Get yourself checked for Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis is a very common side effect of U.C., but over the years my G.I. docs have never mentioned it and it would only get discussed when I brought it up. I recently requested a bone scan which showed Osteoporosis in my spine (hips normal). If you have had UC for a while and haven't had a recent bone density scan, I would highly recommend it. Don't take it lightly because osteoporosis is serious.
I had some chronic soreness after playing golf and it turns out that I have a compression fracture in my spine at T2. The last thing you want is for U.C. to rob you of the activities you enjoy, but that is what I am facing now.
Has anyone had success with drugs to treat osteoporosis? I can't take Fosomax because I have a Schatzki ring.

For sure you need to be vigilant about osteoporosis if you were ever on prednisone. But so many UCers were on pred at least at first diagnosis.

At what age would someone with UC start getting a bone scan to check? Anyone?

I take Prolia. It's a shot I get twice a year. Since getting the shot, I have been shown significant changes for the better in my bone scans.

Serenity Now said...
Are you saying UC itself causes osteoporosis, or as a consequence of taking prednisone? So if one has UC but has never taken pred, do we still have higher risk and should ask for a bone scan?

I dunno. I never took pred and my bones are fine, but it wouldn't hurt to get a bone scan. I was affected by one of the many side effects of UC, ankylosing spondylitis, which is arthritis of the spinal cord.

I had a bone scan done years before I ever went on prednisone (I was a reporter at the time covering a mobile medical van that offered bone scans and other tests, and they let me get one for free), and it showed osteopenia. I was about 23 or 24 years old. They told me since I was naturally so skinny, that I shouldn't worry about the results, that they were actually normal for me. I had another scan a couple years ago and it was similar -- osteopenia. Doctor didn't put me on any meds for that.

One factor could be that, as UC patients, some of us are more prone to having low vitamin D (a genetic predisposition associated with UC). D being necessary for bone strength and converting calcium to bone mass. So, if you/I were chronically low in Vitamin D, even without prednisone, it could result in a faster bone loss rate than our peers.

I had a DEXA scan done last week. Last year I was on 60mg pred for almost 3 months. It was devastating. My bone scan was in the red. This year it's in the blue, after a year of weight training and remineralization. Remission does wonders. Also age is a factor. My hips are unchanged from last year which worries me, but I'm hoping now that I'm doing more heavy squats things are improving.

When it was too late in the game, I also learned that pregnenolone used to be the steroid they gave inflammation patients before prednisone was invented in the 1940's. Pregnenolone feeds the cortisone pathway without turning the other hormone pathways offline, so there's no bone wasting. I used pregnenolone with DHEA for 6 months to get into remission and it's what I would use next time if I flare.

The only thing I have to disagree with above is vitamin D. There is emerging evidence that too much vitamin D behaves as immune suppression, especially if the body can't convert the synthetic to active form. You need magnesium, retinol (active vitamin A) and bioavailable copper to make use of storage D. If that doesn't happen, then storage D builds and acts like a steroid, which is why D is also called secosteroid D.

I noticed whenever I did vitamin D drops, I would feel better for about 1 week, then my health would crash. Part of getting into remission involved stopping D. I don't take it at all now. Taking large doses of reintol by consuming grass fed beef liver twice a week is what repaired my dysfunctional immune system. The most cutting edge research on D is showing that if the body has robust nutrition, then we store enough D during the summer months for the winter, especially vitamin A. If you look at natural D reservoirs, like cod liver oil, the amount of retinol to vitamin D is about 10:1. That means for every 1,000 IU of D you take, you should be getting 10,000 IU retinol to process it.

Of course, everyone is different and some people swear by D for their recovery. For me, D worsened things and it took me years to figure it out.