Healthy bones please!

sandilee

  My dexa scan revealed osteoporosis right after my bc surgery in Jan. 08.  I found out this
month that I have hyperparathyroidism, and will have surgery for that in a few weeks. For the time being, I'm off of all calcium and D supplements so as not to aggravate the condition.

 After the surgery, my bones supposedly will start to rebuild a bit, but I want to do whatever I can to help that process along. Other than the calcium, magnesium and D3 , is there anything else that you all may know of that helps grow our bones?   I walk 3-5 miles every day with my Lab, as I know exercise is very important for our bones and for keeping our cancer at bay.

  I'm really excited that I've found a reason for my dramatic bone loss, and I'm eager to do whatever I can to help them grow strong. Suggestions?

brena

sandiiee,

Maybe research a bishphosphonate, there are several different kinds.

You are on the right track/

Rosemary44

I'm reading a book now on the subject.  We can do this without drugs.  The book is called Saving our bones, and it makes a lot of good sense. 

When we have a dexa scan our numbers compete with women in their 20's at the height of their bone strength.  Of course our numbers will be lower then theirs as we age and fear strikes us into taking a pill.  The idea here is to strengthen what we have and keep them strong.  Asians have smaller bones then we do, less density then us, but break them less frequently.  Their bones are stronger.  They drink green tea, or other teas which are bone strengthening.  No milk or sugar in the tea.

I'm only half way through the book, but by glancing through it, it seems we need to have a higher alkaline to acidic diet.  80/20 ratio.  And do weight bearing exercises.  Give up drinking milk, women who drink the most milk, break bones.  Go figure. That was gleaned from the nurses study they did years ago.  And K2 vitamin which is found in meat and cheese is coming to the forefront now for bone health also.

Here's a site that I read loaded down with info:

http://www.betterbones.com/blog/post/The-new-NOF-Treatment-Guidelines-Are-they-kidding.aspx?

One more thing, if you haven't already had the test done, find out what your vitamin D number is.  Some of us just don't absorb D as easily as we think we do.  It's a blood test and after taking 1000 I.U.'s of D, I still came in low.  I upped it now.

sandilee

Thanks, Brena and Rosemary for responding. I really want to fix this!

   Rosemary--  I'd love to read the book you have-- looked for it on Amazon and google but didn't find one by that title.  Who is the author, and is it available through bookstores?

 I agree that we can do this without drugs- I have to!  I'm not going to take biophosphonates after reading how they work. It's not a natural process at all.  I love the information about the Asian women and how their bones are strong although thin. 

  My onc said that my Dexa scan numbers were calibrated to take age into account...so they aren't really comparing me to a younger person, and I still have osteoporosis.. My vitamin D is only at 31, so I know I need to up my supplements after my  parathyroid surgery, for cancer prevention as well as for my bones.

  I've bookmarked the site you linked, and I'm eager to explore it. Thanks again.

 Sandi

   

Rosemary44

After I read the book, it isn't a lot of pages, I realized the site I listed above had basically the same info. as I was reading in Vivian's book.   I could have saved the money for the book.  Anyway it's written by Vivian Goldschmidt.  There's only so much infomation out there on bones, so they have to replicate each other.  Here's her site:

http://saveourbones.com/

What her book does is reinforce our desire to stay off the drugs and why,  and get into a plan of saving our bones the healthy way first. 

Knowing your D level is the first step and upping it is quite important, if needed, as yours is.  Start drinking green tea, I don't use the tea in teabags that they sell here on our store shelves.  Open one up and you'll see dried up brown ugly things they call tea leaves.  How much nutrition is in them?  I understand Whole Foods sells organic sencha, they should be beautiful dark green leaves.  If you don't have a WF store, then I buy from here.  The tea is expensive, but how much is the drugs?

http://rishi-tea.com/

Of course there's other things to take, but after you read the site I posted, we can compare notes of what we're doing.

I'm going out to buy prunes today:

http://www.betterbones.com/blog/category/Key-Bone-Nutrients.aspx

EWB

interesting info re the prunes...I eat them for other reasons including I like the taste, but nice to lnow I'm getting extra help for bones! Think I'll check out WF today.

Rosemary44

I just found out asparagus is bone healthy too.  Nature provided them with a perfect 2:1 ratio of calcium to magnesium, and other bone healthy ingredients.  And they're an alkaline food.  Ok, that's 2 so far.

Texas357

Sandilee: Look at the website parathyroid.com. That is owned by the surgeon who did my parathyroid surgery and he has tons of tips and answers for bone density questions (as well as lots of info of course on hyperparathyroidism). He also pioneered the microsurgery that many surgeons now use to remove parathyroid glands.

You might also want to look into Strontium Citrate, which I've been taking. My bones did recover quite a bit on their own, but I still have osteopenia. I'm due for another bone density test next month to see if that's helped, but since I stopped taking it during chemo, it's iffy.

Good luck with your surgery. I was out clothes shopping the same evening as mine, so it's not something to worry about.

sandilee

Thank you, all.

I have read the parathyroid website in its entireity!    Learned a great deal before I was even

sure I was going to need the surgery.  I'm lucky that I live near UCLA where they have a great guy who does the mini procedure.  I'm eager to get it done so I can start taking my supplements and get my bones back in shape!  Your doc on the site mentions that people with hyperparathyroidism have low vitamin D as a protective mechanism so that the calcium level doesn't get too much higher, and suggests that those who have it should NOT take supplements until they have the tumor out.  Interesting, hmm. It might be good for those who find that their D is low in spite of their best efforts and supplements to have their parathyroid checked out.

