Hi Everyone-well, I took the big step and actually ordered strontium. I had hoped to discuss it with an endocrinologist first, but still haven't got an appointment . Anyway, maybe Phylwill can help me out here: I know you're supposed to take calcium and strontium supplements at completely different times. Does this also apply to calcium-containing foods (eg. soy milk)? So, if I have a glass of soy milk or a calcium supplement at, say, 9PM, how long do I wait before taking the strontium?
While we're on the subject of supplements, I've read several studies that support the use of Vitamin K2 as an improver of BMD. So I ordered that too. We're not allowed to give websites or suggest where to search, but trust me I did read numerous reports.
I really hope this works. I've spent a fortune on growth hormone (to no avail) plus alternative medical consultations. Not to mention all the supplements, blood tests, travel expenses........I'm getting fed up!
Hi! I've been away from the board for a while now, but decided to pop back in as I'm doing some research on Reclast. As for the strontium, I take mine before bedtime, at least 2 hours after eating. Especially don't eat anything containing calcium within 2 hours of the strontium as the 2 of them will compete for absorption. I go for my 2-year bone density next week and I'm hoping for good results. Hope this input on strontium is helpful to you.
Hi Starfish 81. I,ve been taking strontium for over a year now. Will go for a dexa in 2008. I also take mine at bedtime, at least two hours after any food or calcium. No side effects at all. Hoping for the best. Good luck to you.
Thanks Ladies; it's nice to know there are at least a handful of us out there who are going the strontium route, and I like the "no side effects" comments. Take it at least 2-3 hours before/after eating eh? That means before bed......gee, maybe this will force me to stop all those late-night snacks which are rapidly adding to my waistline
Hi starfish...boy your'e a little late in checking the board and you miss the fun..hahaha. I take mine the same way the others do. I usually try to stop eating after supper, but if i want a snack, its a piece of fruit, cup of tea or siomthing light. The main thing is to avoid eating anything with high calcium a few hours before taking...so no ice cream cones!!! I guess if you get up during the night for a bathroom break you could take it then. It just needs time to be absorbed.
Without saying where you got it what brand did you get? I am glad to see that there are getting to be more and more strontium users on this board and another i go to. I keep thinking if enough people use it with good results we may be able to change the thinking of a few drs out there. I am happy i decided to try it and even happier that i showed improved BMD after a bit less than a yaer of taking it. Good luck to you...take care...phyllis
Starfish-When I saw you had ordered strontium, I thought why didn't you get strontium ranelate from your doctor in Canada. I thought it had been approved in Canada, but after some research it appears not to have been. I saw it has been approved in various countries incl. Australia and the UK. The benefit of the approved product would be consistency in product quality and amount. I wondered , as Canada is part of the Brit. Commonwealth could you get strontium ranelate on a vacation in the UK and bring it back with you? Probably not. Just wondering.
Phylwill, the brand I ordered is Advanced Orthomolecular Research, made in Calgary Alberta, and I ordered their Vitamin K2 as well. It pays to shop around though; after I placed/paid for my online order I found several much cheaper distributors .
Ironically, these products are made in Canada but cannot be shipped to Canadian addresses-but there's ways around that .
Osteoblast, you were asking about getting the Ranelate form in the UK and bringing it back. Good question, but y'know, even if I could do that, I probably wouldn't. For one thing, I'd have to bring back a huge supply. But more importantly, with all the research I've had to do, I've become cynical and angry re: the overwhelming influence that Big Pharma has over the treatment of BMD issues .
Thus, if I can buy a supplement OTC which is, in all likelihood, as effective as a prescription form, I'll choose that route. Yeah yeah, I've heard the argument that Strontium Ranelate is a better choice because "it's been thru rigorous testing". But I place equal faith in fellow board posters who have had good results with the citrate form.
Starfish-Unfortunately, I don't have much faith in anything anymore. I am cynical. The reason I thought strontium ranelate, is because the test results are good AND as a pharmaceutical the product should be inspected and verified as to its quality and amount. The supplement industry in the US is unregulated and there is really no way to know that you are getting what you believe that you are buying. I have just had an experience where I changed my vit d brand and at about 57 days taking the new supplement d , my d level was checked and it plummeted by 50%. Now during that 57 day period on the new vit d I had a gastrointestinal upset for some time, and could have been just dumping the d out of my system as quickly as I put it in. I don't know. Also it could have been dud d. Or maybe lab error. I will never know. So the source that you get supplements from is to me so critical- not getting the lowest price but trying to verify in whatever manner that the source is dependable. The supplement industry is in sorry shape here in the states. I hope that it is better in Canada.
Last edited by osteoblast; 08-23-2007 at 04:12 PM.
