stephi

Then and Now

This message is directed towards menopausal folks. I came to this board 2 & ½ years ago when I was first diagnosed with osteopenia/osteoprosis at the age of 53 . I was dismayed, because I am very healthy, active and so on. My OB-GYN wanted to put me on Fosamax right away. Naturally I declined as I needed to research data first. Well, 6 books and dozens of articles later I drew certain conclusions about my findings. I wanted to do a natural approach- calcium, D, mag and so on,- continue with my exercise program and some wt. bearing.
I had my second DXA a week ago and was bummed out- as my numbers were worse:
AP Spine: L1-L4 T score 10/04: -2.4 Dual Femur -2.9 Total Mean -2.8
4/07: -2.8 -3.2 -3.0
They noted in the significant column that there was a significant change (for the worse) in my spine and I did not see an asterisk anyplace else. I have not spoken to my new OB/GYN about the results even though she left me a message to call her. I will call her but what I did first was to re-read the Myth of Osteoporosis, and spent hours reading more recent updates about drug therapy and so on. The more I read, the better I felt about not opting for meds even now. I am sending my physician a note with some relevant information about what I based my decisions on and hopefully we will discuss this at a future date.
For now, I decided to up my Vit. D to 800, from 400. I will start a real exercise program with a personal trainer twice a week, as I only did minimal wt-bearing these past 2 years.
I am healthy, active and my only risk factor is that I am petite (weigh about 114). Here is an some interesting article I read:

[url]http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsweek/Update_on_osteoporosis_drugs.htm[/url]