Dear Pam,

Many thanks for your enlightening reply. I am sure that the jaw and teeth will ultimately show us something to caution us about approaching osteoporosis! Unfortunately very few dentists - or none at all -- where I live would know!! So, in the meantime ignorance is bliss and I will walk around to strengthen the bones.But I dont suppose walking will help to strengthen jaw and teeth bones -- maybe chewing on hard things will help, like weight bearing exercises!  

Thanks again for always being ther for all of us,

Yours,

Priya

Dear P.J. Hamel,

There is one symptom about which I would like to ask you, which I am experiencing and I dont know whether it is related to osteoporosis.

Right up to February 2007 I used to walk on long mountain roads with many ups and downs and experienced only the minimum of fatigue towards the end of the walk, which extended up to about two hours every alternate day.

Then I started getting an ache in the left hamstring and a tingling feeling in the left thigh, which got worse with time. At about this time more fatigue set into the legs, but even then I continued with my long walks.

In May 2007 I went down to New Delhi where they discovered slipped discs at L3-L4 and L5-S1 -- which had no major symptoms except a stiffness and slight ache in the lower back when getting up from a low seating position.

Side by side a T score of -2.5 showed that I had osteopenia of the spine and hips. I started taking Actonel 35 mg once a week. Along with Calicum supplements--even though I had already been on three glasses of milk daily. No one told me anything about Vit D-- even though I was living indoors with zero exposure to the sun since many years.

I started doing exercises for the slipped disc.But I discovered that my walking capacity was getting reduced more and more and the tingling in the left thigh developed into aches and achue fatigue. So that I could barely walk fifteen minutes without getting fatigued. I would walk and stop and walk and stop, but still manage the two hours somehow.

I took the Actonel for 12 months and gave it up.The left thigh ache seemed to go away. I could walk more and more. But I have never come back to normal and always have a fatigued feeling in the legs when I start walking -- and inevitably get tired in the legs after half an hour. 

So, I dont know what happened -- I was walking vigorously till 2007, then the slipped disc was discovered as well as osteoporosis. And after Actonel and the back exercises the fatigue got worse in both the legs.

Would you say this happened because of the osteoporosis?  Is fatigue concentrated in the legs a symptom of advancing osteoporosis? Or is it something to do with the slipped disc? Or maybe just not enough strengthening or stretching exercises?

I have been advised high doses of Vitamin D--to get rid of the fatigue, maybe weekly doses of 50,000 IU. I am now on nothing else except a small Calcium supplement and multivitamin which contains 400 IU of Vitamin D.

Thanks a lot  in advance.

Yours,

Priya

Dear  PJH,

Thanks for your kind reply. But it appears that this fatigue might not be due to osteoporosis, as you have not described fatigue as a cause of osteoporosis. What you say about the aging process may be right. But it happened so soon after all these other factors -- slipped disc and osteoporosis and actonel and lack of Vit D, which makes me think of other reasons. But thanks all the same! It is nice to have you out there along with the great experts like Pam Flores and Phyllis!!

Yours,

Priya