Following my recent diagnosis I saw my GP to discuss my risk factors. After scoring the overall opinion was still that I should take medication due to it showing in my right neck of femur with osteopenia in the left and in the spine. I have maintained that I want to try natural methods so GP has sought the advice from the bone clinic to see if I should do that and have a further scan in a year.
Started on adcal and had a blood test. Calcium was fine but Vit D level low. Have been prescribed a 7 day course of vit D and will restart Adcal after. I have researched dietary options and apparently chai and sesame seeds are good. Also told collegen but not sure how that works. I don’t want to get too weighed down and panic buy everything. Will increase my weight bearing exercise as much as possible. Currently on 1 mg of pred and due to taper in about 10 days to 1/0 for a month. Have picked up a cold so will see how that goes. Off to the Caribbean next week so that should boost the vit D
Again, many thanks for the support and advice given. Positive thoughts and love to you all.
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Mitziecat
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Good luck with the Pred reduction and have a fabulous holiday. Like SJ I am so envious -weight bearing by walking on sand and soaking up sunshine sound nicer than Alendronic Acid tablets 😉! Enjoy! 🛫🍸🍹🌴 x
Much better than AA. I have been told that walking on sand is good so plan to do a lot of that. Was also advised to buy some fitflops which I did today. They are suppose to aid comfortable walking and help muscle tone. Anyone tried them?
If you are one of the many whose skin vit D factory is not up to speed all the Caribbean sun in the world won't help much! I spend a lot of time outdoors with no sunscreen - without supplements it falls steadily. If you have a suntan, even light, it is as effective as Factor 12 sunscreen and Factor 8 reduces the amount of vit D made by about 90%.
By age 60 0r so, our skin production is a mere 25% of what it was at age 20 - and we don't expose quite as much skin (unless we are Edith Wales)
I somehow suspect that a 7 day course of even high dose vit D will not raise your levels far - so I do hope the GP checks it afterwards. Recommended is 60,000 IU per week for 8 to 10 weeks and trying to do it faster isn't as effective.
I have also been diagnosed with osteopenia. Calcium fine but Vitamin D severely low. I was prescribed high dose Vit D for 3 months, at the height of the good weather and I spend lots of time outdoors. I had to have a kidney function test after 1 month, all was ok. I go on a Maintenance dose at the end of this month. I am fair skinned, the doctor had no idea why I had become severely deficient.
My daughter has very white skin - nothing like either of her parents or sister (she just goes sort of black...) - and her vit D was in single figures. She also has quite bad asthma and it is known low vit D makes that worse too - but the GPs just said "buy some supplements OTC".
Same at hers - but there is no guarantee who you see unless you can book weeks ahead and she is a paramedic - even finding time to get to the doctor is difficult.
Told Vit D was only slightly low and calcium level good. Will resume Adcal after a week and have a blood test scheduled in a month.
Interesting about sun screen as you try and protect your skin in one way but block vit D in another. Read that you should have at least 30 minutes without any sunscreen. I use it to keep my skin moisturised in the sun more than for protection. I have dark skin so adding sun screen probably don’t help but maybe a lesser factor is better.
I just ask the receptionist and they print it out for me. In fact my surgery have recently introduced an online system so I can now just look it up on my computer! I do get more information on the hard copy though.
I loved Barbados - OH went there for 10 days to do some research work with a guy at the hospital there. We stayed with them so I got to live the "white Barbadian wife" life for a week or so. Another session of that would be nice - but no chance now. There was something special about picking your own banana! I like the food too.
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