Hi windyshores. I believe that there are many aspects to bone health and that stress is certainly one of them. Plus driving to Montana alone for my sister's Celebration of Life, not managing to follow my usual exercise routine, and eat my usual diet, just two months before my 2023 DEXA scan... yup. I believe that was part of the recent decline. BUT from 2017 - 2023 my scores are all improved, except for Total Hip. I can see the whole chart on the post, and don't know how I could improve it for you, so I'll just put the 2017 - 2023 numbers here for you. My 2021 numbers were better than 2023, and I blame that stress.
Lumbar Spine -3.5 to -3.4 (.1 gain from 2017 - 2023)
Femoral Neck -3.1 to -2.7 (.4 gain)
Total Hip - 2.6 to -2.8 (.2 loss, which makes no sense, my femoral neck improved but the top of my femur worsened?)
Just stopping bone loss is a big deal. I have actually improved my scores except the Total Hip score which dropped .3 this time, and this does not make much sense to me, as it was up .1 in 2021. I am have a DEXAfit scan planned in February, and then will be able to see if my whole body score has BMD score is up or down since November when my scan DEXA was done. Then, I'll go and have a chat with my doc and try to get an explanation on the Total Hip score drop.