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I reversed osteoporosis without drugs
Osteoporosis & Bone Health | Last Active: Aug 26 8:42am | Replies (357)Comment receiving replies
I am 74. Menopause at 50. Scores attached. I did upper body strength training. Lower body walking. Added ankle weights after 2nd scan and see how the hip improved in 2 months. NOTE I had. TBS score which tests bone quality. Doctors are starting to see that that is more important than bone density. For example, our bone density increases after we’re born and we are at 90% by the time we are 15 years old. Young children have low bone density. But they don’t break a bone when they fall as a rule. Because their bones are soft the quality is good. What we need to watch out for our brittle bones. So if you have poor bone density, but good quality, then talk to a Doctor Who understands that because you may not have a high fracture right. Bone density alone is not the best measure of your chances of a fracture. You also need a CTX blood test. That will show if you are losing density quickly and if you’re not, you’re in good shape also, depending on your other tests. It is not easy to find someone who does the TBS Score. It is just a software that is added to the DEXA scan but it’s just not in a lot of offices. Mostly just in hospitals and even then not a lot of them. This is a link to help you find one. I don’t believe it’s complete, but I don’t know how else to find someone who has the software.
http://www.medimapsgroup.com/
Replies to "I am 74. Menopause at 50. Scores attached. I did upper body strength training. Lower body..."
My bone density results improved from 10 years ago according to a recent DEXA scan to my surprise. I didn't do a lot except take a supplement that I put a friend on to help heal his broken neck and which his neurosurgeon and orthopedic physician approved. I started taking the stuff because it was just sitting on the kitchen counter. It includes what I think of as the bone-support trinity of algae-based house, vitamin D3 and K2 plus trace minerals including boron.
Otherwise my bad eating habits and everything were still in effect, including drinking a lot of coffee which I now know is bad for the bones so has been curtailed. [I have a sneaking suspicion that I might have lost a lot of bone density earlier in life because of some lifestyle factors like erratic diet, etc.]
I'm done a lot of research and reading the studies about bones and bone health over the past year. I'm taking this stuff seriously because I hope to never ever take any of the currently available osteoporosis drugs. One thing that I found encouraging was that exercise, especially resistance training, results in the bones and muscles engaging in a feedback loop. That is subjecting bones to appropriate and safe stress, over time, can trigger or speed up bone cell reproduction. And some of the information that the bone needs is communicated by the muscles being used.
It's almost as if the body is asking if this is the new normal, this level of activity, and if so decides to prepare for it. For some reason I thought that was profoundly encouraging and just further reconfirms my appreciation for the mysteries of the human body. But it's also a really good argument for thoughtful resistance training beyond the obvious benefits.
Thank you for this. I used your link, found a clinic not too far away, and tried to schedule but they say I need a referral. I am hopeful I will get it. Where do you get the CTX from? My doctor said he can only order it if I’m on the drugs (which I’m not).
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These tests are irrelevant for me @sheilad1. I have been dealing with osteoporosis for 14 years and as I wrote before, already have 7 spinal fractures. I did have a baseline CTX but it honestly was not that useful. I have an excellent doctor who has been in the field forever, and also talk with Dr. McCormick.
I don't see any scores for you, for bone density or bone quality. I would be interested in seeing them at the time when you had osteoporosis, then osteopenia and then back to normal.
I think that BOTH density and quality are important. Tests for density (DEXA) have been a pretty good measure of my situation and I have charted them since 2001 so I can see trends over time.