I am documenting this for my own records, not to complain, but to allow for my real lived experience.
I wish I knew what would “work.” The truth is, I don’t know. I don’t feel as though I know my body at all. It has become a stranger to me. Too many changes, too many diagnoses, too many symptoms, too many “issues with my tissues.”
I have spent months conducting “science experiments” on my body, when it comes to what Chat GTP called “refractory constipation.” I have tried pickles with my meals, tried kimchi, tried PEG solution, tried magnesium, tried high fiber, tried low fiber…
Sometimes one thing works…
The next time, the very same thing does NOT work.
Writing about it helps. Looking at pictures helps. 😊 Because I have a habit of giving myself self-gaslighting pep talks, with things like, “This immune response is only as bad as you think it is, or only as bad as you LET it be.” But I am not letting this happen. In fact, no one is consulting me and allowing me a say in the matter, and that is the problem.
It just is what it is, until my body is done doing what it wants to do.
I still do not know what was the systemic trigger that caused the reaction resulting in immune memory-driven recall dermatitis.
But it’s not done yet.
My skin reaction lasted all week. Friday, January 23, the activated spots made my chest feel sunburned all day.
They thankfully faded to pink over the weekend. But I have been wearing a FitBit for 26 months, then all of a sudden?:
This welt cleared up quickly with steroid cream and has not reoccurred.
And I definitely have been still feeling stiff joints, sore tendons, occasional dizziness (more than usual), and my mucosal tissues are also inflamed.
But then yesterday…
I just had a little cold diluted juice about an hour after breakfast (which I drink everyday, I have a small glass when I am thirsty, for crying out loud) and boom. First, some pain. Then within an hour my whole abdomen expanded.
I woke up this morning, and it was a bit better.
But then…
I took a shower and maybe it was the change in temperature, but my lower abdomen distended again, and currently it even hurts more than last night. Very painful to remain standing up straight. Feels better laying down, with my knees to the left.
Positive self talk is excellent, at times, but sometimes I need to just keep it real. Sometimes pain is NOT “discomfort.” Sometimes pain means standing upright is difficult, because it pulls on all the tissues that are painfully swollen. Sometimes curling on my left side into the fetal position will lessen that pain. Sometimes making a blog entry like this makes to me feel better, because it just brings the experience out into the open as a fact, and not just a story I am narrating to myself in my head.
When I wrote this post on Monday, it was inspired by having eaten with my husband the night before. He felt like eating tacos, and instead of making myself something completely different, in a completely different pan, I decided to “join” him, and eat some taco meat (that I had prepared myself) on a bed of lettuce, while he ate tacos in shells with all the fixings. Because eating “together” is fun.
But I didn’t feel very good the next day. It was a reminder to me that my stomach generally prefers no surprises.
The Old El Paso Mild Taco Spice packet looked reasonably “safe”:
“Corn Starch, Salt, Spices (including chili pepper), Maltodextrin, Onion Powder, Sugar, Vegetable Oil (canola/soybean), Silicon Dioxide, and Natural Flavor.”
Apparently, for me, maybe it was not safe?
What happened next…I almost do not believe it myself.
Of course, once I pulled off the 5 sticky patches, I had a rash under each spot. I treated the rash for a few days with my eczema cream, and it went away.
Fast forward to Sunday, January 18. I ate 139 grams of taco meat (yes, I weighed it) on lettuce, with a few grape tomatoes (which I literally eat every single day with my pickles, at lunchtime) and some cheddar cheese I grated myself and sour cream, (both of which which I eat often and without issue).
Monday, January 19, I did not feel all that well, and I was very gassy, (slow protein digestion). And I had a sore lymph node under my arm. I thought, well, that’s unsettling, (no one likes to feel a sore lymph node=alarm bell), I will have to keep an eye on that. I decided, just as long as the lymph node shrinks in a few days, it will have been nothing. I decided to blog about my upcoming dinner out for valentine’s, because with my upset stomach, it was reminding me I dislike eating out, but I must remember to think positively.
Tuesday morning, January 20, I tell my husband, wow, this lymph node under my arm is still sore. Then he says, what’s that red spot on your ribs? I go look in the mirror…
EVERY single one of the 5 spots (4 out of 5 are visible in the picture, but trust me, it’s all 5 of them, and no where else) that had become a rash after pealing up that adhesive in December…is once again flared up into a rash…but this is 6 weeks later!!
Could it have really just been the taco meat?? That is the only thing I can think that it could have been.
Anyhow, this helps:
But last night, 8 hours after taking a 12 hour dose, it wore off and these 2 in particular felt EXACTLY like I had been stung by a wasp !
Thankfully, after about an hour, the Allegra worked again, and I have vowed to take it every 6 to 7 hours (stay ahead of it) until these hives disappear.
