I'm 38 and just diagnosed w/osteopenia..?

Thanks, KarenB & Kit.

But can you believe that my primary doctor said she did not think I need it. She said normally only those womem who experience menopause and over 58 yrs old, she would recommend it. And I am Asian not Caucation, and not thin. She said I have no reason to have Dexa Scan.

What a bump! Now I really don't like HMO thing...

WantFit
 
WantFit,

I thought that might happen. My 50 year old friend's doctor didn't want to prescribe it for her and she has Rhumatoid Arthritis. It must be the expense.

I was 49 when I had my first.
 
>But can you believe that my primary doctor said she did not
>think I need it. She said normally only those womem who
>experience menopause and over 58 yrs old, she would recommend
>it. And I am Asian not Caucation, and not thin. She said I
>have no reason to have Dexa Scan.

That's ridiculous!
58 is WAY to long to wait to have one of these.
At any rate, being Asian is supposed to be one of the risk factors for osteoporosis.
See if you can get her to o.k. one as a "baseline" reading, to compare to what your post-menopausal reading is to see what kind of loss there may be.
 
WantFit,

That really sucks, but HMOs are like that, but if you can get your gyn to recommend it a lot of times your HMO will still pay for it, so there is something to check. My mother always has had her gyn write a Dexa for her rather then her primary, as he is too dumb he thinks, she is a waitress, and runs around all day, so there is no reason for her bones to be weak. Or so he thought until she sent him a copy of her last Dexa scan, and then he put her on Actonel, immediately, didn’t even call her to make an appointment, just simply told her, that she could pick up the script. I'm amazed that your primary, would be so turned off especially with it being in all the medical journals about women 30 and over now having osteopenia or osteoporosis, and its not all caucation women, there are a lot of others in that mix, including men. It always drive me nuts when doctors want to go by age rather then what is best for the patient. As age is one of the worst factors, people age so differently it’s hard to make a cut off point at a certain age.

And you don’t have to be thin to have osteopenia or osteoporosis, we have five Dexa scans in the hospital for women and men of 300 – 500 lbs. Plus about 10 other Dexa scans for people under 250 lbs.

Kit
 
Thanks, Kit. Good idea. I am going to call my gyn to see if I can get Dexa. Nothing is easy nowady.

WantFit
 
My obgyn called me this morning, saying the same thing. She would not recommend DEXA. She said unless I have some sever symptom, she would not prescribe it. She said I just need to take about 1200 unit calcium per day. Bummer!!

I think what I can do now is adding more weight training, and take calcium daily.

WantFit
 
WantFit,

The calcium is a really good recommendation, it will help no matter if your bones are good or bad, it'll make them stronger. Just make sure you get some vitamin D and sunlight to go with it. Even though you don't know where your bones are, you can build them up, this way. So you can at least keep them from getting bad later in life.

Kit
 
Thank you so much, Kit.

I also did receive your e-mail. It's very thorough. I wish we could have been closer. I definitely will choose you as my PT. I am the person who likes to know why beyone the procedures. None of my previous PT gave me such details. I was so disappointed after I took a private lesson for my swimming class. She is very young, probably high school grad or 1st yr college. I don't mind she is young. But when I asked her questions, she told me "I don't know". I cancelled the rest of my lessons.

WantFit
 
WantFit,

Thank you so much, that complement really made my day. :) I’ve always believed that I’m there for the person who hired me or asked me a question. I much rather explain why to someone then to just have them take it on my word. And I’m the same way, I want to know why I’m doing something. I’m glad it helped and hopefully you’ll find the right workout combo that is right for you.

But I'd have to agree, I wouldn't feel comfortable with someone who couldn't answer basic questions, now some really intense anatomy question, I can see saying I don't know. Or something that is a bit more complicated and telling the person they’d get back with them, they wanted to make sure they explained it right. I’ve found both young and old can be very good teachers, or very poor ones, just based on how passionate they are on their career choice. Hopefully your swimming instructor started to do a bit more research on what she was teaching and started to learn and be able to answer other questions.

Kit
 
I have a Doctor of Pharmacy degree and totally agree with Jen.....I generally recommend the calcium citrate because it is much better absorbed... especially as you get older (the pH of your
stomach changes). Personally, I take Citracal (with Vitamin D)
because I know it is fully absorbable (from studies done at the University of Texas and the reports from Consumer Labs). It should be noted that for a calcium tablet to be most useful, it has to disintegrate prior to leaving the stomach making its contents available for absorption in the gut. Some cheap (and expensive) forms of calcium tablets are not properly made and can pass through your body completely or partially intact, depriving you of its ingredients. Unfortunately, unlike most other vitamins, when it comes to Calcium you have to be real careful of what you buy.

It is also true that Calcium is best absorbed if taken with Vitamin D and taken in divided doses because your body usually can't absorb more than 500mg at once.

Good Luck and I hope I helped!
Robin
 
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