If I had suffered fragility fractures, which many posters on here have, I would reconsider medication. I also arranged for a private consultation and had a REMS scan which gives a lot more detailed information, not available on the NHS yet I believe. That consultation gave me a lot more confidence as I received a very detailed report and information on nutrition which worked for me.
I took diagnosis as a health warning rather than a health crisis. May I suggest you look at the ROS site for detailed information on exercise and eating plan, although I have to say most of what is recommended I do not eat so find alternatives.
I was listening to Prof Tim Spectre (ZOE) recently on VitD and Calcium (adCal-D3) which I understand some GP’s still advise taking. The advice from the researcher’s (backed by multiple studies) was that unless you are specifically instructed to take by a specialist don’t as the risks for heart disease exceed any unproven benefits for bones. - Zoe Nutritional Podcasts - Vitamin D is a Myth - around 30 min mark.
However I will be looking at my excercise and may into my walks add a little "trot/jog" every now and again. Shall also see what the GP says and look at the ROS site. Osteoporosis does run in the family so not surprised I have it; however will look at how to "keep" what I have stable with diet and excercise. Thank you for replying.
I've listened to the Zoe podcast which is very interesting. There's a history of heart problems in my family, blocked arteries being a big issue. I've been on Alendronic Acid and Acreete for 18 months. No review by GP yet. I'm now wondering if I should stop the Acreete in view of my family history. I do drink a pint of milk a day, eat Greek yogurt twice a day and have other calcium rich foods. My calcium and vitamin D levels are fine. Any thoughts please? I'll contact my GP for her opinion.
It’s only the supplements you should be wary of, anything taken from food will contain minute amounts but your body is designed to take the micronutrients from food.
I was also interested to hear that VitD is not a vitamin but was miscategorised when first discovered.
I think the choice to take AA is very personal and as with any decision should be risk:benefit assessment and discussed with your doctor.
Thank you for your reply. Yes it's interesting about the vitamin D. I didn't have a consultation with my GP after my dexa scan just given the prescriptions for Alendronic Acid and Acreete. I did a fair bit of research about AA and was very hesitant I admit, I went to the dentist and asked for calcium and vitamin D blood tests neither of which was suggested by the GP. In the end, after speaking to the ROS who were amazing, and friends with osteoporosis I decided to go ahead. I will ask for a follow up next week and hopefully I'll get an appointment to discuss the Acreete. It's a minefield out there and it's hard to know what to do.
as your spine has more than 1SD (standard deviation) between it and hip you could have one of the very frequent positioning errors (research shows 50-90% of all dxa scans contain at least one error sadly,
My errors , confirmed by REMs (ultrasound) scan, were in hip positioning.
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