Just been diagnosed with osteopenia

Those results are very minor. My worst back one is -4.3 so that puts your results into perspective.

I would just look at my diet if I were you and do weight bearing exercises.

Skip sugar and make sure your food is containing all the vitamins and minerals you need.

Keep an eye on your calcium and vitamin D levels each time you have blood tests. Definitely take vitamin K2 as well.

thanks, yes I was thinking they were minor results too. Do you think doctor was too quick to prescribe the ideos tablets? - I suppose there is risk if you overdose on calcium as well as if you dont get enough.

Take vitamin K2 that will put the calcium onto the bones. Wait to see your blood tests because you may need vitamin D in particular. People are short on that even in sunny countries now which is a puzzle.

I would take the calcium along with the vitamin D and then keep an eye via your blood tests.

K2 is really important.

My husband has two vitamin D3 per day and I have one and we live in Australia.

Magnesium is another one to check out. 

Our food is not as good as it used to be for a variety of reasons such as soil quality and chemicals.

thanks for all your replies - will get some of those K2 suppliments. Have been on magnesium since 2009 . I have been on these multivitamins for the last month. They have 5ug of D3 and 40mg of calcium in them:

 

That is not a lot of calcium so stay with them until your doctor says you are getting enough.

Iv been diagnosed also with Osteoporosis, the shock lasted for couple weeks but decided to research the drugs I was offered and I decided to accept the Adcal-D3 but refused the BISPHOSPHONATES. The side affects were just too scary for me. I'm taking Vitamin K2 M-7, by SOLGAR.

I'm also taking (after research ) something I'm not allowed to say. The downside to the ADCAL-D3 is chronic constipation.

Me too, I tried to come at taking the drugs but kept baulking and putting it off. So, for now at least, I am trying to improve my bone density naturally.

 

My back is also -4.3 which frightened me. I was just told I had osteoporosis and offered the Bisphosphonates.

Can I ask what particular foods are you eating, also do you know how lng between DAXA scans can you have another one?

Do you mean you also get constipation with the ADCAL-D3?

HI dolly my consultant told me not to have a dexa without a year gap. Kathleen and I are conducting our own little experiment as just over 2 years ago, we had the same T score. As I had always done the "natural method" and still developed OP I started on Bisphosphonates. I have had no side effects and my score has improved greatly. In another few months I should not need them as my hips are alread into the LBM  category.. i was devistated when I got my initial results but I am still running, walking 15,000 steps a day, and doing everything I always did except for my bike.( I have a brain tumour on my balance nerve, lucky me,) Although I don't fall over, I have had fractures in the past. Good luck with your decision.

We make soups with bones. I have yoghurt every night but my husband cannot have dairy. I have cucumber with the skin on as part of salad for lunch. We use avocado as butter with lunch every day. Leafy greens are always included with dinner vegetables. Prunes are another good one to have. Jellies are good especially if you are vegetarian and not having the bone broths.Fruit and vegetables are really important. We try to have some grass fed beef and they even have grass fed mince now.

We are not having sugar at all but we do have honey on our porridge.

Basically, we have good food with no rubbish and low calories.

In Australia, we can have them annually but it is over a year since my last one. Last one I had showed little difference but I had just started watching my diet and I cannot manage much exercise unfortunately. 

No. I cannot afford to have constipation as I have crohns. I take vitamin D3 but not usually calcium. I keep an eye on it in my blood tests.

I have come to realise that the tscores are only a number and not to worry too much. 

I actually regret ever having the first Dexa scan as I would have been oblivious of all this. A lot of people I know in their seventies have never had one and are unaware of the term osteoporosis.

Kathleen thank you for your reply. Yes I also wish I'd never had a Dexa a scan I seem to have become quite subdued now because I worry. Some people say it's best to know, but I would rather be oblivious to the whole damn thing. Anyway hopefully your next scan will show more positive results.

But dolly, now you know, you can change your eating habits, if necessary, change your exercise regimen, if necessary, look at other meds that might have caused you to have OP and many other lifestyle changes, again if necessary. Forearmed is forewarned. Pervention is best and now you know, perhaps you can stop it getting any worse.

Thank you Alison I shall take this all on board

Hi Dolly, my apologies for coming late to this conversation, I've just been diagnosed with Osteopenia after I fell and broke a hip 3 months ago, I asked my doctor if we could check my bone density and got the results a couple of days ago.   I've been put on Calceos Calcium and Vit D3 supplement which I have no problem with.   However, I've also been prescribed Alendronic Acid, I've read the side effects and I'm very reluctant to start taking it . . .  there has to be another way, surely?  I was looking at bone health supplements?

I may also start this as another thread as I'm desperate to learn more, I find I've become quite anxious over this diagnosis, but even more anxious about the potential side effects of the treatment.

Thanks,

Sue

I am vegetarian and jellies are not suitable for a vegetarian diet as they are made from animal derived connective tissue. You do get substitutes derived from seaweed but not sure how much they would contribute to bone health. Might be like other greens and be benificial. Will need to look into this. Great for iodine though

Hi Susan, although iv declined the BISPHOSPHONATES after researching

them, I have a friend who's been on them for over five years with no side effects.

However, research shows that after FIVE years they have the opposite effect and actually make bones mire brittle.

