I'm 65 (but look younger, just sayin'), in excellent health, have done weight-bearing exercise all my life, am quite physically strong, have had great nutrition all my life. And still, despite all that, I developed osteoporosis. Broke two ribs just by leaning over to tie my shoes. That was when I was only 59. Since then, I've broken more ribs and toes and metatarsals than I can count. My DXA scores were awful.
Did a ton of research on the disease, and in the end went with the bone-BUILDING Tymlos (nightly injections into the abdomen, easy as pie, took all of 10 seconds) for 19 months; then twice-yearly injections of Prolia for two years; now on twice-annual infusions of Reclast.
The only side effects I've had were fatigue from the Tymlos (I slept 9 hours a night instead of my usual 8), which lasted the first year. No side effects whatsoever from the Prolia. Likewise no side effects from Reclast. (After the bone-building of Tymlos, you need to take something to hang onto those gains you've made; otherwise you'll lose them. Thus the Prolia and now Reclast.)
Haven't broken a bone since October of 2020 (distal fibula, too much running). I continue to run, just not on consecutive days; otherwise, I still walk a lot and lift weights. No problems. And my DXA scores have improved by 20%.
Many women just take Fosamax or Boniva or one of the other bisphosphonates. That's fine for a lot of people. It wasn't for me, because Fosamax doesn't build bone, just helps you hang onto the bone you already have. I needed something stronger. And I thank my lucky stars that I live in a time when these medications are available to us.
Please don't believe all the scare-stories. Everything in life is a trade-off between risk and reward. Everything. I know you know that. Some people will have adverse reactions to some medications. Some people have an adverse reaction to aspirin. To tea. To honey. That doesn't mean that, therefore, you will have a bad reaction.
Talk to your doc. Everyone's health conditions and situations are different.
Hello! Pilates instructor here. With osteoporosis it is important to avoid loaded flexion of your spine, such as lying on the floor doing situps. It is also important to avoid the end ranges of rotation and side bending of your torso. Exercises where you bend at the hip keeping a straight back are great and any extension of your spine such as the yoga pose cobra is great. Welcome to the club! :)
Hi Val, I too was diagnosed with Osteoporosis. I let them put me on Prolia. Big mistake. After about a year and a half, I now have kidney disease. I hear if you go off of Prolia your bones get worse. I have an appointment with my Rheumatologist and my new Kidney doc coming up and I am a mess. I am nauseous all of the time. I hate to be gloom and doom, I’m just saying that you are smart to do your research.
This may be more science-nerd than you want but I’m a physician, 40 years of studying and following research on exercise physiology (a passion of mine), also many years interpreting bone densitometry studies (so I know that they are far from a perfect study). And I am sad about the often simplistic and not very useful advice surrounding bone health as we age.
Have you checked your body composition, specifically your skeletal muscle mass? Turns out that skeletal muscle and bone talk to each other, a lot, and muscle loss (sarcopenia) and bone loss are so interconnected that geriatricians proposed the phrase osteosarcopenia as more accurate. And muscle loss (and consequently bone loss) can happen even when we exercise, if the exercise fails to build muscle.
Research increasingly shows that muscle mass itself (rather than weight bearing) is the critical factor in bone strength. Skeletal muscle produces signaling molecules that talk to bones and turn on bone building activity (see https://www.e-agmr.org/journal/view.php?number=1021) (this is exciting research for pharma since these molecules could be developed into therapies, but in the meantime why not build muscle and make your own?) If our exercise programs aren’t measurably building muscle mass, they will not strengthen our bones. Also, lost muscle mass profoundly impacts all of our body systems, not just bone.
I am 67 and recently found that my exercise program and nutrition are no longer building muscle so I needed some adjustments. I made some simple nutrition and training changes based on these recent podcasts interviewing experts in their fields: Peter Attia The Drive, episode 228 (female specific training principles, improving body composition) and episode 224 (dietary protein: amount, quality, etc). A bit of a time commitment (2 hours long, a really deep dive!) but helpful.
Much more fun is watching DisneyPlus Limitless with Chris Hemsworth, specifically episode 4, Strength (turns out even Thor needs some strength training advice). The trainer that Chris works with uses an impressive array of functional strength and muscle building activities, which look comically impossible but most really can be scaled way way down, to anyone’s ability.
