First endo appt/ ? Strontium citrate

[Raleigh59]

I had my first endo appt and as expected my new endo dr pushed medicine. She is for medicine plus supplements . I said well then you can’t take strontium citrate I heard it cancels out medicine and medicine cancels out strontium citrate and I think she said “ you are not supposed to take strontium with the medicine bc how will we then know what helped you improve “ I am not positive she said that bc she has such a heavy pakistanian accent.

Anyway she says I can do a repeat dexa anytime I want but she said at this point if that dexa isn’t correct you don’t have a baseline. I said but if it is correct and I wait 6 months to see if the strontium worked plus weights plus walking etc . She said but you won’t know if the dexa ( done in feb by first time tech ) was correct or not but she said

“ I Suspect you have severe osteoporosis and the machine can pick up the slack of a tech who did it wrong and or since it was her first time doing a dexa “

my question to you all is if strontium citrate plus walking plus exercise plus weights plus nutrition healthy eating work how many months should I give the natural approach a chance before I redo the dexa

The dr said she would pray for me 🤷‍♀️

[Met00]

Because of their quite large margin of error, DEXA scans aren't worth repeating in less than 2 years and, if the change is small, won't tell you anything even in that time. For example, if you have a 2% improvement (or deterioration) in bone density as measured by 2 DEXA scans, that could just be a variation in the measurement due to DEXA margin of error rather than any actual change in your bone density. I read a few days ago that DEXA margin of error can be as great as 5%, although other documents say 1-2%!

[Raleigh59 in reply to Met00]

there was a question with the validity of my dexa because it was the very first time tech ever did one and she was a student in training, they don’t know if she put the block in the right way etc. I don’t know if the dexa machine picks up the slack for a student who’s never done one. My endo today said “ I suspect the machine picks up the slack for a new student” the first primary doctor who ordered the first one also was not sure and didn’t charge me or the insurance that’s how unknown it all was.

[Met00 in reply to Raleigh59]

That's shocking. If the scan isn't done properly the machine won't compensate! Won't they give you another scan immediately?

[Raleigh59 in reply to Met00]

the original place offered to redo it but I don’t trust that place . They refunded the money to my insurance . I can go anywhere now. It’s possible I am saying my was lying in the correct place and the block was placed well enough . My friend who is a pharmacist had it done at the same place and she had the teacher not the student and she didn’t like what she said is an old machine. A year later she went elsewhere and the scores were about the same so that is why it’s possible that I do have the severe osteoporosis dexa numbers I was told . I am doing the strontium citrate, k2 -mk7 just ordered k2 mk4, bone and marrow, vit D, multivitamin, etc. , walk each day at 5 pm, exercise class each day at 9 am etc. .

[Raleigh59 in reply to Met00]

the chiropractor who does the REMS here 4 hours away said that REMS machines are more reliable he said that means the results they give are more consistent like of you do it again that day or that week , the numbers will be the same but he said there is an overall question of reliability with both REMs and dexa. He said the biggest question for someone who has severe osteoporosis like myself is the treatment : physical load on bones vS medicine

[Met00 in reply to Raleigh59]

Errors are still possible with REMS, but less likely than DEXA. The other advantage of REMS is that it provides a bone fragility score, which gives an indication of bone strength, which in many ways is more useful than bone density. As far as the severity of osteoporosis is concerned, don't forget that poor t-scores alone don't necessarily mean you're at high risk of fracture. If you've already had a fragility fracture, then the fracture itself shows your bone strength is poor. If you haven't fractured, you may never do so. Taking a bisphosphonate medication only reduces fracture risk, it doesn't mean you won't fracture - for example if you have a 10% chance of fracture in the next 10 years, then taking a bisphosphonate will reduce that to 5%. There's a good explanation here: nice.org.uk/guidance/ta464/...

[Raleigh59 in reply to Met00]

so you have never taken medicine for op

[Met00 in reply to Raleigh59]

I took it for a year, but gave up due to side effects. I wouldn't have taken it at all if I'd known the DEXA scan was wrong!

[Raleigh59]

what are you saying

Your scan or mine. I think mine was fine even if up to .6 possible error . My numbers are severe