New diagnosis at 56 yo. Looking for advice on non drug therapies.

There are so many approaches and good advice above. First I found a good doctor to explore root causes. I joined Margie Bessinger’s very affordable Happy Bone Club (online) & listen to her podcast which are both excellent! Margie knows so much about this and all the options and such a fabulous overview. She is a huge supporter of consulting with Keith McCormick on medications. Joined Onero (group in person with a PT learning to lift heavy) which has been fantastic — you can search for locations online — they are taking off in the US and have proven research studies. Learned from Debi Robison (she has an online program and podcast) Worked on my diet, supplements, and sleep. My DEXA improved greatly (without medications) and went from Osteoporosis to Osteopenia (hip actually went from Osteopenia to normal range). If this hadn’t worked, I would have consulted with Keith McCormick.

I can't recommend Keith McCormick enough. I constantly use his book "Great Bones", available on Amazon. It helps you understand the different standard tests, role of different vitamins and nutriments and exercise. It's a little technical at times but worth the effort. He also has a website where he sells supplements. Good luck.

I just contacted Dr McCormick's office for a consultation. So far, the experience is much better than Dr Lucas, who, as you say, wants to charge a fortune to anyone crossing his path. Thank you so much for sharing your experience with Dr McCormick, he has excellent reviews and I am very excited I found him thanks to you!

I actually never consulted with him but have garnered the most information and direction from his books and interviews. Please let us know how your consult goes. I'm sure you'll gain some insight. Best of luck!

I agree with everything everyone has said. I also am waiting, I have also changed my diet looked at my supplements and done so much research on the medication that's out there for osteoporosis. I also follow Dr Lisa Moore on Brickhouse bones. She is an amazing physical therapist who specializes in osteoporosis and breast cancer survivors. As many have said the strength training is one of the key components of helping osteoporosis. I have also started taking HRT which hopefully everything I'm doing will keep my DEXA stable if not improvement next May

I agree with everything everyone has said. I also am waiting, I have also changed my diet looked at my supplements and did so much research on medication that's out there for osteoporosis. I also follow Dr Lisa Moore on Brickhouse bones. She is an amazing physical therapist who specializes in osteoporosis and breast cancer survivors. As many have said strength training is one of the key components of helping osteoporosis. I also started taking HRT which hopefully with everything I'm doing will keep my DEXA stable if not improvement next May

Try fortibone. It works!

Can you share what results you are basing your comment "It works!" from? Hopeful it will....

Have you checked your serum calcium levels? I was also diagnosed at 56 years old, but mine is from primary hyperparathyroidism. I had my curative surgery in January, and am now hoping for some bone loss reduction since this is one of the cases where it can happen. I'm getting at least 1,000 mg of calcium from dairy, exercising, etc.

Can you tell me what dose of HRT you are taking? Is it transdermal? I just started on 0.025mg transdermal and am thinking about talking to my doctor about possibly increasing to 0.05mg because I've read a couple studies that indicated that while all dosages led to an increase in bone mineral density (BMD), higher doses had a greater increase.
My doctor prescribed HRT for me because I had been experiencing some other premenopausal symptoms. I mentioned that I was also interested in it because I have osteopenia but she said that it is not a first line treatment for osteoporosis and it might theoretically help with that but there wasn't really evidence of that being the case. Since the appointment, I did more reading and found the studies I mentioned above. I'm not sure if I've misinterpreted them or if they are out of date and there is new information I haven't come across. The papers I read were 10+ years old, but from what I understand, HRT is currently an on-label treatment for prevention of post-menopausal osteoporosis. I guess I'm just curious what other people's doctors are prescribing to them with osteoporosis/osteopenia being part of the equation. Thanks!