Undecided choice of drugs for Osteoporosis

Re your first question re whether I was told that the meds I was taking for COPD were implicated in my osteoporosis, no. I have always done my own reearch & finding contraindications for Advair & Incruse re osteoporosis wasn/t difficult.

I'll be seeing my family doctor on Friday & we will have a lot to talk about! I don.t know whether I mentioned it earlier but when I asked him in October what his recommendation was following the results of the latest bone density scan, he right away said "Reclast." I had never heard of it at that point so I was noncommital but at the moment I don't want to start with that.

I tried getting Ben Leder yesterday but the picture & sound were really bad, so I gave up.

Thank you again!!!

Pam

janfluke,
I will get my first Reclast infusion in May.
Nervous, but I’ve been lucky so far with radical drugs. 🙂

@susanfalcom52 did you ever do Evenity?

@guinivere I take those warnings on those meds causing osteoporosis with a grain of salt and figure the companies have to list that as a possible side effect. The risk is low to zero from what I have read. And inhaled steroids help prevent oral steroids, which do indeed affect bone.

https://asthma.net/clinical/inhaled-corticosteroids-osteoporosis
"Osteoporosis is a decrease in bone mass or bone density, characterized as “bone loss”. While oral corticosteroids taken over long periods can lead to bone loss, it was established that the use of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) at “conventional doses” for asthma and COPD did not appear to be associated with osteoporosis."

Ask your doc about a bone builder first: Evenity, Tymlos or Forteo. These are then followed by Reclast or Fosamax (some follow with Prolia but my docs don't recommend that). It works better to do a bone builder first unless your scores aren't too bad.

Yes. I’m doing Evenity now. Had 10th injections last week. I have tolerated it well.
Of course, I won’t know if it’s helped until dexa in May.

Inhaled steroids did a number on my bone density. Even pulmonary Dr. told me to stop using preventively and use only when necessary.

@sallyj2 are you sure? Are there other possible factors? I am genuinely curious because everything I have read over the years says effect is zero or negligible. Would you have had to do oral instead?

I used inhaled to avoid oral sometimes. I was given inhaled for years as preventative as they used to be marketed. My doctors absolutely think the inhaled steroids impacted my bone density. The recommendation now is to use when needed, not everyday for years. Certainly, they are better than oral or shots, but I didn’t need them every day. They used to be marketed to improve lung function if used on a daily basis. My bmd improved when I quit using them.

I am 79 and have osteoporosis in hips, spine, etc.I do not tolerate new drugs. Reactions to bothReclast and Prolia seem off the charts. I have never broken a bone and can walk miles., I am terrified of taking one of these many recommended drugs that only seem to help hips. If treatment causes a flair up in my autoimmune diseases (fibromyalgia, polymyalgia rheumatica, etc.) it would mean the end of my walks.. It’s about quality of life. Is there no way to build bone naturally? My Rheumatologist wants me to take Prolia. Any advice? I took fosamax for 10 years and had to get off due to reactions. Bones never improved.

@patrish Tymlos, Forteo or Evenity to build bone. I have an autoimmune disorder and chose Tymlos.