vitamins what’s good to take

[Dizzy-home-life]

hello I’m new to page I’ve just been diagnosed with osteoporosis score is -2.8. I asked the nurse was this good or bad she had no idea. I’m on alendronic acid and calcium but I also take vitamin d. I tried to take magnesium as well but i stopped do you think magnesium is ok to take. I also take meds for Epilepsy.

[Met00]

Sorry to hear you've just been diagnosed, but hopefully you can use this as an incentive to keep your bones healthy! First, t-scores alone don't tell you very much. You should have 3 t-scores (neck of femur, total hip and spine). You say you have an osteoporosis score of -2.8, which I assume is a t-score, not far into the osteoporosis range (starts at -2.5), but you need to know the other two scores as well. Which area has a score of -2.8?

Second, how "bad" or otherwise your osteoporosis is, depends on your FRAX fracture risk score, which takes into account other risk factors, not just your t-scores. You could have strong bones but poor t-scores, or good t-scores but bones that fracture easily. I think I've read that epilepsy medication can raise your fracture risk, but I'm not sure about that. Was that why you had a DEXA scan, or have you already had a fragility fracture?

As far as supplements are concerned, these are the basic ones: Vitamin D (as much as you personally need to raise your blood level to at least 75nmol/litre (30ng/ml in the US), some say 100nmol/litre or even higher; Vitamin K2 (K2-MK7 or K2-MK4) to help direct calcium to your bones; and magnesium, which your bones also need and works in balance with calcium. For most people it's possible to get enough calcium from diet. It's harder to get enough magnesium from diet, but not everyone can tolerate a magnesium supplement. When starting new supplements, it's best to introduce one at a time, so that if you do get any side effects, you'll know which one is causing them.

[ORdogmom in reply to Met00]

Also, do not take magnesium at the same time you take the calcium-one will affect the uptake of the other. I take calcium in the am, magnesium in the pm.

[Met00 in reply to ORdogmom]

I've heard others saying that, but find it puzzling as they're often found together in food.

[Sch614 in reply to Met00]

I found your response to the post helpful! I was unsure what you meant by having low t scores but still strong bones depending on the frax score. My report did not give a frax score because it said “ some t scores are at or below -2.5”

[Met00 in reply to Sch614]

T-scores give an estimate of how much bone density has been lost since peak bone mass at age 30. They don't tell you how strong your bones. FRAX is a tool used to estimate fracture risk, using a number of risk factors, not just t-scores. Osteoporosis gets diagnosed with a t-score of -2.5 or below, but without a fragility fracture that, to me, seems very arbitrary and risks over-diagnosing and over-medicating!

[Sch614 in reply to Met00]

Thanks so much for explaining. I had a score of -2.1 total lumbar -2.7 left femoral and -2.8 total hip bone and all I see are the scary numbers but no frax was reported and over googling info is just making me feel awful.

[Met00 in reply to Sch614]

You need to get your FRAX score, or a similar fracture risk measure. If you're in the UK, that's what they use to decide whether medication should be recommended, but there's a note on the calculator which suggests it's different in the US: frax.shef.ac.uk/FRAX/tool.a...

[711debbie]

A lot of us take BoneUp by Jarrow Formulas (I started it after reading about it on this forum). It's got the Vit D, calcium, magnesium, and Vit. K as well as other vitamins and minerals in the correct proportions. Jarrow says to take 6 pills a day (very expensive!). I was taking 2 a day and just moved up to 4 a day because I feel exhausted all the time and Vit. D is recommended for relieving it. So it depends if you want to experiment with the individual vitamins and hope you get it right or just take one that does the work for you. I'm not a scientist so I prefer the "multi-vitamin" form of bone density pill (BUT you have to stop any other multi-vitamin you may have been taking).

You can order BoneUp from iHerb when they have good deals as well as Amazon. Good luck!

[Raleigh59 in reply to 711debbie]

Why do you have to stop a multivitamin ?

[711debbie in reply to Raleigh59]

Because Bone Up itself is a multi vitamin, and the company specifically tells you to stop any other multivitamin (from the website):

"What drugs and food should I avoid while taking Bone Up (Oral)? Avoid taking more than one multivitamin product at the same time unless your doctor tells you to. Taking similar products together can result in an overdose or serious side effects."

When I read that, I stopped my multivitamin for older adults. Would it kill me to do both? Probably not but I stopped it anyway.

[Tom2000]

Are you in the UK? If so, this is a simple question that should be answered by your GP (general practice doctor). As we have the NHS it does not cost anything to make an appointment.

I am presently taking my alendronic acid once a week, and my calcium with Vit D twice a day.

The only advice I can offer is to fully follow the instructions on taking Alendronic acid. I made the mistake of bending over after taking the stuff and I suffered an extremely unpleasant case of nausea. I didn't know what to do but drank another 200mL or so of water and that suppressed the nausea. But I can see why some don't like the med.

The other advice I was given was to undertake mild low impact exercise and to lift small 1Kg, or thereabouts, weights

All the best.