Lost height

@maine and all... So sorry you are dealing with this height loss. I am right with you. In my younger days, I was 5' 10.5". I am now, at 76, 5' 6". That is a serious height loss.

Yes. It does change many things in our bodies, and is aan entirely new way of living for me.

My posture is naturally changed. I still stand straight and think i'i'm tall, but, my word! Am I wrong.

I first noticed it as a reality when I had no slacks that fit. None. The legs are very much too long now... all my life I worked to find slacks with legs below my ankles.

The pants hang low from the waist as well. That's lovely!

My tops, shirts don't fit well, in fact, nothing does.

Balance is changed. All my movements different.

This is a serious issue, actually. I think several medical problems with which I've dealt are related to less room in my gut area, diaphragm, chest/lungs, and of course, my bones.

I have for decades as I lost height... beginning with early osteoporosis at 35 years old. No treatments, no doctors. AT 79, medical folks are just realizing the craziness of this, I think.

My intestines and stomach were sluggish and screwy fo decades. Leading to IBD, both diarrhea for years and then constipation. Now, with extra doses of probiotics, those issues are relieved some. Digestion is affected. How much I eat, especially in one sitting...

My spine is affected-which came first? Have had several crushed, broken vertebrae, a lot of spine,hip, neck, shoulder, pain.

I've taken steroids for years in varying dosages. Certainly not helping my bones. And, the normal awful changes in our bodies with steroids... the enlarged belly, looking 10 months pregnant!!!! Shoulders rounded, although that isn't a serious issue for me. I worked to combat that.

I took oyster shell calcium for years. Had an IV Recladt infusion. Only one. Will not have the 2nd as recommended. But, I do think it was helpful. Just tough side effects!

All said, we are dealing with some very real issues resulting from bone height loss. Keep that in mind as you go from one to another. My experience with medical staff is they poo-poo height loss as a problem. It's legitimate and the discomfort is as well.

Blessings... Elizabeth

@maine and all... So sorry you are dealing with this height loss. I am right with you. In my younger days, I was 5' 10.5". I am now, at 76, 5' 6". That is a serious height loss.

Yes. It does change many things in our bodies, and is aan entirely new way of living for me.

My posture is naturally changed. I still stand straight and think i'i'm tall, but, my word! Am I wrong.

I first noticed it as a reality when I had no slacks that fit. None. The legs are very much too long now... all my life I worked to find slacks with legs below my ankles.

The pants hang low from the waist as well. That's lovely!

My tops, shirts don't fit well, in fact, nothing does.

Balance is changed. All my movements different.

This is a serious issue, actually. I think several medical problems with which I've dealt are related to less room in my gut area, diaphragm, chest/lungs, and of course, my bones.

I have for decades as I lost height... beginning with early osteoporosis at 35 years old. No treatments, no doctors. AT 79, medical folks are just realizing the craziness of this, I think.

My intestines and stomach were sluggish and screwy fo decades. Leading to IBD, both diarrhea for years and then constipation. Now, with extra doses of probiotics, those issues are relieved some. Digestion is affected. How much I eat, especially in one sitting...

My spine is affected-which came first? Have had several crushed, broken vertebrae, a lot of spine,hip, neck, shoulder, pain.

I've taken steroids for years in varying dosages. Certainly not helping my bones. And, the normal awful changes in our bodies with steroids... the enlarged belly, looking 10 months pregnant!!!! Shoulders rounded, although that isn't a serious issue for me. I worked to combat that.

I took oyster shell calcium for years. Had an IV Recladt infusion. Only one. Will not have the 2nd as recommended. But, I do think it was helpful. Just tough side effects!

All said, we are dealing with some very real issues resulting from bone height loss. Keep that in mind as you go from one to another. My experience with medical staff is they poo-poo height loss as a problem. It's legitimate and the discomfort is as well.

Blessings... Elizabeth

@grantwriter If you have had multiple spine fractures then you should be offered an anabolic bone-building drug according to recent guidelines. This is according to the Bone Health & Osteoporosis Foundation BHOF. See the below highly-technical research paper, and also the talk by osteoporosis expert Dr. Lewiecki discussing it.

