Osteoporosis: What tests confirm diagnosis and treatment options?

Good afternoon @leeosteo. Unfortunately, I do not personally know the answer to your question about calcium. I had real digestive difficulty with a daily supplement and ended up with high calcium. So I talked with my PCP and here is what we figured out. She gave me a list of other ways to ensure sufficient calcium. I tried some of the suggested foods and was concerned about the reaction to other medications. I also found the sugar-free plain yogurts to be pretty tasteless. So my current solution is simple: Chobani makes a Zero Sugar "flavored" yogurt with calcium. I then add Fairlife non-fat milk with 30% of the daily dose and recommended fruits. I end up with at least 60% of my daily calcium goal and find the rest in dinner with salmon and high-calcium veggies.

PS: I sneak in iced yogurt bars for a treat in the evenings. Don't tell anyone!!!!!!!

Hope this gives you a headstart. What have you been using?
Chris

I've been keeping a food log for a suspected allergy. In this process I realized I was not getting enough calcium through food. I do take a multivitamin in the morning and Caltrate calcium pill with dinner. This still did not get me to my calcium target. My diet is good with whole foods but more acid then alkaline and low calcium. I know it's best to get calcium from food vs supplements. So now I've been adjusting my diet to include more calcium rich and alkaline foods (mostly fruits/veggies). I'll keep taking my multivitamin and calcium supplements and look for further direction from my PCP.

For now, I've added Simply Orange Juice with calcium/vitamin D, Cabot vanilla yoghurt with calcium/vitamin D (BTW, the only yoghurt I've found that includes vitamin D). These may have natural or added sugar so I'll work to find the equivalent with low fat/sugar. Baby steps!

I find plain yogurt tasteless but don’t want to use artificial sweeteners. I have found Nature’s Wild Berry to be the answer. Eating one berry changes anything you eat from sour to sweet for about 20 mins. It is strange but yogurt tastes like a bowl of cream! Delicious! Such a great hack to eat and enjoy yogurt but avoid sugar and artificial sweeteners. Available on Amazon , expensive but one a day and they last a long time.

I went from oseopenia to osteoporosis in what seemed like a short time. I was a very active women, walking 4 miles a day and my bone deterioration did not make sense to me. I had a urine test to determine that I had abnormally high calcium amounts in my urine. I saw an endocrinologist who determined that one of my parathyroid glands (we have four) was overactive and needed to be removed. I am two years post surgery and due for another dexa scan and blood work to see improvement in my bone density. Last year my dexa showed a marked improvement. I am on Fosamax weekly and toleranting it well.
I refused to settle for "older people lose bone density" My mother died at age 90 and never had a broken bone or on any medication. Good luck with your decisions and testing.

I went from oseopenia to osteoporosis in what seemed like a short time. I was a very active women, walking 4 miles a day and my bone deterioration did not make sense to me. I had a urine test to determine that I had abnormally high calcium amounts in my urine. I saw an endocrinologist who determined that one of my parathyroid glands (we have four) was overactive and needed to be removed. I am two years post surgery and due for another dexa scan and blood work to see improvement in my bone density. Last year my dexa showed a marked improvement. I am on Fosamax weekly and toleranting it well.
I refused to settle for "older people lose bone density" My mother died at age 90 and never had a broken bone or on any medication. Good luck with your decisions and testing.

If I may ask, where did you have your parathyroid surgery? I have the same issue.

I live in Colorado just south of Denver. I went to the University of Colorado Medical Hospital. I had two tests that showed the problem. First a 24 hour urine test to determine the level of calcium lost. Second I had an ultrasound of my neck to show the over-active parathyroid gland. Good luck with your choices and options available where you are.