So, specifically building up our muscle mass will build our bones. (Measure body composition before and at intervals during training to check, also work with an experienced trainer!). Be patient with follow up bone densitometry- it takes 1-2 years for bone to complete a cycle of strengthening.
It makes sense to be concerned about weight training with a diagnosis of osteoporosis. Note however that bone densitometry measures only the mineralized component of bone; the strength of the equally important collagen matrix cannot be measured and may still be quite strong (one reason this is an imperfect test).
The 2022 consensus statement from the UK on exercising with osteoporosis (https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/56/15/837) finds no evidence to support the need for limiting exercise, but does recommend avoiding spinal flexion- due to presumed risk of vertebral body compression; this is a common osteoporotic fracture and spinal flexion is the known mechanism; however a specifically exercise induced fracture is very rare; the fracture usually happens when casually bending over to pick up a sock. Or some such. So, leave the socks on the floor, but work out with a trainer!
I have taken the generic form of Fosamax for 4 years and have had zero side effects. That being said, I haven't had much improvement. Haven't gotten worse either, just stayed basically the same.
I was diagnosed with Osteoporosis during Covid. I have now started taking AlgaeCal for my bones. I workout at a place called OsteoStrong. We do stretching exercise on vibrating platforms. I will be doing another bone scan in a few months. Hope all this will help.
To start my day by reading Kafka’s quote on the meaning of life certainly jolted me into wakefulness. The quote also reminded me of an episode of “Six Feet Under,” the groundbreaking HBO series about a family who, reluctantly at first, run a funeral home in Los Angeles.
When a grieving client who’s just lost a loved one asks Nate, “Why do we have to die,” he replies, “To make living important.”
Your ever-resourceful granddaughter certainly seems to know how to make living important. By channeling any anxieties that one day her father might be gone into a creative act, making a “beautiful dress” out of a paper towel for her mother, to me, shows an amazing capacity for resilience. I bet the dress did turn out to be beautiful!
Re osteoporosis, I am a longtime member of the club, gave up Fosamax after long-term use (for all the reasons you probably had for not starting the drug) and found out my body was dumping calcium. So my bone metabolism doctor suggested I stop taking calcium supplements (I was taking calcium citrate) and get my calcium from food. And of course, continue exercise and lifestyle regimen for bone health.
I so appreciate this post, your book recommendations and the terrific comments from your readers. Wishing you good luck with your journey too. So much to discover!
I quit wearing eye makeup ages ago, with and without glasses, because my eyes find it so irritating. I do try to keep my brows in shape, and I tried a similar pair of one-eyed makeup glasses. I did not find them helpful. I just use a small magnifying mirror to see my brows well enough to use tweezers and brow pencil. The downside of magnifying mirrors, as you know, is they make it too easy to find and obsess over “flaws”. I recommend not using more than 5x mirror, if you can see well enough. Definitely not more than 10x! I like the small mirrors that you can stick on to your vanity mirror with suction cups, such as this one: https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/product/10x-magnifying-glass-mirror-with-suction-cups/1041874202 They’re often even cheaper than this, although I can’t seem to find a link for one at the moment.
I even keep one in my travel toiletries case - just remember to remove it before leaving hotel. (Yes, I’ve lost one or two this way.)
Nov 29, 2022·edited Nov 29, 2022Liked by Valerie Monroe
Wow this post was made for me. 1. I need the straw. ha! I might even get it. 2. I have indeed tried the glasses, not these but a less expensive pair so perhaps that was why they did not work at all because I think, and I might be wrong, I use the eye I am applying mascara to, to see that same eye. It was weird trying to see my other eye with the funny glasses. Maybe if I only wore readers this would work..but not certain. and 3. I too have osteoporosis. And I too will not take medication other than calcium, D and Vit K2M7 (which lays the calcium on the bones and not around your heart or willy nilly. ..I guess.) I have also had to take big doses of prednisone over the last 5 years which further damages bones and my doc said good luck (since I refused the fosomax) so I did some research and came across an easy video for doing heel drops. And instead of heel drops I started Adult Beginning Tap classes which are silly and entertaining and give joy WHILE improving bone density. I was tested again and they had not gotten worse! The doc suspects it was in fact my Tapping. Also keep in mind when they tell you you have a 12 % chance of spontaneously breaking a bone... it means you have an 88% chance of NOT BREAKING A BONE!!! think like that and you will feel much much better. Sorry this is so so long. Keep calm and Tap on!
