I am similar to Candy's assessment. I worked as a teacher, on my feet all day for 30 years. I have walked/exercised every day for years. I too have stomach/gut issues. I had to retire from teaching because my back suddenly began to hurt every day. I am told I have arthritis as well as disc slippage/degeneration in my spine. My Dexa scans just keep getting slowly worse over the years. I do believe osteoporosis occurs, in large part, to loss of natural hormones like estrogen. My mother had 7 children so she had it coursing through her body for many years of her life. It's what kept her young looking and she passed at age 96. But my generation of women were advised NOT to take hormone replacement therapy. What a mistake! We women are paying the consequences of this decision on the part of the medical community. I, like many others here, are stressed about taking medicine for the rest of our lives. It seems unnatural. Yet we don't want to suffer from a bad fracture. So, it comes down to which medicine is best for each person. And I don't think all the Vit. D and raw calicum that I take really helps, as my Dexa numbers keep slipping further. I am reading these posts carefully and thank every single brave woman here that is going through this difficult decision.