I want to jump in today with a last-minute post to let anyone who might be interested in learning about Osteoporosis and natural approaches to dealing with it, know about a free online Osteoporosis Summit this week.
I've written more below, but here is a link if you want to just go check it out now:
Why am I sharing this?
In November of 2023, after I had mostly recovered from chemotherapy for breast cancer, my oncologist ordered a DEXA scan for me. I'd never heard the term DEXA before that, and I had no understanding of why one was being ordered for me. It is not normal for me to not question a test - especially something I'd not heard of before, but at that point I'd gone through so much medical surveillance, diagnostic tests, and treatment (most of which I've never written about here) I just nodded in acceptance that this was the next thing on the "cancer conveyor belt".
I may write in more detail someday my processing getting an osteoporosis diagnosis, but I'll just say now, I was shocked to find out I had osteoporosis in my spine. When I started doing research on it, I was dismayed (actually angry - I'm still angry) that this topic is not adequately discussed in our culture, or even in the medical community. My endocrinologist, who I'm presently seeing for surveillance of and maybe (in the future) treatment for OP, was the first person to say to me that the medical community does not do a good job educating people about osteoporosis. She seemed surprised at our first meeting how much I already knew about osteoporosis and the medications she could offer me.
My continuing research and conversations with people my age and older only confirms that most of us (including general medical persons) are woefully undereducated about a condition that can affect as many as 30-50% of us - men and women.
Which brings me to the point of this post. Having watched many of the video presentations in the Osteoporosis Summit last year, I highly recommend it to anyone - especially, if you have a new OP diagnosis, and don't know where to start learning about it. Or maybe you've had OP for years, but you want to understand it better.
Things I gleaned last year:
A understanding about bone metabolism, and what osteoporosis is.
The many things that can cause osteoporosis. Not to scare anyone, but being lean is actually one risk factor.
Information on what tests one should ask for when considering treatment. Some of these tests will show whether or not there is a secondary cause of OP, and may point to potential treatments that are not drugs.
The importance of improving and/or maintaining balance and muscle strength as we age.
Exercises for balance as well as for possibly improving bone density.
The significant relationship between muscle strength and exercise and bone metabolism.
And, perhaps most of all, I came away with hope and an idea of how to proceed - whether I chose medical intervention, or decided to try natural approaches. My fear of fracture was replaced with a bit of optimism, and a determination that fear would not keep me from doing things.
That said, I take things like ice and tripping hazards very seriously now. I don't walk through dark rooms now if I can help it. I'm also continuing to try to improve my posture in everyday activities. I never really thought of myself as a slouch before, but I've come to realize how much I do slouch, and how easy it is to slump into poor posture when doing just about anything - especially when sitting. Learning that simple slouching can lead to spinal fractures in someone with spinal OP has created hyper posture awareness in me. And still, I catch myself slouching.
My caveats about the summit...
By signing up for the summit, one is giving permission for their email address to be shared with all the presenters, and agreeing to receiving promotional emails. To be honest, I received a few promotional emails from some of the presenters last year, but it was easy to unsubscribe from those I wasn't interested in. That said, I do suggest using a "junk" email account. I think everyone should have a junk email account anyway, just to protect a main account from becoming burdensome with inevitable unwanted email.
You will also receive some emails encouraging you to purchase ongoing access to the summit. Each day's presentations are only available for free for 24 hours, and when the whole week is passed, it's over, and there is no more access to anything.
And lastly, not every presentation is going to be everyone's cup of tea. There were a couple of presenters that I thought were a bit "woo-woo", but for the most part, presenters were professionals in various fields who speak from their experience and education with helping people with osteoporosis, and some dealing with it themselves.
Am I benefitting?
No. I am in no way benefitting from promoting this summit.
My advice is to not make any purchases at all in regards to this summit. My guess is, if you're interested later, the offers will still be available. I believe they were offered for at least a week post summit last year. I have not purchased anything to date. That said, I did recently purchase Keith McCormick's book, Great Bones, off of Amazon. MY introduction to Keith McCormick was this summit.
I will not benefit in any way if someone reading this post, participates in the summit, or even just checks it out. I am simply passing along information and my experience with this summit last year.
And that's all. Now I'm off to listen to my first presentation today.
I wonder if where you live influences what your doctors do to educate patients about osteoporosis? In my region, awareness is sky high, with free basic testing available at health fairs, and dexa scans starting in late 50s.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it's vital to learn more, also to understand bone loss, know the difference between osteopenia, bone loss, and the very advanced issue of osteoporosis, bone total fragility. The two are very different.
And resistance training is very important for bone health, with bands or free weights. That's emphasized here to women starting in their fifties, probably around menopause.
Anyway you've done a service in talking about this issue. Thank you.
Liz, yes insurance, anywhere in the US, will likely pay for women in their 50's to get DEXAs if they have risk factors for OP. The issue, is how educated people are regarding OP risk factors. And what happens with women like me? I have always presented at my annual checkups a bit overweight since menopause, but basically healthy, with practically no health issues, and absolutely no known risk factors - until cancer showed up. Even if I'd known the common risk factors for OP, I'd have had no reason to suspect I was "at risk". I would have actually taken a little comfort in being overweight, as it can provide a bit of protection against OP.
DeleteIt's highly possible that doctors' awareness, willingness to take the time to discuss OP, even having interest in the topic could vary from region to region, but I'm also sure that sort of thing varies within any locale. Never mind that I think the late 50's is too late to start offering DEXA's. I think a first DEXA should be offered in our 40's, or at the latest, 1 year into menopause. Then we'd have a baseline that means something - and the opportunity to start earlier in understanding what is going on with our bones as we age.
So much more I want to write, but I think I should just save it for a future post. Maybe. ;^)
Thanks for posting this, Becki. The power of the Social Internet - like many things, if we do not share, people will not know.
ReplyDeleteTB, the internet is the main reason I've been able to learn as much as I have on this topic. And thank you - my motivation in sharing is to help people be more aware of a potentially devastating disease that is actually largely preventable.
Delete