You may have read earlier that iv been prescribed Adcal-D3. I purchase myself VITAMIN K2 M-7 (ONE A DAY)

THIS vitamin directs the calcium in the blood (arteries ) into the bones. It's worth a try.

Like a previous contributer to this forum, the diagnosis of osteoporosis has made me a nervous wreck, and I wish I had never had a DEXA scan.

I am the opposite. I am very glad I had a dexa scan so I can halt the deterioration of my bones before it got any worse. I met someone who had been on AA for....9 YEARS with no side effects. Unbelievable, but she has no intention of stopping it. She is 72 now. Where I am, they would not let us stay on it for that length of time

I was devastated when I got the osteoporosis diagnosis.  But my doctor was wrong and when I finally got my t-score from the clinic (which was an adventure in itself) and found out it was only osteopenia I quite literally felt a great weight gradually lifting from ny shoulders all that day.  In the two months which had elapsed since the "osteoporosis" diagnosis I had resisted my doctor's efforts to put me on aa, which she was more determined about after attending an osteoporosis workshop - one wonders who sponsored the workshop!  I had reached out on Facebook and a couple of friends had pointed me in the right direction, including alerting me to Vitamin K2.  I read a library book all about K2, and the rest, as they say, is history.  I guess because I continued to behave as though I had OP and continued to work very hard to improve my bones it has proven quite successful.

When I read posts like this, I realise how lucky I am to have a fantastic GP and the excellent care I have had on my personal journey with OP. My journey too has been very sucessful and I can only give credit to the care and advice I have received from the medical professionals 

I got my doctor when I was suffering greatly from undiagnosed polymyalgia.  I have to say her treatment of me for that has been excellent (mostly hands off, let me go at my own pace) but she's turned out to be a bit of a dud for anything else.  

There is good and bad in every profession and medicine is no different.

Unfortunate, then, that medicine is literally life and death.  as I am now 70 I do think she could have been a bit more helpful than "I'm not worried about it" when I complained about what seems to be an erratic heartbeat.  

I too have had both positive and negative experiences re my health. The OP was great but the brain tumour was handled very badly . Lost my hearing which could have been prevented if someone had paid attention to my concerns.  Another problem I have, is finally being followed up, but it has been a battle to get this far. Now, someone is taking my concers seriously and its a relief, even if it is bad news. I will deal with it as I do with everything else. To be honest, my only medical sucess story has been OP. Everything else is a fight. I hope your heart problem turns out to be nothing serious.

I'm sorry to learn of your other health problems.  I "treated" my skippy heart by consuming more salt and also my pred dose continues to get lower.  Guess I should just insist on having my blood pressure checked, that's the least she can do!  And like you I really prefer to know what's going on.  That way we can deal with it, come to terms with it, work proactively to help ourselves.  I think the doctors will have to get used to the idea that their patients, even the older ones, are a whole new animal to deal with - we have the internet, we are able to investigate and share information and experiences unlike any previous generation, and we want to be and should be treated as partners in our own care!

True things have changed. I remember asking my grandmother what her pills, she had just been prescribed, were for. I was about 12 or 13 at the time. She was horrified. The Doctor gave her the prescription, she would never dream of asking him what they were for!!! Just a thought, your iron levels are ok?

Osteopenia does not even warrant taking the drugs. 

Add vitamin K2 as well because it aims the calcium onto the bones.

As you are only osteopenic you may be be more successful at helping your bones naturally.

I don't know why doctors are even prescribing fosamax or any of the drugs when it is not even in the osteoporosis range.

Look at your diet as well and include as many of the goodies as you can.

Thank you Dolly - I've been taking a look at the supplements I'm already taking and they have all the vitamins and minerals you're talking about - I just have to work out the amounts of each that are necessary - I just have a gut feeling that the AA is wrong for me at this point.

Sue

Thank you Kathleen - really hoping I can working on doing this naturally

Susan x

If your scores are still in the LBM bracket and your diet and exercise regeime can be improved, you should certainly be able to turn this around without drugs. Hopefully, in the meantime, you don't break anything else. Good luck

My iron has tended to be low, but I was taking iron supplements at the time this heart issue was at its worst!  I think it was a prednisone side effect.

Possibly was. I know when my iron levels are low my heart beat can fluctuate but since I have been taking gentle iron daily, no problems. One less thing to worry about. Glad you got it sorted too. 

Perhaps I mentioned a brand name.  I am pleased you got a result. My heart rate tended to flutuate when my iron level was low but I have been taking a tablet daily that does not cause side effects that some iron tablets do and no more skipped beats

I had to take iron supplements years ago and hated them, so this time around when told I needed them again I would have been noncompliant, but my doctor suggested liquid iron.  Not available at the pharmacy but can get at an organic foods store and in the "wellbeing" section of the supermarket!  If I wasn't a vegetarian I'd just eat liver, as I am one of those weird people who actually like liver!

I never liked any red meat. Even as a child my mother grated cheese on everything for me, to mask the taste of red meat. So although I accept that being vegetarian could contribute to me haveing low iron levels, it was discovered a few years ago, I just didn't absorb iron well. My B12 levels have always been normal and this is another one we veggies need to watch.