Zoledronic acid (Aclasta)

Hi, I see what you are saying but i dont drink a lot of milk and only take Natecal. I do not do any special exercise as i am still running a Bed and Breakfast and have enough Washing Ironing and Housework. I still Ski and do indoor Boules and look after my Grandson once a week, at 72yr thats all i have the Energy for. I have been on Steroids for 21months down to 4.5mg at the moment. The Rhuemy also suggested taking vitamin D.  Any more thoughts as i am still bewildered!

You'll be pleased to hear that milk is not the best source for calcium!  Apparently up to three cups a day of liquid milk is fine, but more than that has a negative effect.  It's easy to get a cup or two a day just from having it in tea or on cereal.  Fermented foods like yoghurt, hard cheese, kefir, are better.  But there's calcium lurking in a lot of what we eat, especially many, although not all, of the leafy greens.  Unless you get a lot of sun and do not live in a northern clime you should take Vitamin D3.  It's included in calcium or special bone supplements, or you can get oily capsules of just the D3.  Other foods which are good include a handful of prunes daily.  They contain a few minerals important for bones, like boron, in a form the body absorbs easily.  Apart from magnesium, which is also often included with calcium supplements and also available in a lot of foods, or through soaking in Epsom salt bath, we need to get Vitamin K2.  This vitamin is hard to get in the modern Western diet, and is really important because it is what makes sure calcium goes into the bones rather than being deposited on the walls of arteries or other places it doesn't belong.  Not the same as K1 which we get from our leafy greens!  I'll private message you a bibliography I have accumulated over the past year or so.  The exercise you're getting sounds really good.  Nordic walking was invented as a way for skiers to keep fit when there was no snow and is now becoming very popular with seniors.  Once you have learned the tai chi moves you can do them in a few minutes at home whenever you have time.  I bet small children would love learning the moves, too!  Your dose of steroids isn't bad, although there can still be some effect on the bones even at low levels.  Nothing like what would happen at higher levels, which may be one reason why they say the greatest effect on the bones occurs in the first three months of being on steroids, that being when our dose tends to be highest.

I don't drink a lot of milk either.  I don't take Calcium supplements.  I do get a complete physical every year including blood work.  My calcium level is fine (my diet is good).  I was, however, slightly deficient in Vitamin D so I take a supplement (1,000) a day.  It's important to get a complete blood work-up; at least once a year.  Of course, I have to get blood work every 6 weeks before I see my Rheumatologist so she can check my SED rate and CRP rate.  It's amazing how when I'm not feeling too good how the blood test reflects it and when I'm feeling good, SED and CRP rates are normal. 

My husband got osteoporosis for being on high dose of prednison for ulcerative colitis. He was taking huge doses of Boneup to reverse osteopenia/osteoporosis

Is that a nutritional supplement?  Has it helped?

Thanks for your reply although i am no nearer to making a decision. Can i ask how long have you been on Pred. My parents died young so have no knowledge of anything in the family. Did you have flue like symptoms after the infusion.

Hi Liz, well my journey is as follows: I developed PMR some time in 2013 and after numerous visits to the doc saying how much pain I was in and also a bout of tendonitis, I got diagnosed in late 2013, at the same time as I was also diagnosed with breast cancer. (I always wonder if there was a connection but I guess a shot immune system is to blame). I was put on Pred in December 2013, and although I managed to get off them for a couple of months, I flared and have been back on them for most of that time, at different levels - currently 16mg. I have osteopenia (both living parents of 94 have osteoporosis) and have been on Bonviva tabs for five years and then a 'rest' for about four years. As I was on Pred the doctor said I should go back on Bonviva to protect my bones, but after cancer I had developed some bleeding in my stomach from meds, so was given a Zoledronic acid infusion as it bypassed the stomach. In truth, I have only had one thus far, in October 2015 and am due another next month. I felt perfectly fine aftter the one I had last year, and protecting my bones is important to me as I don't wish to progress to osteoporosis. I hope this helps you. I guess everyone would react diffently, but my mother has been having the infusions for a number of years and she is always fine. Good luck.

If you have no family history to rely on, I trust you have had a Dexa scan to check out the level of your bone density?  I would make a decision after having a Dexa, so that you know whether or not you really need the infusion. I see you say you are borderline osteoporosis, so I imagine you have had a scan. That sounds like osteopenia, like me.

Yes thats what the good Dr said. I have read a lot of the literature that people have suggested and it would seem a lot of the remedies give you brittle bones which mean you are more susceptible to fractures also the figures show that people who fall and have fractures and have Osteoporosis are in the minority so still not sure, thanks for your input Liz 

Thats cheered me up no end