When I was working in Peru, as a field biologist, one of the guidelines we followed was to never camp near sandy river banks. Sandy areas attract sandflies, and sandflies in most of the tropical regions of the world carry leishmaniasis. One of my colleagues did contract the disease, and at that time the only available treatments involved antimony based chemicals. A tough position: live with ulcerous sores all over your body or ingest relatively large quantities of heavy-metal compounds. He and I used to joke about the cure being as bad as the disease, though he did go through with the treatment.
As part of the followup to my crash and injuries of last June the orthopedic surgeon ordered a DXA bone scan to check for bone density. I’ve had the results for 3 months, but her and I just had a chance to talk about them a couple of weeks ago. Bone density of my arms is normal (for a 30 year old male, the standard, so above normal for someone my age), the lumbar vertebrae are a bit below normal, but still OK, and the measurment of my left femur is in the realm of osteopenia. That last number is the one the orthopedic surgeon wants to concentrate her attention, and she has prescribed a three part regimen to deal with the ‘problem’:
- Take calcium, lots of calcium (at least 1500-1800 mg/day) . Interestingly, she did not prescribe Vitamin D to go with it.
- Walking, at least 30-40 min/day beyond normal ‘maintenance of life’ movement. Basically this is weight bearing, and the only weight bearing activity she wants me to undertake involving the legs/hip at this time.
- A bisphosphonate drug for ‘osteoporosis’.
I can accept #1 and #2, but #3 is where I have a divergent opinion. I am not a big fan of pharmaceuticals in general, but the bisphosphonates are particularly troubling. There are high rates of ‘troubling’ side-effects, including but not limited to severe muscle and joint pain, gastric issues including esophogeal erosion, and upsetting the bodies electolyte balance. More troubling is the increasing association with necrosis of the jaw. The more one reads about these compounds the more it seems that they are likely worse than what they are meant to cure. I think I will pass on them.
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You are wise to avoid those osteoporosis meds. They nearly distroyed my esophagus. Then I had to be on other meds for a year to repair the damage that had been done. After finishing that ordeal, I managed to move my T score from -3.61 to -1.5 just with calcium and weight bearing exercise. A word on calcium supplements. Calcium citrate absorbs better and is much easier on the bowels than Calcium carbonate. Dr. Os suggest that you not take calcium carbonate.
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ewe!
yeah, i’d try the lots of calcium thing first.
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I told him it was up to him whether he wanted to follow protocol. I think giving some good effort to predominantly weight bearing exercise is a good plan to start with. I am suspicious of those meds.
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Sounds like a field triage approach, a total assault. Unless your bones are going to snap overnight, I would agree that it would beneficial just to see what results can be obtained with treatment one and two. So often doctors and patients seem to be convinced that taking a pill of some kind is necessary for treatment.
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I’m sorry to hear, Rick, but I agree with the above comments and think you are doing the right thing. Try and get some improvements without the drug first. I have my fingers crossed.
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Joy – I have no intention of taking the meds. As for the two forms of supplements, I have been reading some of the original literature and it appears the results seem to depend on who paid for the study. Rather typical of much of the medical literature.
Lauren – you should see the size of the bottles of supplements I am buying. LOTS.
Chris – the big pharmaceutical approach to health: pop a pill. I don’t subscribe. That and the fact I don’t own a 7000 lb SUV means I am responsible for the failing economy.
Groover – No drugs. Diet and elemental supplementation with some more weight bearing exercise. That is my plan.
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Rick, I hope it all works out for you. I usually heed the warnings but still give drugs a try with the hope that I don’t experience the side effects.
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Hi Chris – I was a bit skeptical of using drugs much .. then an incident after I had malaria made me want to be extra careful. As I was recovering from malaria, I had an eyetest where they found some retinal damage. Turns out that one of the under-played side-effects of chloroquine, the drug given as an antimalarial in those days, was retinal damage that could be permanent! Of course if the manufacturer played up that possibility, then any doctor prescribing it would recommend a retinal exam before using, and then frequent retinal exams during and immediately after use.
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