The authors of this book have documented via bone density scans, in an ongoing study, improvement in bone density by doing particular yoga poses and holding for between 12 and 72 seconds. One of the authors, Ellen Saltonstall, was one of my teachers in an advanced yoga course. She really changed how I teach yoga. For example, moving between cat and cow is really typical in a yoga class. But after reading this, I will never teach cat pose again as forward flexion of the spine is contra indicated, for I think anyone of a certain age, diagnosed with osteoporosis or not.
Val! My hubby had surgery and I've been out of sorts for weeks, so just catching up with all of your wonderful posts. I need this one, especially! I was diagnosed with osteopenia at age 28 (10 years ago) and it really scared me. I've been sort of ignoring the issue, hoping that my semi-annual 20- second plank pose will fix things. Ha! Thank goodness Anne_G Pilates Instructor has the real tea. I find the information from this community so helpful and empowering. Thanks for bringing us all together.
Freely admitting I’m too {fill in the blank—busy, tired, preoccupied, unburdened?} to wear eye make up but the advice was fun to read. And can we please check back with Mrs. Beiber in 25 years? I can’t wait!
Now, I must read these bones books for when that comes.
Enjoyable as ever. I have to ask what’s so iconic about that eyelash curler, that isn’t found in the more economical standard from Target. Perhaps the rubber isn’t exactly mushroom shaped. Anyway, I wanted to report back on progress with Nulastin. My lashes look great and probably don’t need a curler, iconic or standard. Most of the time it looks like I have mascara on. My brows are less full, at 12 wks, than I’d hoped, and where they’re patchy they may have just given up. Or need more time. As ever, I love your conversations with M. Makes me wonder if the idea of death is more an everyday topic in Japan or if M is keyed into something. Keep doing what you do, Val—I love hearing it all.
I'm 65 (but look younger, just sayin'), in excellent health, have done weight-bearing exercise all my life, am quite physically strong, have had great nutrition all my life. And still, despite all that, I developed osteoporosis. Broke two ribs just by leaning over to tie my shoes. That was when I was only 59. Since then, I've broken more ribs and toes and metatarsals than I can count. My DXA scores were awful.
Did a ton of research on the disease, and in the end went with the bone-BUILDING Tymlos (nightly injections into the abdomen, easy as pie, took all of 10 seconds) for 19 months; then twice-yearly injections of Prolia for two years; now on twice-annual infusions of Reclast.
The only side effects I've had were fatigue from the Tymlos (I slept 9 hours a night instead of my usual 8), which lasted the first year. No side effects whatsoever from the Prolia. Likewise no side effects from Reclast. (After the bone-building of Tymlos, you need to take something to hang onto those gains you've made; otherwise you'll lose them. Thus the Prolia and now Reclast.)
Haven't broken a bone since October of 2020 (distal fibula, too much running). I continue to run, just not on consecutive days; otherwise, I still walk a lot and lift weights. No problems. And my DXA scores have improved by 20%.
Many women just take Fosamax or Boniva or one of the other bisphosphonates. That's fine for a lot of people. It wasn't for me, because Fosamax doesn't build bone, just helps you hang onto the bone you already have. I needed something stronger. And I thank my lucky stars that I live in a time when these medications are available to us.
Please don't believe all the scare-stories. Everything in life is a trade-off between risk and reward. Everything. I know you know that. Some people will have adverse reactions to some medications. Some people have an adverse reaction to aspirin. To tea. To honey. That doesn't mean that, therefore, you will have a bad reaction.
Talk to your doc. Everyone's health conditions and situations are different.
Hello! Pilates instructor here. With osteoporosis it is important to avoid loaded flexion of your spine, such as lying on the floor doing situps. It is also important to avoid the end ranges of rotation and side bending of your torso. Exercises where you bend at the hip keeping a straight back are great and any extension of your spine such as the yoga pose cobra is great. Welcome to the club! :)
Hi Val, I too was diagnosed with Osteoporosis. I let them put me on Prolia. Big mistake. After about a year and a half, I now have kidney disease. I hear if you go off of Prolia your bones get worse. I have an appointment with my Rheumatologist and my new Kidney doc coming up and I am a mess. I am nauseous all of the time. I hate to be gloom and doom, I’m just saying that you are smart to do your research.
