Stomach Protection

Thank you for advice.

Good luck!

Eileen H

Thank you very much for all the information.  I was not aware enteric-coated Prednisolone came in 1mg and 2.5mg.  I was only aware of the 5mg.  I have had a Dexa scan and was shocked to discover I have osteoporosis already.  I still don't want to take alendronic acid.   I've been to see a Naturopath who told me that obtaining calcium from food is better than taking calcium supplements and she also told me to take a Vitamin K & D supplement.  Started on low fat Greek yoghurt yesterday.  Thanks again.

It depends on how low your t-score readings are, Anhaga on this forum brought her -2.0 reading up to -1.6 in a year just with diet, supplements and exercise but that wasn't frank osteoporosis. 

Alendronic acid is not the only option - and while your naturopath is quite correct that dietary calcium is better than supplements, there are added aspects for the patient on pred which makes us lose calcium through the kidneys, Having extra in the form f supplements helps protect against that.

 

Yes, getting what you can from food is always preferable, but you already have bone thinning and you are on pred which as Eileen points out can affect how your body absorbs some of the  necessary micronutrients.  I read recently that studies have shown eating a little yoghurt when you have your calcium supplement helps the body to absorb more, perhaps, I speculate, because of the presence of microbes in yoghurt.  And, as you already know, Vitamin K2 (not K1) is very important.  Did your naturopath mention the importance of also maintaining your magnesium level, both because calcium supplements without magnesium can actually throw off the balance between these minerals, so supplement taken at a separate time from calcium can be helpful.  And I understand that pred causes us to lose magnesium.

"studies have shown eating a little yoghurt when you have your calcium supplement helps the body to absorb more"

I think there may be a bit to do with having fat present too - none in the supplements themselves but it is essential.

I found a medscape article from 2016 which begins:

ATLANTA (updated with commentary) — Healthy postmenopausal women who eat at least one serving of yogurt a day have a lower body mass index (BMI), less fat, and better bone density — at least at some skeletal sites — than women who never consume yogurt, new research shows.

Over time, women who ate yogurt also had less cortical bone loss than women who never ate it, and this was independent of any other factor that could account for differences in bone density, such as physical activity and total calcium intake.

"Yogurt is a source of nutrients, in particular calcium and protein, but it also contains fermented dairy products and probiotics, all of which are potentially beneficial for bone health," Emmanuel Biver, MD, PhD, chief resident at the Geneva University Hospitals, Switzerland told attendees here at the American Society of Bone and Mineral Research 2016 Annual Meeting.

"So we hypothesized that yogurt consumption might attenuate bone loss in postmenopausal women, and this benefit would be independent of total dietary calcium and protein intake," he added.

"And our data suggest that there is a possible protective effect of fermented dairy products on postmenopausal cortical bone loss," he stressed.

Asked by Medscape Medical News to comment, session cochair Marian Hannan, DSc, MPH, professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, said she was "very taken" with the study and that the investigators had addressed all of her concerns.

She suggested the effects observed could have been because the women were more physically active and/or because of the protein in the yogurt, "but they controlled for physical activity" and "they did the best they could for adjusting for total protein."

"So I would take away from this study that there appears to be something to yogurt," she noted.

 

Anhaga, Thanks for the information.  I am taking a supplement containing vitamins  D3 with K2.  Because I get palpitations while on my present dose of Prednisolone I wondered if it was because of depletion of magnesium so I started to take a Magnesium 260mg daily in the evening which helps with the palpitations so I hope it helps re bones too.  I will change to full fat yoghurt to get more calcium.

Yes - I'd seen it. No mention of the type of yoghurt - and the need for fat with calcium seems to skim along under the surface of awareness! Pun intended...

The gallons of Yeo Valley I've eaten maybe accounts for my "amazing" bone density. That was the word my hip surgeon actually used. Well, I'll carry on with it anyway.