I am a generally healthy and active 68-year-old male.  I exercise regularly (isometrics, 2-plus miles of walking per day, sailing in the summer), eat a low fat, low salt, low sugar diet, and take natural supplements for moderately high cholesterol.  I also take a daily beta-blocker for one episode of lone atrial fibrillation experienced a decade ago.

In February, I developed a spontaneous, non-traumatic spinal compression fracture in my upper-middle back, from which I am about 80 percent recovered.  After all the usual tests, the presumed cause was traced to mild osteopenia (average T scores:  -1.2 in spine; -0.7 in hip).  My family physician has put me on calcium, vitamin D, and vitamin D3 and has recommended I take a biophosphonate.  However, he has left the final decision to me, since I don't fit any of the usual categories (for instance, no osteoporosis).  I am a medical "outlier," he says.

My question is whether I need a biophosphonate.  I am familiar with the controversy surrounding them, and I dislike drug therapies when I can do things in a natural way.  I managed to successfully lower my cholesterol without taking statin drugs, and I wonder if my fracture an be similarly addressed.

Thank you.