This may be more science-nerd than you want but I’m a physician, 40 years of studying and following research on exercise physiology (a passion of mine), also many years interpreting bone densitometry studies (so I know that they are far from a perfect study). And I am sad about the often simplistic and not very useful advice surrounding bone health as we age.
Have you checked your body composition, specifically your skeletal muscle mass? Turns out that skeletal muscle and bone talk to each other, a lot, and muscle loss (sarcopenia) and bone loss are so interconnected that geriatricians proposed the phrase osteosarcopenia as more accurate. And muscle loss (and consequently bone loss) can happen even when we exercise, if the exercise fails to build muscle.
Research increasingly shows that muscle mass itself (rather than weight bearing) is the critical factor in bone strength. Skeletal muscle produces signaling molecules that talk to bones and turn on bone building activity (see https://www.e-agmr.org/journal/view.php?number=1021) (this is exciting research for pharma since these molecules could be developed into therapies, but in the meantime why not build muscle and make your own?) If our exercise programs aren’t measurably building muscle mass, they will not strengthen our bones. Also, lost muscle mass profoundly impacts all of our body systems, not just bone.
I am 67 and recently found that my exercise program and nutrition are no longer building muscle so I needed some adjustments. I made some simple nutrition and training changes based on these recent podcasts interviewing experts in their fields: Peter Attia The Drive, episode 228 (female specific training principles, improving body composition) and episode 224 (dietary protein: amount, quality, etc). A bit of a time commitment (2 hours long, a really deep dive!) but helpful.
Much more fun is watching DisneyPlus Limitless with Chris Hemsworth, specifically episode 4, Strength (turns out even Thor needs some strength training advice). The trainer that Chris works with uses an impressive array of functional strength and muscle building activities, which look comically impossible but most really can be scaled way way down, to anyone’s ability.
So, specifically building up our muscle mass will build our bones. (Measure body composition before and at intervals during training to check, also work with an experienced trainer!). Be patient with follow up bone densitometry- it takes 1-2 years for bone to complete a cycle of strengthening.
It makes sense to be concerned about weight training with a diagnosis of osteoporosis. Note however that bone densitometry measures only the mineralized component of bone; the strength of the equally important collagen matrix cannot be measured and may still be quite strong (one reason this is an imperfect test).
The 2022 consensus statement from the UK on exercising with osteoporosis (https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/56/15/837) finds no evidence to support the need for limiting exercise, but does recommend avoiding spinal flexion- due to presumed risk of vertebral body compression; this is a common osteoporotic fracture and spinal flexion is the known mechanism; however a specifically exercise induced fracture is very rare; the fracture usually happens when casually bending over to pick up a sock. Or some such. So, leave the socks on the floor, but work out with a trainer!
Loved. Every. Word of this, beginning with Kafka, and ahem, "ending" with it by reading it again.
I have taken the generic form of Fosamax for 4 years and have had zero side effects. That being said, I haven't had much improvement. Haven't gotten worse either, just stayed basically the same.
I was diagnosed with Osteoporosis during Covid. I have now started taking AlgaeCal for my bones. I workout at a place called OsteoStrong. We do stretching exercise on vibrating platforms. I will be doing another bone scan in a few months. Hope all this will help.
To start my day by reading Kafka’s quote on the meaning of life certainly jolted me into wakefulness. The quote also reminded me of an episode of “Six Feet Under,” the groundbreaking HBO series about a family who, reluctantly at first, run a funeral home in Los Angeles.
When a grieving client who’s just lost a loved one asks Nate, “Why do we have to die,” he replies, “To make living important.”
Your ever-resourceful granddaughter certainly seems to know how to make living important. By channeling any anxieties that one day her father might be gone into a creative act, making a “beautiful dress” out of a paper towel for her mother, to me, shows an amazing capacity for resilience. I bet the dress did turn out to be beautiful!
Re osteoporosis, I am a longtime member of the club, gave up Fosamax after long-term use (for all the reasons you probably had for not starting the drug) and found out my body was dumping calcium. So my bone metabolism doctor suggested I stop taking calcium supplements (I was taking calcium citrate) and get my calcium from food. And of course, continue exercise and lifestyle regimen for bone health.
