Avoid bone depleting anti-nutrients. The list is long so you might have to pick away at bone depleting anti-nutrients little by little. High on the list are excessive alcohol more than two drinks a day , smoking, colas, excessive caffeine, and high sugar intake.
Many drugs and medications damage bone and the list seems to expand daily. Eat enough wholesome food daily. The body is one single unit; if you lose weight you lose bone. The bone weakening from weight loss before menopause is more easily compensated for than that from weight loss after menopause. Make sure you get between 50 and 80 grams of protein daily, depending on your physical activity level. If you have ongoing excessive bone loss as measured either by sequential bone density testing or by a bone breakdown marker test such as the NTx , or if you have experienced a low-trauma fracture, steps should be taken to detect hidden causes of this bone loss.
My Medical Osteoporosis Workup details the most common tests used to detect hidden secondary causes of bone loss. You might share this document with your health practitioner and see which tests they will do looking for your hidden causes of bone loss. Consider this a window of opportunity to make some nutritional and lifestyle changes.
My Better Bones Builder Program is a great place to start, because it puts everything together for you. Read more: What does osteopenia really mean? Denosumab medications can cause flu-like symptoms, irritable bowel, bladder infections, muscle and back pain , and an increased risk of osteonecrosis of the jaw exposure of the jaw bone due to a lack of blood flow.
Calcitonin has been known to cause nausea, abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting , as well as swelling and redness at the injection site. Hormone replacement therapy HRT , also known as menopausal hormone therapy and postmenopausal hormone therapy, is a medication that contains female hormones. This treatment method is often used to alleviate unpleasant symptoms associated with menopause. Because menopausal women are at a higher risk of developing osteopenia and studies have shown that estrogen can prevent bone loss in women, HRT was once considered a cure-all for osteoporosis and osteopenia in women.
As studies on HRT have shown severe side effects , like increased risk of heart disease, breast cancer, and strokes, this method is considered a very risky treatment option. The side effects associated with osteopenia medications are considerable.
Over the years, more side effects have come to light, and the question of whether these treatments are worth it has been up for debate. Whether the side effects are worth the treatment is up to you and your doctor. Living a healthy lifestyle is key to preventing osteopenia from developing, or slowing its progression to prevent osteoporosis. For people who have osteopenia, there are ways to manage this condition and lessen the symptoms.
We advise you to take preventative measures no matter your age or number of risk factors! The best treatment method for osteopenia will vary for each person.
Health Conditions Discover Plan Connect. Can Osteoporosis Be Reversed? Can it be reversed without meds?
How to help reverse it Osteoporosis vs. Can osteoporosis be reversed without medications? How to help reverse bone loss. Osteoporosis vs. How clinical treatments help. When to talk with a doctor. Read this next. Osteoporosis Symptoms. Medically reviewed by William Morrison, M. Osteoporosis Causes. Medically reviewed by Marina Basina, M.
Osteoporosis Treatments. Medically reviewed by Zara Risoldi Cochrane, Pharm. What Is Osteopenia? Medically reviewed by Brenda B. Spriggs, M. Osteopenia vs. Medically reviewed by Alana Biggers, M.
Further, your diet matters. Later in the blog we discuss the right combination of nutrients that appear to stimulate the bone building process. A bone building diet includes key essentials that consolidate the stimuli of exercise and impact loading. If you are like most people, it probably took a number of years for your bone mineral density to decline to the point where you now have osteoporosis.
People exposed to high levels of strong medications or radiation are exceptions to this rule. These individuals have likely experienced an accelerated rate of decline in bone density. Expect that it will take time and effort to reverse your bone loss. Your rate of bone loss is influenced by the following individual factors:.
Your risk of bone loss after menopause may increase compared to your friends because of your genes, even if your physical activity and your diet are the same. Your genetic makeup determines how your bone building cells respond to stimuli. In other words, if you are able to maintain your bone mass, consider that a gain! Because, without an exercise program and good nutrition, you will likely see an ongoing decline in bone density and a worsening of your osteoporosis.
This could lead to an increased risk of fracture. Most people want to know can osteoporosis be reversed without the use of drugs. I encourage people to pursue that goal when it is realistic. If you are advanced in age and your FRAX score indicates a high fracture risk as mentioned above , exercise and good nutrition alone might not be adequate.
In addition, for many, the amount of impact weight bearing that we do on a daily basis decreases significantly as we age. An exercise and diet program can take months to affect bone density and the rate of change is slow. In the meantime, pharmaceutical intervention may be a reasonable option to consider.
Having said that, pharmaceutical intervention s may increase your bone density but do not improve the quality of your bone.
Another important fact is that pharmaceuticals do not reduce your risk of falling or your quality of life. Unlike exercise and improved nutrition, the side effects of pharmaceuticals are mostly negative. The group did not reverse bone loss but they were able to maintain bone density through appropriate weight bearing exercises. Given that the group was destined to lose bone, this should be considered a success.