This are recent 2024/2025 conclusions. Our very-busy doctors are not up on the most recent developments on every subject, and some may even pre-date when your doctor made the recommendations.

See Figure 5 in this technical paper. Some of us have found it useful to bring such research papers to our doctors.
Goal-directed osteoporosis treatment: ASBMR/BHOF task force position statement 2024
https://academic.oup.com/jbmr/article/39/10/1393/7723496
You can start about 30 minutes in to the below video to see just the recommendations that are also from the above paper. But I recommend taking the hours to study this amazing talk and slides. See the link to bigger copies of the slides by expanding the notes under the video.

@grantwriter If you have had multiple spine fractures then you should be offered an anabolic bone-building drug according to recent guidelines. This is according to the Bone Health & Osteoporosis Foundation BHOF. See the below highly-technical research paper, and also the talk by osteoporosis expert Dr. Lewiecki discussing it.

This are recent 2024/2025 conclusions. Our very-busy doctors are not up on the most recent developments on every subject, and some may even pre-date when your doctor made the recommendations.

See Figure 5 in this technical paper. Some of us have found it useful to bring such research papers to our doctors.
Goal-directed osteoporosis treatment: ASBMR/BHOF task force position statement 2024
https://academic.oup.com/jbmr/article/39/10/1393/7723496
You can start about 30 minutes in to the below video to see just the recommendations that are also from the above paper. But I recommend taking the hours to study this amazing talk and slides. See the link to bigger copies of the slides by expanding the notes under the video.

@kfhoz Why was there no discussion on potential side effects for these OP drugs?

I am 80 yeRS old and have had osteoporosis at least since I was 40. I was 4’11” most of my life yesterday measured at Dr office am now 4’7”” am wondering how much more height I’ll lose before I disappear,, !,, took alendronate for 14 years and didn’t see much improvement in DEXA so quit 8 years ago. I feel ok don’t think I want to go back to drugs that are accompanied wth side effects. It’s the last quarter of my life I’m dealing with it

@janiskr I think that half of this forum on osteoporosis is related to medication side-effects. Each drug has a list of side effects discovered in the original acceptance trials. Others mention where to find the medication side effects.

Here is an example search on MayoClinic Connect:
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/group/osteoporosis/
And here are some of the hits for that search:
Evenity Side Effects
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/evenity-7/
Tymlos side effects
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/tymlos-side-effects-5/
Risedronate side effects
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/risedronate-side-effects/
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/prolia-side-effects-2/
Tymlos side effects?
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/tymlos-side-effects-4/
Teriparitide side effects
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/teriparitide-side-effects/
Tymlos side effects
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/tymlos-side-effects-3/
Tymlos side effects
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/tymlos-side-effects-2/
Forteo side effects
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/forteo-side-effects-1/
Side Effects of Evenity?
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/side-effects-of-evenity/

@kfhoz and all... This research is extremely interesting. I am 79 years old. I have extensive damage from Osteoporois beginning at age 35. I'm through now researching and attempting to resolve this problem with my body. I've done research for all these years, fought the battles, advocated with many doctors for help and treatment, and am too tired and worn out now to do any more. I am living with the situations I have, doing my best to make it to another year.

I do not want to add any more stress at all. No more medications either. No treatments, either. I want peace at this stage and have not much more fight left in me. That's left now to you folks coming up with these diseases to fight for yourselves and others and get treatments that help. I wish you well. I am finished with that.

Currently, my emphasis is on my muscles, damaged by Oxympic, Metforman, diabetes caused by steroids, steroids and all the other nasty, damaging chemicals I put in my body through the last decades attempting to improve my health. I am lasar focused on continuing to walk, to lift my feet, to make my muscles listen to the nerves and work. To keeping my body as stable as possible to get through each day and maybe the next.

It's been a very long fight the last 50 years to survive. I am now praying and focusing on settling into my home comfortable for me at this point in my life and having some peace.

Blessings to all... Elizabeth