I so appreciate this post, your book recommendations and the terrific comments from your readers. Wishing you good luck with your journey too. So much to discover!
I quit wearing eye makeup ages ago, with and without glasses, because my eyes find it so irritating. I do try to keep my brows in shape, and I tried a similar pair of one-eyed makeup glasses. I did not find them helpful. I just use a small magnifying mirror to see my brows well enough to use tweezers and brow pencil. The downside of magnifying mirrors, as you know, is they make it too easy to find and obsess over “flaws”. I recommend not using more than 5x mirror, if you can see well enough. Definitely not more than 10x! I like the small mirrors that you can stick on to your vanity mirror with suction cups, such as this one: https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/product/10x-magnifying-glass-mirror-with-suction-cups/1041874202 They’re often even cheaper than this, although I can’t seem to find a link for one at the moment.
I even keep one in my travel toiletries case - just remember to remove it before leaving hotel. (Yes, I’ve lost one or two this way.)
Wow this post was made for me. 1. I need the straw. ha! I might even get it. 2. I have indeed tried the glasses, not these but a less expensive pair so perhaps that was why they did not work at all because I think, and I might be wrong, I use the eye I am applying mascara to, to see that same eye. It was weird trying to see my other eye with the funny glasses. Maybe if I only wore readers this would work..but not certain. and 3. I too have osteoporosis. And I too will not take medication other than calcium, D and Vit K2M7 (which lays the calcium on the bones and not around your heart or willy nilly. ..I guess.) I have also had to take big doses of prednisone over the last 5 years which further damages bones and my doc said good luck (since I refused the fosomax) so I did some research and came across an easy video for doing heel drops. And instead of heel drops I started Adult Beginning Tap classes which are silly and entertaining and give joy WHILE improving bone density. I was tested again and they had not gotten worse! The doc suspects it was in fact my Tapping. Also keep in mind when they tell you you have a 12 % chance of spontaneously breaking a bone... it means you have an 88% chance of NOT BREAKING A BONE!!! think like that and you will feel much much better. Sorry this is so so long. Keep calm and Tap on!
Hi Val,
The authors of this book have documented via bone density scans, in an ongoing study, improvement in bone density by doing particular yoga poses and holding for between 12 and 72 seconds. One of the authors, Ellen Saltonstall, was one of my teachers in an advanced yoga course. She really changed how I teach yoga. For example, moving between cat and cow is really typical in a yoga class. But after reading this, I will never teach cat pose again as forward flexion of the spine is contra indicated, for I think anyone of a certain age, diagnosed with osteoporosis or not.
https://www.amazon.com/Yoga-Osteoporosis-Complete-Loren-Fishman/dp/0393334856/ref=sr_1_4?crid=1Z5OIA1FJXCTP&keywords=ellen+saltonstall&qid=1669734051&sprefix=Ellen+sal%2Caps%2C216&sr=8-4
Will do.
Val! My hubby had surgery and I've been out of sorts for weeks, so just catching up with all of your wonderful posts. I need this one, especially! I was diagnosed with osteopenia at age 28 (10 years ago) and it really scared me. I've been sort of ignoring the issue, hoping that my semi-annual 20- second plank pose will fix things. Ha! Thank goodness Anne_G Pilates Instructor has the real tea. I find the information from this community so helpful and empowering. Thanks for bringing us all together.
🦴👊🏻
Osteoporosis also contributes to loss of bone in temple, cheek, eye socket and chin bones and thus facial skin sagging.
Freely admitting I’m too {fill in the blank—busy, tired, preoccupied, unburdened?} to wear eye make up but the advice was fun to read. And can we please check back with Mrs. Beiber in 25 years? I can’t wait!
Now, I must read these bones books for when that comes.
Enjoyable as ever. I have to ask what’s so iconic about that eyelash curler, that isn’t found in the more economical standard from Target. Perhaps the rubber isn’t exactly mushroom shaped. Anyway, I wanted to report back on progress with Nulastin. My lashes look great and probably don’t need a curler, iconic or standard. Most of the time it looks like I have mascara on. My brows are less full, at 12 wks, than I’d hoped, and where they’re patchy they may have just given up. Or need more time. As ever, I love your conversations with M. Makes me wonder if the idea of death is more an everyday topic in Japan or if M is keyed into something. Keep doing what you do, Val—I love hearing it all.