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Osteoporosis and Falling

Q. My doctor prescribed Bonine to take for my bone loss, but I don't like the side effects, and am concerned about taking it, so I stopped. I see all the advertising about how if a woman falls, she will break something, probably her hip if she has osteoporosis and I worry about that all the time. In fact, although I never had fallen, I feel more unsteady now and feel like I might fall. The advertising shows how woman who fall will be disabled for life, or die. I'm really distressed, but don't want to take any of these kinds of bone loss medications. What can I do? I'm 66 years old

A: The advertising is working: it is designed to scare you enough to motivate you to take the biphosphonate medicines including Boniva, Actonel, Reclast, Fosamax. But these medicines often have serious side effects for some women. And they haven't been used for enough years to know what the long term side effects are, but we have heard about jaw bones crumbling, femurs breaking. So for some women, it is having the opposite effect of keeping bones strong. And just because your bone becomes more dense as shown in the bone density scan, doesn't mean that this bone is healthier bone. These medications work by stopping old bone from being lost, not by building new and healthy bone, so perhaps this old bone that makes your bones appear to be more dense is not good quality bone. But the advertising makes it sound like if you have osteoporosis or osteopaenia, as you get older you will probably fall, and then you will be disabled, or even die. And this plants the idea in your head so strongly, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, so you need to get that though out of your mind.

There are some thing you can do that will help you body and build your confidence so you don't worry about falling.

Yoga, tai chi and qigong are proving to be good exercise programs to help people develop better balance AND have been shown to build bone because they are weight bearing exercise. Holding a yoga pose for more than 10 seconds starts the process of the muscle stimulating the bone to grow. But go to a yoga teacher who understand osteoporosis because there are some poses you should never do when you have osteoporosis, like foreword bends. But there are many poses that build balance and bone. One of the best things you can do is stand on one foot to develop balance. Start by holding something, and then do it without holding on to anything. You can do this why you are waiting in line in the grocery store, or any time and it will help you build confidence and get rid of the "self talk" of "i'm going to fall and break a bone" because you will see yourself getting better balance.

Tai chi is difficult to learn, but qigong is tai chi without all the foot movement and is easy to learn. It builds balance, as well as balances your body qi energy. It doesn't have the risks of bends and twists like yoga, so you can learn it on your own with a video if you can't find a teacher.

But most of all, replace that negative self talk and thought about falling and breaking a bone with " I am a strong and healthy women, my bones are strong and healthy, I have good balance". This statement is a much better and healthier self fulfilling prophecy for you.

Take care, and best regards to you.

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