The supplement industry is in sorry shape here in the states. I hope that it is better in Canada.
What a trying experience you had with the Vitamin D-I'm glad you pointed the lack of supplement regulation out to me. I guess I'm so focussed on my anger toward the doctors that push drugs on us (and the corporations that manufacture them) that I didn't give much thought to OTC preparations. Anyway, for some unexplained reason, I do trust Canadian-made supplements more. But I still don't get why a Canadian company can make strontium and K2, yet both are disallowed in Canada
That is odd. Perhaps you could call one of the companies to see why they can't sell in Canada. I wonder if they have not passed some regulatory hurdle -and that they won't be able to sell in Canada until they do. It's just a thought.
Such an interesting thread! I wanted to post to it because I too have been taking strontium (in its citrate form) for 13 months now, ever since my DEXA last July came back with a DX of osteopenia in my hip and lumbar spine
(-2.0) and osteoporosis in my lateral lumbar spine (-2.6). It was a significant leap down from the bone density of the year before that, and it shocked me. I mobilized the day my MD said, "Well, you may have just won yourself a year's trial of Fosamax."
I declined with thanks, and started in with a list of supplements that would have choked a horse. Main ones were EZorb Calcium (the powder) in the AM, with all sorts of attendant minerals (magnesium, potassium, boron, zinc, silicon, etc.) in separate bottles, K2 (the menatrenetone form), cod liver oil (1 teaspoon day, 1 teaspoon evening); then, in the PM, instead of EZorb I take BoneUp (which has all the minerals in it and the calcium is in the form of microcrystalline hydroxyapatite [MCHA]). Around 8 PM I take collagen powder dissolved in liquid, with my vitamin C. And the strontium citrate I take in the middle of the night--I get up anyway for a bathroom run, so I just take it then.
I just had my follow-up bone density DEXA August 14, over a year later, and I made sure the tech knew about the strontium going in. The results were encouraging: the hip and lumbar spine went from -2.0 to -1.1 and the lateral lumbar spine went from -2.6 to -1.6. Everything is now mild osteopenia.
I've no idea why or which or when...or if it will continue to improve or revert or what. But for now, I'm well pleased with the regimen and the results, and I will continue with the strontium citrate and everything else. So I just wanted to encourage you to give the strontium citrate a good trial, to try to take it well away from any calcium or calcium-containing foods (and preferably on an empty stomach)--and if you're taking K2, to try to make sure it's the menatetrenone (not menaquinone ) form.
Hi Sona: That's fantastic news!!! Your bmd improved in both locations by a WHOLE Standard Deviation Point. You must be thrilled... Keep up the good work, that's quite an improvement.
By any chance did they tell you what the strontium adjustments are for the dxa?
Cheers!!!!
Last edited by DesertBloom; 08-25-2007 at 01:34 PM.
Hi Sona...glad to hear you had such good results with the strontium plus all the other things you've been trying. I've been taking strontium for a year now and had improvement with my DEXA too, but the radiologist didn't use any adjustments so i don't have a totally accurate reading...so like DessertBloom ask..if you could get a copy of their the adjustment values it would be great if you could post them. Did you have the scan at a local hospital or an osteo center? No hopsital in our area had ever heard of strontium or made an effort to get the adjustments for me. I'd sure like to have specific numbers for when i have one next year. Once again...3 cheers for your increased BMD take care...phyllis
Hi sona. Thank you for posting. Very encouraging to hear from someone with such good results, while taking strontium. I have been taking it for over a year now-will have dexa 2008. Also I had never heard of bone-up. I may add it to my regimen. Also do not know what the benefits of colagen powder are. Will have to look into it. I am also wondering if you are post menopausal or pre. Would appreciate it, if you could post this. In any case, congratulations , and the best to you!
Sona-Congratulations!! Your results are super. Also you regimen is quite interesting.
I too am taking K2-and it is the one that you mention not to do- that is, menaquinone. It is called MK7 from Jarrow , the maker of your Bone Up I think.So, could you tell me what is not so good about this form ?
I too looked at the BoneUp and was not interested in it. I did not like the MCHA that is apparently from free range Australian calves. That really turned me off. To tell you the truth, I do not understand exactly what it is , but I have been a vegetarian for 20 some years. Although recently due to an iron deficiency I did stray back into the world of red meat. I think though that I am going to quit this approx. four months of meat eating real soon.I don't much like it.
Anyway, again congratulations!
Last edited by osteoblast; 08-25-2007 at 08:54 PM.
Way to go Sona, and thanks for posting; we hope you'll continue to drop in! It's encouraging to know there are other strontuim and K users out there...and hey, no side effects reported either!! Thanks to those other users posts, I now feel more comfortable about starting this regime.
