No Bones About It

Kochevar, a certified personal trainer through the National Academy of Sports Medicine and the American College of Sports Medicine, first did an assessment of Keller’s fitness level and her health concerns. “For osteoporosis, there’s no real magic pill. Resistance training is what’s needed. It’s what helps strengthen the bones,” says Kochevar. “In Audra’s case—someone with osteoporosis—we would home in on that condition and really start to focus on some resistance training. But we also needed to work on stability and balance.”

Niewoehner agrees that weight-bearing, flexibility, and strength training are necessary elements for any exercise program for osteoporosis patients. “You have to be careful of impact as you get older [due to the potential for traumatic fractures]. But a varied exercise program does help to stabilize bones,” she says.

Sunshine and Calcium

Calcium taken with vitamin D (which aids in the absorption of calcium) is also a key element in preventing and treating bone loss. Niewoehner says calcium is “the building block for the mineral phase of bone. Calcium does protect against the bone loss [that comes along with] aging.”

Besides aiding in calcium absorption, vitamin D contributes to improving muscle strength, which is also important for osteoporosis patients. But vitamin D can be harder to come by than you might imagine.

“[Humans] were designed to get most of our vitamin D from the action of sunlight on skin. But up here in our northern latitude, we are too far away from the sun from October to March to make any vitamin D, even if we could stand to be outside,” Niewoehner says. “It’s obviously a balance between not too much sun [to avoid] things like skin cancer and sunburn, versus enough sunlight to be helpful.”

We can get the vitamin D we need during our summer months by exposing our hands, face, and forearms to the sun for 15 to 30 minutes per day, according to Niewoehner. This exposure has to happen without the sunblock we’re accustomed to wearing so the body can absorb the sun’s rays. It’s very hard to get vitamin D in the diet, she says, because it’s found in foods such as fatty fish, oil, butter, egg yolk, and liver—all things that people avoid when watching their fat intake.

Keller has taken calcium supplements for years, and her most recent DEXA scan showed no further damage to her bones. Because of this, she decided to stop taking Fosamax, but will continue taking calcium supplements for the rest of her life.

She believes she never really had a chance to avoid an osteoporosis diagnosis. But she adds, “I think everybody should take better care of themselves than I did. My family is full of osteoporosis—why wasn’t I taking better care of myself? Why didn’t I exercise more or do weight training of some sort? I could have done those things years ago. Maybe I wouldn’t have had this. I just don’t know.”