Osteoporosis/body armor

[mimitabby]

Hi Darcy
thanks for all the information. During my "formative years" as it were, I never dieted and I rarely drank soft drinks. I also never skipped meals. Unfortunately, I still have the thinning bones. I also have homocysteine levels that my doctor didn't like...


Kelownagirl, they do a bonescan.It's like a really low intensity xray; the technicians don't even leave the room the levels of radiation are so low.
they look at your back/spine and hips. There's another kind of test i've had done, where you stick your heel into a gizmo and it checks your bone density there. That's a cheaper test.

[DarcyInOregon]

Mimi, it might be your homocysteine levels then that are the primary factor. High homocysteine levels are a serious problem, so I hope you read up on it and ask your doctor how to lower the levels, if possible. My mother had extremely high homocysteine levels, and what it did to her, other than the OS, is it narrowed the veins and arteries into her brain, with the result of cerebral atrophy (shrinkage of the brain.) She was not tested for her homocysteine levels until after the dementia was obvious, and at that time it was given as an explanation for her strokes, cardiac and lung problems. Since high homocysteine levels can be genetic in a family, everyone in my family got tested. A brother who is only two years older than me had high levels like my mother, and during the years since he was tested, he has had numerous brain stem strokes, just like my mother had, and he is now mostly blind, is in the first stages of dementia, and is no longer able to work as a doctor; he is only age 55, and he was physically fit and of normal weight before the onset of the strokes, with healthy cholesterol and all other stroke factors being healthy, other than the high homocysteine levels.

Kelownagirl, if you have a history of OS in your family, you should get tested. At the minimum, a test will go into your medical records so that in future years and future tests there can be a comparison. If there is no history of OS, most doctors will wait until you are menopausal. But if there is a history of OS, you should get a test earlier in life, and have one every 5-10 years, being careful with your diet, exercise and supplement.

Darcy

[mimitabby]

The only thing I can find that supposedly lowers homocysteine levels is
taking b vitamins, specifically folic acid.
And I am taking them (now)

[DarcyInOregon]

That is why the homocysteine levels and B vitamins are linked to OS. The B vitamins assist in bone density, and at the same time lower homocysteine levels. However it is a long-term kind of thing, and the person needs to have had a balanced diet over the years that included all of the food groups. With regards to my brother, he started taking the folic acid and other B vitamins, and the homocysteine levels didn't come down enough. He increased his dosages, the months passed, and the homocysteine levels were still high. Then the brain stem strokes started. He didn't have enough time to get the homocysteines down by adding the B vitamins to his diet before he started experiencing the complications.

It is scary to have OS, or the precursors to OS. I really feel for you. I have been around people who had OS seriously, and when the fractures started, particularly in the spine, the pain was so intense they began to give up on life, and they died within a few years.

It is hard to remember what we were doing when we were in our teens and 20s. Mostly, OS is a function of diet and exercise during those years. How many of us had friends and were around people who were always on a restricted "diet" of some kind, and by restricted I mean major food groups were eliminated entirely or reduced to barely anything, like Atkins. The human body needs complete nutrition. The inner organs need all sorts of nutrients in order to function, particularly the heart. When a person goes on a diet that is too low in calories or is not endorsed by the medical community, and the result is the body doesn't get enough nutrients, then the body will draw the nutrients from the bones in order to keep the organs functioning. People think it is about body weight, that body weight is the indicator of health, and in reality it is the diet and exercise over the long-term that is the real indicator of health.

I was lucky. In my first year of college I took a nutrition course as a science requirement, and the knowledge I gained from that course was invaluable. I am referring to the year 1973 when what we knew about nutrition was much more primitive, but I went through that course and learned that females should never take their calories below 1200, that 1500 is best when dieting, and that one always eats three balanced meals from the all of the food groups. I think taking that course saved me from what so many females do, which is going on 800 calorie a day diets, or going on fad diets that eliminate entire food groups. In the years ahead of us, my prediction is we will see an increase of people with severe OS because of all of the people who have spent long periods of time on Atkins and other non-medically approved restrictive diets, and who thus starved their bodies of essential nutrients.

Darcy

[mimitabby]

Darcy, inactivity is probably what got me. And I remember vividly my diet and my life back then. When I was 18, I was living with a young man who had a doting mother. She was obsessed about his health, and he was sort of what you'd call now a slacker, so she decided to teach ME how to cook. She sent me all the Adele Davis books. I have thanked her many times over for teaching me about lovely vegetables and all sorts of good food.

You are probably right about the future of american health because of dieting. I figure when we're 80 we will be taking care of 30 - 50 year olds whose health has collapsed.

My grandmother broke her hip when she was 88 or 89 and then got up and walked. She wasn't going to let that hold her back. Unfortunately Lou Gehrig's got her 3 years later.

So I will put books in my back pack when i go for walks now!

[maryellen]

<<any of you ever see ANY improvement?>>

yes, i've been taking fosomax for approx 3.5 yrs and have seen some, albeit minor improvements. i've had no problems w side effects other than annoyance that i can't have my morning coffee for 30 minutes after i take it!

[mimitabby]

MaryEllen, I just took my first pill today.
My mother saw no improvement.
Where did they get the great stats that they include with each pill packet???

[Kathi]

<<any of you ever see ANY improvement?>>

yes, i've been taking fosomax for approx 3.5 yrs and have seen some, albeit minor improvements. i've had no problems w side effects other than annoyance that i can't have my morning coffee for 30 minutes after i take it!

Me!

I just had my dexascan before Christmas and I've had no changes in 2.5 years so my Dr. took me off Actonel!

It hasn't always been that way. At age 51 I fell off my mtn bike and broke my wrist. I had read that for woman in her early 50's a broken hip, wrist or ankle is a red flag for osteoporosis and should be checked. My Dr's kept telling me that my break was common for the type of fall I had and not to worry. Besides, I exercised, took calcium and was still on BC pills (which gave me extra hormones). My Dr. told me I was too young for a dexa scan and the insurance wouldn't pay for it.

However, my grandmother had a dowagers hump for as long as I could remember, my mom had her first break (wrist) in her early 50's, had broken both hips by the time she was 73 and had broken several other bones. She was taller than me and now barely came up to my shoulder. The Dr's said her bones were like "Styrofoam". About the time I was trying to get my first scan(my mom was about 85) she had a dexa scan. There were numerous fractures of her spine, her 7th vertebra had disintegrated and she was riddled with arthritis. So yes, I was worried that I was following in her footsteps.

I finally got tested and I had osteopenia in my spine. My Dr. was shocked! He put me on Actonel. BTW, the insurance payed for the test.

My second test a year later was very good so I waited another 2 years to get tested. That one was scary as I now had osteopenia in my hip as well in my spine. At that time I was on hrt as well as actonel.

In the fall of 04 I stopped taking hrt so I was really worried about the results of my latest dexa scan. I was quite surprised when the Dr's office came back with the good news, no changes, no more Actonel.

I'm not sure why I haven't had any changes in the last 3 years. Some thoughts are that I'm past the 5 year post menopausal mark in which bone loss is the most rapid, I increased my calcium and vitamin D intake, instead of lifting weights on machines I started doing more closed chain, ie, lunges, squats, and functional weight lifting, I now live in Colorado and am getting more sunlight than when I lived in the Midwest.

I'm just very glad that osteoporosis has been identified as a preventable disease and that our generation doesn't have to suffer the pain and disability of broken bones that the generation of women and men before us suffered.