Timely thread, as I see my endocrinologist Friday. She mentioned a med that is an infusion of 20 minutes. I’m forgetting the name. No Prolia for me. I know I should follow the links on this thread before the appointment
@VeryHappy --I hope it does help you
I don’t know how old you are nor your medical condition. That’s between you and your doctor.
I’m not trying to discourage you (or anyone else) from treatment that you actually need…
I will point out that drug companies have millions of dollars sunk into these drugs.
Most have very limited actual benefit to the broad public.
Your doctors get the advertising too. Millions of dollars worth.
There is an excellent reason that RX advertising to the public used to be prohibited. Drugs are not a cure-all.
Be pro-active. These days you need to research for your own health.
Go to the National Osteoporosis Foundation site at least and see what they have to say and their guidelines.
FRAX–take the test
@gouf78: I have done exactly all that. I’ve been treating my osteo for neary 20 years now. I"m almost 70 years old, with an extreme family history of the disease. I’ve been extremely proactive and have been lifting weights religiously – serious weights, too! – for over 12 years. I also perform weight bearing exercise about six days out of seven. I’ve taken Fosomax and, later, used an estrogen patch. Not wanting to be on those forever, I stopped all meds four years ago, and my endo and I watched and waited. My bone density after two years with no meds was significantly worse than it had been, so the doc and I voted for Prolia. I’ve had no side effects, but my improvement was dramatic. I have no desire to see my improvement vanish again over the next two years. There are some people – and I think I’m one of them – for whom these drugs are a lifesaver.
“My understanding is the problem with Prolia isn’t just that you lose bone density once you stop, it’s that your bone density goes into a very rapid decline- i.e. you were better off not taking the Prolia. Gouf- is that your understanding?”
Unfortunately yes. That’s the way I read it.
But I’m NOT an expert. I just read a lot. A lot.
These drugs work on so many micro levels–micro breaks and bone re-build etc. Some good, some not so good.
The bone you gain from biphosphonates (and like Prolia although different mechanism) is not like the bone you were born with.
Simple version:
Your original bone is very hard and dense. It will decrease over time but at a very slow rate. Hopefully it lasts for a life time, but it does naturally decrease. So expect it.
If you have a really low unexpected bone density–the question should be why? Not necessarily jumping to drugs for bone density.
Maybe it’s para thyroid problem or something else.
,