Tuesday, December 08, 2009
With 2010 just around the corner, you’re probably being bombarded with all kinds of New Year’s resolutions advice. From women’s magazines to TV talk shows, you’re hearing that in 2010 you should turn over a new leaf and vow to (choose one) lose weight, exercise more, revitaliz...
Hey PJ, cortisone is truly a killer of bone, but I have an interesting story about my sil who's taken it for over 25 years for Lupus, in a very low dose, and her DXA scores got better this time around. We couldn't figure out what happened and why she still wasn't seeing DXA decreases like she had in the past on cortisone. I asked if she was taking more D, calcium, doing more exercises and the answers were NO, NO, NO. So the only thing we could come up with is she's under less stress and maybe her cortisol levels have gone down, which could have an affect on t-scores for the better.
I don't recommend cortisone unless you absolutely have to take it, like my sil, but cortisol levels need to be considered as well since stress (elevated cortisol) will cause bone loss.
If her alleviated stress was the reason for improved DXA, we'll never know, but I thought it was an interesting story since we know FOR SURE corticosteriods cause bone loss.
So, this is why I mentioned trying to alleviate stress as much as possible in my New Years Resolutions since our cortisol levels are very important for many things including keeping our bone loss from speeding up.
Good luck with your resolutions...