Does reducing dosage of steroids help recover from low bone density?

roger, when you first begin steroid use bone loss is caused by an increase in osteoclasts. With long term use steroids reduce the number and the life span of osteoblasts. Reducing the dosage of steroids, would lessen the effect, but may be detrimental to your breathing. Alendronate will address the osteoclasts; it doesn't build bone. It allows your body to preserve the bone you have. I don't know your numbers, but think you would be better served by a drug that addresses both aspects of bone quality building bone and reducing loss. Both Forteo and Tymlos are drugs you might ask your physician to consider.

@rogerscott8562 My endocrinologist prefers that I get calcium through food sources. When I do need to supplement because I didn’t get enough calcium (minimum of 1200 mg per day) he said I should take one tablet at a time, no more than 400 mg and with food. So I take a tablet with a meal to make sure the calcium tablet is well digested.

@ gently provides good advice. Alendronate is the first medication that most primary care providers go to. Depending on the bone loss you already have you might ask your doctor about the “bone building” meds. I get monthly injections of Evenity that is covered by Medicare. I have had no side effects.

How are you feeling? Do you like to walk? I walk both for exercise and for osteoporosis in a local gym which has the added bonus of socializing with others. What do you like to do?

Thanks for the tips. I like to walk, bike and hike. My goal is 7000 steps per day. I probably average over 5000. Reading about 3% improvements depresses me. If steroids caused my bone density loss, perhaps I can approach normal by ingesting more calcium and cutting steroids by 75%. I also use 9 pound dumb bells.

you know rogerscott all these other remedies are important. And you could add vitamin K2. But 3% increase in bone density is a geater increase in prevention of fracture. I have the opinion that you won't get any % with the other important remedies. You need the steroids, so give yourself a chance with these great OP drugs that all these researchers have spent their lives making available so that you won't have to have a devastating fracture that could upend all your exercise ambitions. You'll still be able to take your vitamins, though.

All this without a medical degree and not even knowing your OP numbers might be a little much.

it is possiible but what i find to be absolutely amazing is the frs say nothing. like anything else to treat osteoprosis you need to know the cause one size does not fit all so be careful what medication you choose

Sorry, I am new to this disease. What are OP drugs?

OsteoPorosis drugs. Sorry, and welcome to the party, Roger. You probably already know this:
osteoclasts are the cells that produce an acid to dissolve your bones so that the osteoblasts can fill all those acid-gaps with new bone. If you suddenly started playing tennis, for example, your arm bones would need to be able to withstand the impact from a different direction. The bones signal the osteoclasts and the osteoclasts signal the osteoblasts and they remodel the bone so that it doesn't break. It isn' t just new bone, its bone in which the strands (called spicules) line up in a direction that better withstands the pressure.
When you take a drug like alendronate (a bisphsophonate), you stop the remodel. Sadly, we do this just as we become aware that we need more exercise. So we challenge our bones with new activity while handicapping it's ability to cope with that exercise.
Even so, these drugs have prevented more fractures than they've caused. They work slowly because essentially they collect old bone and clad it.
I prefer the anabolic (bone building) middle age drugs (Forteo and Tymlos) especially for us older folk because they work faster and you end up with stronger, metabolically active bone.
Most of us consider estrogen, but you might consider testosterone.

@rogerscott8562 There’s a free online osteoporosis and bone summit starting today that you might find helpful. I found it beneficial when it was last year, when I had just found out I had osteoporosis. Registration is at https://morebonehealth.byhealthmeans.com/
Also, “Great Bones” is an excellent reference book on osteoporosis. Author is Keith McCormick. You can find it at Amazon, library, or osteonaturals.com

tetris, thanks. I think I got some of the information I 've been looking for from todays video about the relationship between CTX and P1NP. His example was that if your CTX is at 600 your P1NP should be above 50. That seems like too easy a mark to meet. I'd like to just rest contentedly with that information. Doesn't seem quite right.

Thanks for the education. I did not realize osteoclasts have a positive function. I need to talk with my doctor about my options. I first need find out my tolerance fore alendronate. I start tomorrow when I can access my doctor in case I have a bad reaction. I might go back to resistance machines. I have been off them for two years.
Here are my numbers. Let me know how bad they are:
BONE DENSITOMETRY (DEXA)

CLINICAL: Screening for osteoporosis. History of prior
fractures. History of long term steroid medication use for
treatment of asthma.

PROCEDURE: Bone densitometry, Standard.

BONE DENSITY:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Region BMD T-score Z-score Classification
-----------------------------------------------------------------
AP Spine(L3, L4) 0.743 -3.5 -2.3 Osteoporosis
Femoral Neck (Left) 0.533 -2.9 -1.4 Osteoporosis
Total Hip (Left) 0.638 -2.6 -1.5 Osteoporosis
Femoral Neck (Right) 0.461 -3.4 -1.9 Osteoporosis
Total Hip (Right) 0.565 -3.1 -2.0 Osteoporosis
-----------------------------------------------------------------

10-year Fracture Risk:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FRAX not reported because:
Some T-score for Spine Total or Hip Total or Femoral Neck at
or below -2.5
-----------------------------------------------------------------