In this case, maintaining is gaining. If you want to learn more about a targeted weight bearing exercise, I encourage you to read my heel drop exercise post.
A Canadian led international consensus process on physical activity and exercise recommendations for adults with osteoporosis with or without vertebral fractures 4 concluded that the therapeutic exercise program goals for people with osteoporosis should be:.
A study published at the end of highlights the benefits of exercise on fall prevention and reducing the rate of bone loss for individuals with osteoporosis:. A good exercise program delivers additional dividends including improved cardiovascular fitness and better quality of life. Safe movements are key for preventing compression fractures. A diagnosis of osteoporosis often entails lifestyle changes. You will likely have to change your diet, start a therapeutic exercise program, adjust current exercise routines including Yoga and Pilates , and modify your activities of daily living.
Since time is critical, I encourage you to work with a qualified health professional who has experience dealing with people with osteoporosis. Many people claim to have expertise in osteoporosis treatment. You should be cautious when you hear these claims.
Find someone who you want to work with, who has recognized medical credentials such as a Physical Therapist or Physician , and who has dealt with many people with your medical condition. Your diagnosis of osteoporosis is based on your bone mineral density BMD scores. However, BMD is only a partial measurement of the health of your bones. Bone quality, measured with quantitative computer tomography, is critical to successful osteoporosis management.
I discuss bone quality in my article on Bone Quality and Osteoporosis. Exercise has been shown to improve bone quality by altering bone geometry and morphology. While bone density is important and can be easily measured and tracked, it is bone quality that we would like to see improve. Unfortunately, bone quality tests are not easily accessible. If you work with a qualified health professional, such as a Physical Therapist trained to treat osteoporosis, your exercise program will be designed with bone quality improvement in mind.
We know that as you hit menopause, the decline of estrogen in the body reduces your bone mineral density scores. By age 30, most individuals have reached their peak bone mass and gradually lose bone mass over time. Exercise can help you can stave off that decline. This means that if you start the right exercise program, you can maintain or potentially increase your bone density. Many studies show that men and women can increase bone density and reverse osteoporosis.
I discuss this study in detail below. Exercise is not a strong enough stimulant on its own to bring you back to where you were at your peak bone mass. Your best chance to build and maintain your peak bone mass is if you start vigorous and regular exercise before or when you achieve your peak bone mass. If you are in your pre-pubertal years, you are the perfect candidate to build bone before your peak bone mass stage. You should exercise hard, play hard, and be sure that you have the nutrition to support the bones.
Eventually you will have a wonderful peak bone mass that you would maintain through your adult life. Exercise is an essential ingredient to bone health.
If you have osteoporosis, therapeutic exercise needs to be part of your osteoporosis treatment program. But what exercises should you do and which ones should you avoid?
What exercises build bone and which ones reduce your chance of a fracture? Is Yoga good for your bones? Who should you trust when it comes to exercises for osteoporosis? A great resource on exercise and osteoporosis is my free, seven day email course called Exercise Recommendations for Osteoporosis. After you provide your email address, you will receive seven consecutive online educational videos on bone health — one lesson each day. You can look at the videos at anytime and as often as you like.
I cover important topics related to osteoporosis exercise including:. Enter your email address and I will start you on this free course. I do not SPAM or share your email address or any information with third parties. You can unsubscribe from my mail list at any time.
To gain a better understanding whether weight bearing exercise increases bone density, I recently reviewed two studies 6 , 7 that looked at exercise and its effect on bone over an extended period of time. I chose these studies because one built on the other and they involved very little equipment that could be accessible to all.
In the first study, the researchers incorporated exercises using the weighted vest. The exercises were:. Later during the study, the researchers incorporated jumps.
The exercise group started with jumping on the spot and then gradually built up until they were jumping down from 4, 6, and 8-inch heights. The first study lasted nine months. The researchers found there was not a lot of change shown in the bones of the women that were in the exercise group versus the control group.
Keep this in mind when you go for your DEXA after starting an exercise program. You may not see the results you were anticipating simply because you were not exercising long or hard enough.
The women in both the exercise and control groups were de-conditioned when they entered the study. The conditioning level of the women in the exercise group improved over the nine months of the first study. The research team started the exercise group with weighted vests that were low in weight and progressed them gradually by one, two or three pounds at each interval.
In addition, the number of repetitions and the number of sets was gradually increased over the nine months. Weighted vests were not used with the jumps. Sessions were conducted three times per week.
The jumping progression was as follows:. We know the bone turnover is really slow. Because there was not enough stimulus to the bones throughout the nine month study period, the exercise group did not experience a material change in bone density. This might sound discouraging but it opened the door to a new opportunity and a significant finding for the research team.
The research team realized that the first study gave them access to a group of women who, because of the exercises they did, could easily tolerate an increase in weight bearing activities. They offered all of the members of the exercise group the opportunity to do a second study. During this study phase, the research team increased the weight bearing load on their bones.
The second study lasted four and a half years. In the second study, the research team created a control group for comparative purposes.
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