Limfa Therapy?

Wondering about this:

"T-scores* improved by 24% and bone mineral density improved by 3.3%"

I always thought the percentage of change in T scores was the same as the percentage of change in bone density!

There is SO MUCH I don't know/understand.

@babs10 I did a search and learned that Limfa Therapy is proprietary and has a trademark. It appears to be used all over the world however I'm suspicious of any method that does not have adequate research evidence for its effectiveness. Research studies should be conducted by investigators who do not have any conflicts of interest such as the developers of Limfa Therapy or the company that sells the device that is used. I suggest that you or anyone considering this do a search on Google Scholar where you can find research studies that are peer-reviewed and reliable and valid. I did see a few studies

Google Scholar

-- https://scholar.google.com/

I still have access to the databases at my university where I was a professor (now retired). If you have a university website available to you then that's a very good place to search and find research and scientific articles.

As for me, I am getting Evenity injections. I had my 5th set of injections (out of a total of 12 that are ordered) yesterday with no side effects. I had a sacral fracture in early 2023. I had a lengthy consult with an endocrinologist at Mayo Clinic and this was recommended. He said that I was doing everything possible to maintain bone density at that point and had I not had the sacral fracture he would have recommended that I keep doing what I was doing with diet and exercise. It was that fracture that changed it all for me.

Hi @naturegirl5, I am not considering it - I just hadn't ever heard of it so appreciate your informative post. Thank you.

Yes, fractures do change everything...

@babs10. I’m relieved to know you aren’t considering it. I hadn’t heard of it either but when I encounter something new here on Connect I usually look it up and learn.

@windyshores I've always wondered about percentage of change in bone density. I've never seen it explained anywhere. So I spent hours today trying to figure it out. The short answer is that the percentage of change calculated using BMD is not the same percentage as using if you used T scores.

On my DXA scan reports the percentage of change is reported based using BMD. I suspect that is what the usual figure is derived from in our discussions etc. If you do the calculation based on T-scores you get very different looking numbers just as you wondered about in your comment. If somehow you were given or calculated your own percentage of change using your T-score it could confuse everything.

Here's the formula for calculating the percentage of change which I got from bonup on inspire.com:
((New-Old)/Old)*100= percentage of change
I tried it and it works and matches the results I got from my DXA reports.
It works while using either BMD or the t-score but the numbers only make sense if you are talking about only one or the other. And since the BMD percentage of change is what is normally used a percentage of change from T-scores is just crazy making (the percentages look huge).
I think it makes sense that the numbers are not comparable but that's harder to think about and explain than just saying they are not comparable so I'll stop with that.

@awfultruth and @windyshores- thank you. This conundrum has been bugging me for a long time. So happy you did a deep dive @awfultruth, I will put my values in of my past DEXA’s to see if this works and finally makes sense to me. Even if the numbers are weird maybe it’ll make me feel a bit more understanding of this idea.

For my last DEXA, I calculated the change in my T scores myself because I wanted to exclude L2 due to a fracture. But the percentage of change on the report matched what I got using the original T scores.

If 24% change based on T scores can become 3.3% based on BMD that is a bit distressing!

When looking at two Dexa scan results from one year to another year, the bone mineral density BMD (in grams/cm squared) changes should be compared, not the T scores. The reason is that T score is derived from one’s BMD compared to the average peak BMD and standard deviation of a population. A Dexa machine’s database could change during software updates which may render T or Z score unreliable. However BMD is the original data which the machine reads. What’s important, is to know is the LSC )least significant change) of a machine.

A Dexa report should provide all the information such as bmd% change and LSC (might be in footnote).

I'll have to check. I am now assuming that the percentage change on my report is BMD not T scores. Thanks to @babs20 for bringing this up. I want to be accurate when I cite my 20% spine gain!