   I didn't even know what a parathyroid was until a few weeks ago.

ICanDoThis

When I mentioned this website to my endocrinologist, she practically had a coronary. Muttered under her breath about unethical practices, surgeons who don't know anything about the calcium cycle in the body, etc, etc.

She didn't mean that hyperparathyroidism isn't real (and I'm getting it), but that she is conservative about surgery.

I'm not sure about how I feel about this. My calcium levels jump up and down like a Mexican jumping bean, so she is unsure about whether surgery is indicated.

I have osteoporosis, in fact I was osteoporotic before menopause, but the parathyroid glands are about the size of a grain of rice, and I'm willing to be a little conservative.

She has me on high doses of calcium and D, and is really pleased that I am on tamoxifen, as the SERMs do help protect the bones.

Sounds to me like there is a lot of controversy about treating this condition

sandilee

I didn't realize that there is controversy about treating hyperparathyoidism.  Both my oncologist and my endrocronologist (both are very mainstream, regular docs who don't practice natural healing or anything of the kind)  don't see any controversy.  If you actually have hyperparathyroidism, it means that you have a tumor on one of your thyroid glands, and it is keeping the glands from doing what they are intended to do, which is regulate your calcium. Instead of turning on and off when calcium is needed, the gland with the tumor continues to put out the parathyroid hormone, which means that the bones continue unabated to leach calcium that is not needed into your blood- hence the high blood serum calcium levels. If your parathyroid glands are all still the size of a grain of rice, then you don't have hyperparathyroidism, and you need not treat for it. For those of us who have grown a tumor the size of a walnut on one of our glands, well, I'd like mine out, thank you very much.

  You know for sure if you have a tumor on one of your glands when they do a scan of your  parathyroid glands and actually see an enlarged one.  An endocronologist will order a scan when they have tested your calcium and your parathyroid hormone levels and found them high. Those are the two markers that diagnose hyperparathyriodism.  

Why leave a tumor in there when the surgery is very simple?  And the tumor is sucking the calcium out of your bones?

  If you have blood serum calcium that is high, you might want to ask your doc to test your PTH levels to see if there is a problem with the parathyroid. 

Texas357

I know of zero controversy. I was told by two doctors here in Texas that I needed the surgery, which was confirmed by a standard test. The only question was whether to have it done by traditional means or by the newer microsurgical procedure.

After the surgery, my serum calcium levels returned to normal and my bone density improved.

sandilee

 And I can see why the minimally invasive procedure was a no brainer!    How long ago was your surgery, and how much did your bones improve so far?  The best part is, of course, that they have stopped being robbed by your parathyroid, and they haven't gotten worse.  Are you on any kind of estrogen blocker, and if so, have you made these improvements in spite of that?

Texas357

My surgery was about 4 years ago. My hips improved from osteopenia to normal range. My spine is still in the osteopenia range but also improved. The tech who did my last bone density test said that she was impressed because most women's decrease by a certain percentage every couple of years. So I not only fought Mother Nature's natural decline, but also reversed it slightly. All with just weight bearing exercise, calcium and Vitamin D.

Also, I read on WebMD that some breast cancers can actually weaken bones, which may be why my spine never recovered quite as much as my surgeon predicted.

I'm within weeks of having to take an estrogen blocker. My oncologist wants me on an aromatase inhibitor but I am leaning toward tamoxifen because I've worked too darned hard on my bone health to jeopardize it now.

Let me know how your surgery goes Sandilee. (BTW, I'm from the L.A. area originally.)

Gardeness

does iodine help with the thyroid issue?

Texas357

I don't know much about thyroids. Mine was parathyroid, which is a different gland altogether.

sandilee

I had my consultation with my parathyroid surgeon today.  What a gem.  He's a specialist working out of UCLA. He did a sonogram of my bad parathyroid, and in his words, it's a "monster." It's about 1. 4 centimeters, and in the shape of a bowling pin.   He took a picture for me, so I can show my mom that I have a tumor in my neck, which she doesn't really seem to believe.

 You can't see the other 3 on the sonogram, as they are too small to be visible, which means they're normal. 

 Texas357-- He said that my bone density should improve over the next decade, so  it's likely that your bones will still improve, as it's only been a few years since your surgery.  My surgery won't be until the end of July, but I have had it this long,  another month shouldn't kill me. I'm pretty excited about getting it out,  especially now that  I've "seen" it with my own eyes. I have my very astute oncologist to thank for his hunch that this was the reason that my calcium levels were out of the normal range.  I think this condition is something that doctors have just started to take seriously in the last several years., as in the past they just played "wait and see", not realizing the damage that high calcium in the blood can inflict on the body. Now that the surgery is easier, thanks to docs like your guy in Florida, more doctors seem to be on board for getting these tumors out.

Texas357

That's great news Sandilee. I went for my bone density test a week ago, and the tech wouldn't give me the exact results (I can pick those up on Monday) but she said that my scores have improved since my last test two years ago.

The doctors are just now learning that it's possible for them to continue improving. I had my surgery in 2004 and my doctor said "two years" to see maximum bone improvement. So I was doing the happy dance when I found out that mine were continuing to improve.

In addition to Calcium and vitamin D, I've also started taking Strontium Citrate, which may have helped. But I stopped taking it for 7 months after my BC diagnosis. Whatever the reason, I'm thrilled.

sandilee

  "I went for my bone density test a week ago, and the tech wouldn't give me the exact results (I can pick those up on Monday) but she said that my scores have improved since my last test two years ago."

That's wonderful! 

I'm going to read about strontium citrate...thanks!