Osteoporosis Recovery

[Craig E]

I recently helped diagnose my Mom with gluten intolerance - she visited and went gluten free at my house since my whole family is gluten free. Well, her stomach issues disappeared and the arthritis in her hands immediately began improving. That was really all the validation we needed. Since then my Mom has stayed gluten free and continued to feel better.

She is 72 and has pretty bad osteoporosis. Her bone density scans are really bad and the docs want her to go on some really strong medicine -she was on boniva and they want to put her on forteo. The boniva didn't do anything and the forteo looks like the side effects are pretty severe. For now she is opting to skip the medication and just go gluten free to see if her bone density improves naturally. She is taking vitamins / supplements to aid in this.

My question is, does anyone know of someone with osteoporosis going gluten free and their bone density improving without medication? I think what my concern is, at the age of 72 is this really reversible without medication? Just looking for some anecdotes where this occurred to make me more optimistic about this approach.

Thanks.

[ravenwoodglass]

It is good that she is taking supplements and it would be a good idea to have her doctor check her overall vitamin and mineral levels. Another thing that may help is weight bearing excercise. That doesn't mean she should start lifting weights she may be started out with just walking. At her age she should ask her doctor for a referral to a physical therapist to get her started at a level that is safe for her. I don't know if it would help but there would be no harm in trying under a doctors supervision.

[Mari]

Both Boniva and Forteo are brand names for meds to treat post menopausal osteoporosis. I was advised to take Fosamax for my osteoporosis but when I read about it I saw that it is not the treatment needed by Celiacs and I have read in some messages that it makes some Celiacs quite ill. The best treatment for Celiacs is Calcium, Vitamin D and exercise. I have seen messages where people have improved using this treatment.

[Craig E]

Both Boniva and Forteo are brand names for meds to treat post menopausal osteoporosis. I was advised to take Fosamax for my osteoporosis but when I read about it I saw that it is not the treatment needed by Celiacs and I have read in some messages that it makes some Celiacs quite ill. The best treatment for Celiacs is Calcium, Vitamin D and exercise. I have seen messages where people have improved using this treatment.

Thanks for the reply - my mom is taking calcium and D and walking on a treadmill for exercise. Hope she improves as well.

[mushroom]

Yes, my hub, who is 72, has been able to improve his bone density. Along with the D he takes a combination supplement of calcium, magnesium and zinc, which work well together.

Make sure she is taking enough D, not the riculously low 400 IU RDA. This will never help her build bone. (has she had her vitamin D level checked and what was it?) Her "tank" is probably quite low and it will take a lot to build her back up to normal levels. I took 50,000 IU a day to start with and I am still on 5,000 once a week with 1,000 every day.

[tarnalberry]

magnesium is also important for calcium absorption, and most people don't get enough. (there's at least one study that found calcium supplementation for celiacs wasn't nearly as helpful for raising bone density as magnesium supplementation.)

walking is good, but if there's a yoga class near by, she might try that too. yoga has also been studied to have a positive effect on bone density in the elderly.