Treating Osteoporosis: What works for you?

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Osteoporosis from Mayo Clinic https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/osteoporosis/symptoms-causes/syc-20351968

@bonnieh218, you are quite right. There is an important distinction between words like cure, treat and manage.

Just noticed your posting. I started Forteo four months ago (with no side effects so far). Did you experience good increase in your bone density after you completed the 24-month Forteo regimen?

Good article, and especially the other one (from Readers Digest) that is linked to it.

I think your advice is well taken if you have been diagnosed with Osteopenia, and don’t have other health complications that impact your ability to absorb calcium, or prevent you from exercising. I did all that for 20+ years and held Osteoporosis at bay until I hit my mid-60’s. At that point ... it became clear I was going to need “more”. I had to overcome the feeling of “failure”, because all the steps I had taken hadn’t prevented me from progressing into Osteoporosis, and make the decision to take meds. I chose Forteo (daily injections for two years, and then move to something else), which I am tolerating well. Everyone is unique and we all need to encourage each other to do what you can to educate yourself (which this Forum really helps with) and then make the best personal decision based you can for your health needs.

I have severe osteoporosis. I am on my 3rd year of seeing a wellness coach at a local physical therapy place. I started doing an hour twice a week of strength and resistance training. Then I dropped to an hour a week and Medicare will pay for physical therapy for resistance training. So I do an hour with a wellness coach (individual training) and intense. Then 40 minutes with a physical therapist. Not on the same day. After 1 1/2 years with the wellness coach and a year with the physical therapist, it stopped the osteoporosis in my spine but not my hips. I cannot take the Boniva, Fosamax of the world. My only resort now is for Prolia. But my first bone scan was in 1999, the year I turned 50 and my spine scan was -1.44 then. . It took until 2018 to get to -2.5 in my spine. My total left hip was scanned in 2008 at -2.5 and in 2019 it was -3.4. I am still weighing whether I want Prolia at 70 years old.

So, I am almost 65 and have been on Prolia for 21 months. My hip score was almost as bad as yours. My fear of a hip fracture and loss of independence (I know someone who never got out of her wheelchair), outweighed my fear of Prolia. (I have posted on this blog before but one more time, my hip score improved by 6.5 % and spine by just under 12% after 1 year.

Have you considered Forteo or Tymlos. Both of these meds actually build bone.

Forteo was my doctor's first choice because the bone density increase is significant and fast. Believe the maximum amount of time to be on it is 18 months.

Here is an article Re: Forteo
I don’t know anything about it but thought this article was thought provoking.

Jake

Although Forteo was my doctor's first choice, I did not like the black box warning about osteosarcoma. That definitely factored into my decision to go with Prolia. (history of a variety of different types of cancer in my family including blood and bone cancers.)