Alendronic Acid and hair loss

Hi Ruby, could you please tell me what supplements you are taking? I have just stopped taking Alendronic Acid and want to do all I can to help myself. Thanks 

Hi, yes, I sprinkle organic flaxseed on my breakfast and chai seed (for the magnesium zinc and calcium) or you can buy magnesium supplements, vit k2 supplements, calcium supplements (or plenty of milk and cheese) and zinc supplements if you are not getting enough in your food ( I rely on the zinc in the flaxseed ) I exercise using my bike and swimming, you must exercise as well or you are wasting your time.  I also have a back stretcher which you can buy on the internet and is very cheap, it is simply a concave shapered structure made of a wood frame.  It often hurts when I use it but it is amazing as I NEVER get any back pain other than when I am using the stretcther (and my job is that I work as a 'carer'.  I have stopped jogging as this is too much shaking about for my joints and started to hurt my joints but took up bike riding which I did almost for the whole summer this year and I only had a little aching on my knees (well I am 55 now!) Pretty good?  I have also bought a book, the guy that did the 5/2 diet, and I have started to eat very sensibly, cutting out a lot of sugary and processed foods, dont drink much, excessive and alcohol will be very bad for your bones with the condition and all plays hell with your microbium.  I am enjoying my life so much, most of the time I have bags of energy, I work for 3 months solid as a live-in-carer 2 weeks off, loads of money and having a wonderful life.  Good luck to you Chris, oh..... and I gave up smoking about 7 years ago  now. XXXXXXX

Thanks so much Ruby. Will certainly take all this on board xx

your most welcome, anytime. xxx

If you feel you should continue taking strontium you should be able to get the natural form, strontium citrate.  I think the only reason strontium ranelate even exists is because it was the only way a drug company could patent it and make money.  You do know not to take strontium and calcium at the same time don't you?  Calcium will interfere with strontium absorption.  

Yes thanks,  I do know.  I take my SR in the middle of the night when I  go to the loo.  I took Strontium Citrate for several months prior to getting SR.  Drs Best have stopped selling it now, due to falling sales, but Life Extention were still selling it  when I enquired last year. 

It concerns me that so much of the Strontium ore is mined in China and India is also getting in on the act. I’m not happy taking Strontium from either of these countries  incase they are contaminated with heavy metals.   At least pharmaceutical companies are better regulated especially over quality control, so  their products are more likely to contain what the label states and less likely to contain contaminants.   

Hopefully another drug will appear that stimulates both the osteoblasts and osteoclasts, to kick start normal bone turnover and NICE will make it available.

i completely understand your concerns about the source of the product.  I live in Nova Scotia and no longer eat salmon because the locally produced fish farms are all sea based and full of disease which spreads to the dwindling wild population, and wild caught Pacific salmon, apart from not tasting nearly as good as Atlantic, seems all to be product of China, at least what is available to me in our supermarkets. 

I personally don't bother with strontium as a supplement although I know in small amounts, as in our food, it's one of the bone making micronutrients..  It increases bone density as measured by DXA scan but that's because it's heavier than calcium.  Do you know if there are any studies showing the bones actually become stronger with extra strontium?

I’m not aware of independent studies.  I  assume the bones would need to be biopsied or broken to test for tensile strength.

The only reason I wanted to take SR was not  because of increased bone density, because even Servier who developed it said their was up to a 50% error due to its greater density,  but because they said  it stimulated both the osteoblasts and osteoclasts. 

They also said it was important to take adequate Ca so that it would ensure that more Ca than Strontium was being incorporated into the ‘new’ bone.  When I asked them what they considered an  ‘adequate’  Ca to be, they wouldn’t  commit themselves,  but to ask my GP.  

I had  already discussed it with the consultant who said I could have SR, after the GP refused on grounds of cost,  and she said that the RDA for Ca  of 1200mg or just above, should be adequate.

At this particular time I was still taking Calcichew D3 as prescribed by my GP.  I was very concerned because I had started monitoring my nutrient intake by weighing my food and discovered that my total Ca intake was often over 2500 mg per day.  Even the Consultant agreed this was far too much and to stop taking the Calichew, continue to get my intake from diet and to buy a separate D3.

The only time I take a Ca supplement ( KoAct)  is if my daily intake from food is going to be lower than my target.  2 capsules contain a total of 150mg of Ca plus 1.5g of collagen chelate.  No idea whether any of it is helping my bones, but at least it’s not upsetting my guts how the Calcichew did.

I was interested in your comment about salmon.  I never buy ‘fresh’ salmon in the U.K.because it’s almost all farmed.    After reading several Mercola articles on the subject of salmon, he says that Alaskan Wild Red Salmon is about the safest,  regarding being wild and not contaminated.   I buy this tinned because  the bones are edible and the vit D3 and omega 3 is still present in the liquid. 

What are your views over this?  Does it sound accurate?

Best wishes

Hi Anhaga. My previous long reply is wailing for the moderator!    I was interested over your comment about wild salmon.  I’ve been buying tinned Alaskan Wild Red Salmon after reading a Mercola article saying this was free of nasties.   What are your views on this please?

I would continue to eat it if you like it.  I'm the sort of person who makes political statements by reading labels and not buying products (when possible, not always is) from countries I feel have undermined our own economies, not, I hasten to add, without our complicity.  I can remember the collective sigh of relief when apartheid officially ended in South Africa and we could buy oranges and sherry and other products we liked from there.  The thing about fish is I live in a place which should be simply swimming in fresh seafood, no pun intended.  And it's simply not easy to find it and also be assured it's been sustainably sourced.  I'm not about to support one of the other countries on the planet which is also or even more, intent on fishing the oceans empty.  I should be able to buy frozen not tinned Pacific salmon product of Canada, or at the very least USA.  Even better, there should still be enough wild Atlantic salmon to support a commercial fishery, and there isn't.  

Because I think I'm not getting enough of the right kind of omega-3 oil I've started taking a supplement made from algae.  It's supposed to have the same healthy omega-3 as fish, so fingers crossed.  

Tinned salmon is very good for our bones because we can eat the softened fish bones.  Sardines similarly.  Not sure why I've gone off tinned fish.  Maybe I should eat it occasionally.  

My other reply was responding to your shorter post!  I take a couple of different kinds of calcium supplement.  One kind provides 900 mg per day if all six capsules are taken during the day but I only take two  The other has a much lower maximum dose.  I worked out the other day that my total intake through supplements is something like 550 mg per day, taken at lunch and in the evening.  At a clinic for people diagnosed with osteoporosis we were told it was more important to make sure we got enough Vitamin D and most of us would be getting enough calcium through our diets.  Because I have to take prednisone to treat polymyalgia rheumatica I thought it important to keep on taking some calcium supplements anyway.  And I added Vitamin K2 after a friend told me about it.