Incidentally, I had several people over for dinner last nite, one of whom is a well-known nutritionist. She was shocked when I told her my BMD had plummeted again, but she has analysed my diet previously and when I told her all the exercise I do, supplements I take etc. she looked me over and said "you look strong, you're doing all the right things, you'll be fine. Don't buy into the fear". So that's what I'm trying to do (or not do).
Hi starfish..i like your friend!!! She has put into a nutshell what the the Myth of Osoteporsosis tells us. Fear is such a stong emotion that it can take over a persons life without them even knowing it. Caution is good, but fear can be crippling. Did you ask her what her thoughts on strontium were? As a nutritionist she may be aware of it and the good it does. I love the fact that more people are trying it as an alternative to the now available drugs. Wha'ts funny is that when i tell friends who have osteo what good results i've had they listen and say they will look into it, but never do. So many people are scared to try something that isn't backed by the medical and drug industry. I'm glad to see more people on the board trying it and sharing their thoughts. Have a good day..take care...phyllis
Hi again! I'm so glad my post was helpful on this thread--I've been helped by so many here and have learned so much from the experiences of others on this board.
DesertBloom, I'm afraid I did not get any info about adjustments made for strontium. I had to jump through hoops to get an advance copy of the DEXA from the imaging center (before my PCP received her full copy)--I have a call in to my PCP to get her copy faxed to me, just in case it has more info on it. My copy shows the different sites (lumbar spine, AP spine, Ward's triangle, etc.) and their T and Z scores, and the interval improvements from last year. I have a copy of last year's bone density, so I know they had the scores down correctly on this year's test for comparison. But that's all--no diagrams or illustrations, nothing more technical than that. Maybe my PCP's copy will have more. But I suspect that whatever her copy shows is as much data as they will have to give. We'll see.
Phylwill, I have been having my DEXAs done at the same imaging center for five years now--it's affiliated with the hospital right next door but is its own, freestanding unit where I get my bone density and mammogram.
Tomatojuice, apparently collagen is one of the supplements that are recommended for bone growth and strength. Collagen is an abundant and important protein in the body, especially important for bones and joints. Bone apparently has a high amount of collagen. I take approximately 2,000 mg of a mixed blend including Collagen Type 1 and 3, in powder form. I figure it can't hurt!
Also, to answer your query, I am postmenopausal now for about three years. I've been on bioID hormone therapy for that period of time (I take my progesterone cream in a 14-day cycle, but the estrogen full-time).
OsteoBlast, I did some research early on into the difference in fracture prevention and bone growth between two forms of vitamin K2: vitamin MK-4 (menatetrenone) and vitamin MK-7 (menaquinone) and determined for myself that it was the former I wanted to take. Naturally, that's the harder form to find! I don't think there's anything "wrong" with MK-7; otherwise, it wouldn't be such a popular form of K2. I think it's perhaps not as effective as the other form, however. You might want to do some Googling and see what you can come up with on the two forms, with specific reference to osteoporosis and fracture prevention--see if it makes sense to worry about one form or the other. It did for me.
By the way, I believe Jarrow makes a vegetarian form of Bone-Up, in case that would make a difference for you. I have no problem with the bovine forms of MCHA, but I can certainly understand how it would feel to a vegetarian!
Starfish, I commend your nutritionist friend! It so helps to have a dose of reality on this issue. If you feel well, are strong, remain fracture-free, exercise properly, eat well--hey, the other stuff is just numbers. She's right: Don't buy into the numbers, especially when the reality is so reassuring!
I really like what I am hearing about Strontium, however could someone
tell me exactly what Srontium is??? I've done a little research but, I'm having trouble understanding exactly what it is.
Hi Jodiane: The simpliest explanation I can think of for strontium is that it is an essential trace mineral that comes from earthen (earth) ore (minerals), which is necessary for bone health. The citrate acid in it comes from fermentation of corn and dextrose. "Fermentation is a process in which an agent causes an organic substance to break down into simpler substances Merriam Websters 2007."
. Anyway, maybe Phylwill can help me out here: I know you're supposed to take calcium and strontium supplements at completely different times. Does this also apply to calcium-containing foods (eg. soy milk)? So, if I have a glass of soy milk or a calcium supplement at, say, 9PM, how long do I wait before taking the strontium? 
I take mine the same way the others do. I usually try to stop eating after supper, but if i want a snack, its a piece of fruit, cup of tea or siomthing light. The main thing is to avoid eating anything with high calcium a few hours before taking...so no ice cream cones!!! I guess if you get up during the night for a bathroom break you could take it then. It just needs time to be absorbed.
. 
You must be thrilled... Keep up the good work, that's quite an improvement.