I guess I want to document this MCAS reaction because I have experienced a certain amount of skepticism when I declare, even to my doctor recently about my hormone therapy, “Oh, I don’t think I could tolerate a subcutaneous patch, my skin is really sensitive.” Yes, I seem dramatic, but it is because this reaction was…dramatic, and a bit traumatic too. It was painful, like wasp stings, and right now my skin feels itchy and bruised, (and the spots are still red and inflamed, even though they are no longer burning like a sting). And the tendons in my ankles have stiffened up (inflammation in a “weak” spot where I have had previous/reoccurring issues). Generally, I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck. 😦
Update: I did go see my family doctor (PCP), and then talked with Chat GTP, “Although uncommon, delayed reactivation of prior adhesive-induced dermatitis is a recognized immune phenomenon. The precise reappearance at identical circular sites strongly supports immune memory–driven recall dermatitis, likely amplified by mast cell activation from a systemic trigger.” Just another interesting thing to add to my hEDS/MCAS/POTS list. My doctor checked my swollen lymph node, noted my file accordingly, and prescribed a strong steroid cream for the burning and itching. 👍
I get it, this is a cute cartoon and something that is very normalized in society today. Pleasurable time with other people can involve food. I know my husband absolutely includes food with any date night or daytime outing. For him in particular, food is love.
The way I currently live around food can look like dieting/calorie counting trying to keep my excess weight off. And yes, that is a part of it. There is also the Celiac factor, since 2011, which means navigating all foods for me to be gluten-free. Then add in the benefit I found (personally, for my body) in navigating all foods for me to be grain-free, which reduces my joint (inflammation) pain. Then add in the benefit I found (personally, for my body) in pretty much avoiding all ultra-processed multi-ingredient foods, including commercially available any food with colors and/or fillers, even natural ones. Anything with emulsifiers even things like carrageenan in dairy cream. And commercially available items with chemicals and preservatives, especially those in salad dressings=light my tongue up on fire. This is explained by my hEDS that gives me a lot of “issues with my tissues,” especially with my skin (eczema) and my digestive track, (nausea, bloating, constipation). That just leaves me meat, fish, eggs, dairy, fruits, and vegetables, (which is still a lot), and I simply have to cook almost everything myself from scratch.
After an otherwise wonderful holiday to Hawaii in 2017, I realized I had spent too much time feeling sorry for myself in restaurants, as I struggled to find foods that I did not react to.
After the trip, I reflected on what I could change, (namely, my attitude), and came up with my own personal motto, #notaboutthefoodthistime. I did not want to ever again waste time feeling sorry for myself in any restaurant. I decided from then on, it was not about the food, but ONLY about the company and the experience.
Except, when in a restaurant, well, it’s always about the food, isn’t it?? How can it not be??
When I see posts that show how “fun” it is to share food and good times, I remind myself, that for me, valentine’s dinner out with my husband will be about getting dressed up, and being happy he can enjoy a decadent meal out, instead of my homemade and somewhat leaner offerings at home. I will enjoy the experience, and who cares if the food I choose to eat is somewhat minimal, in comparison. Once again, I will remember my personal motto, #notaboutthefoodthistime.
I recently watched this series Run Away on Netflix. I usually multitask a bit while a series plays in the background, so I miss little bits here and there while I am still “listening” to it, but not watching it. But at one point, I did think, “Hey, I didn’t notice before that the daughter was in a wheelchair, oh well, whatever.”
But then this article about it came up on my Facebook feed:
“It looked like a mistake at first. A detail that slipped through editing. But the truth behind it is far more human than viewers expected….
…Anya is played by Ellie Henry, who lives with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. It is a genetic condition that affects collagen, making joints unstable and movement exhausting. Some days, a wheelchair is necessary. Some days, it is not.
That reality was carried directly into the character….
…By not turning Anya’s condition into a storyline, Harlan Coben’s adaptation shows something simple and honest. Disability is not always visible. It is not always permanent. And it does not need a spotlight to exist.”
Frankly, 6 months ago I had never heard of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. That was until I was told I had it too, (hypermobility-type), and it explained why my heart mitral valve has torn, why I am struggling with small vessel constriction and circulation in my hands, why I have significant osteoporosis at only 54-years old, why I have sluggish digestion, why I now have bilateral inguinal hernias while simply working at a desk job, why my knee caps slip all over the place, why my shoulder dislocated so easily, (and was then also easily reduced, multiple times in one day, but not without tearing things and taking months to heal), etc.
I never realized with all the walking I do, it involves “muscle guarding” of my joints, especially my knees, which adds to my overall daily fatigue. But I need those lean legs muscles to keep going, so I don’t lose mobility! I notice almost right away, if I stop regular walking, how fast I de-condition. Faster than average, for sure. And my heart mitral valve leaflets did not tear because of some strain I put on my heart. Instead, my heart has strain on it because the valve leaflets are torn. So I need the cardiovascular exercise to keep my heart muscle strong, so it can handle the strain of the back flow of blood (regurgitation) caused by the torn valve leaflets.
Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome is a group of disorders, and has a spectrum, just like so many other things. Previously, I have not been high enough on the spectrum of resulting issues to have ever needed a wheelchair, for example, which is one of the reasons I went undiagnosed for so much of my life. My mother remembers taking me to the doctor at about 18 months old because I “walked funny,” my gait was very strange. She said it was almost as though I was swinging my hips to push my legs forward. In hindsight, it seems so obvious…but I totally understand how hard it would have been to realistically diagnose a loose joint/connective tissue issue at that age. Needless to say, after constant verbal correction, I eventually figured out how to hold my legs in a more steady way, and to walk straight. I also remember constant verbal correction to “stand up straight,” stop walking “knock-kneed,” don’t sit like that, etc. (Of course, extra flexibility alone, which kids naturally have their fair of, does NOT mean you have hEDS, but when you start adding up all the other issues… “If you are having trouble connecting the issues, think connective tissues”).
Anyhow, I just think that it is wild to hear that an actress hired to play a roll on a Netflix series has this same condition. And when cast for the job, Netflix just filmed her either standing and walking, or in a wheelchair, simply depending on her physical needs for the day. I think that is wonderful.
I found this picture from December 2004, from when I was going to Workout Express three to four times per week (after working 9 to 5 at an office). I am even wearing their t-shirt in the picture, and my cheeks are flushed from having just done a workout, and then driven home.
I was dedicated. Until I wasn’t.
It is truly exceptional to not only get fit, but to also stay fit. I tried to get fit and stay fit many times since my year at Workout Express. Did I even make it a year? Yes, I think I made it a year and a half. I quit when I changed jobs in April of 2006, because by then I was not going as much as I used to anyway. When I changed jobs in 2006, I was actually working on “building a career or business.” Both of those things, in fact. Helping my husband build his business, and going back to school part time to build myself a new career too. We were not raising kids full-time, but we were dealing with our fair share of “handling chaos.”
By the time I started this blog in 2019, I was trying to get fit, for the umpteenth time, and it took me a while to get to where I am today. Now I am trying to stay fit while “aging.”
Aging has added a layer of difficulty to staying fit, just like building a career and business, and handling chaos did. Maybe even more of a layer. And, of course, staying fit while handling chaos still exists. Unexpectedly this week, a huge sheet of ice slid off a cube van that we passed on the highway going 60 miles an hour, and it basically wiped out the whole front end of our truck! We were lucky we were not hurt, because it hit our front end, breaking everything through to and including part of the radiator. But luckily we did not get pushed off the road, and it did not hit or go through the windshield. Even though we have insurance, there is plenty of chaos filing the claim, extra traveling for repair estimates, then waiting for all repairs to be done, all the while being without the use of the vehicle until it gets completed, etc. That’s just life.
I have to remember aging is just life too. I need to adapt to the different signals from my body, and it’s fluctuating and/or changing capabilities. 20 years ago, because I was changing jobs, I basically abandoned Workout Express without a clear plan of what I was going to do instead. I have now learned that staying fit means staying with fitness routines, and adapting and changing them as necessary, but never abandoning them.
This is a really good reminder for me today, because have been struggling lately with a bit of extra fatigue. And it’s funny, because it was almost on a subliminal level, and then I finally realized that feeling tired like this was making me feel “out of shape.” And I want to be uninfluenced by these kind of subtle feelings that can hover under my radar, steering me towards bad decisions, like giving into sugar cravings. Instead, I want to pay attention to signals from my body, even when they are subtle, and be eyes wide open with my decisions.
So firstly, dieting 101: sugar cravings for energy = eat fruit, for example, eat an apple. That actually worked for me yesterday and today. I ate an apple, and I felt better. An apple is a much better option than giving in and eating some kind of pure sugar junk food (chocolate)!
Secondly, I am NOT out of shape, as in being in a state of poor physical condition. I walk regularly, yesterday I went ice skating for an hour, and I had an excellent stress test result in December, with my cardiologist very impressed with my exercise tolerance. So, even if I have been feeling some extra fatigue lately, I cannot let that signal to me that somehow I am “out of shape,” and therefore, what’s the point in continuing my routines, as though they are somehow not working. I know for a fact they do work! I just need to push past this extra tiredness, which is probably just temporary. It could be caused by many things, lack of sunlight (it’s January), maybe I am fighting off a virus, or maybe my blood sugar is fluctuating a bit, who knows. All I know is nothing about my life will be improved if I let myself slack off now. 😊
I have experienced this very thing! I do not have any motivation to speak of, but then I force myself (out of pure habit and routine) to do the daily walk I did not feel like doing, (did not feel like doing it partly because of the extra work to gear up and walk outside in winter weather). And then I felt very motivated afterwards.
I need to remember that. I always feel better afterward. 😊
I know I do not have to justify my decisions about this, but it helps me to articulate outside my own head why I just ordered the Lepulse Smart Scale for myself (with a gift certificate I got for Christmas). This is not an ad for the scale, lol, this is just for me, to organize my own thoughts and set my intention.
But…Is it diet obsession?
Or is it:
Passion
Commitment
Enthusiasm
Devotion
Engagement
Discipline
What does it really take for me to maintain this 70 pound weight loss? For the rest of my life?
I suppose it is all of these things: Passion, Commitment, Enthusiasm, Devotion, Engagement, Discipline, and yes, some diet obsession too.
I would be lying to myself if it did not admit that yes, I spend time (a fair amount of time) every single day logging what I weigh on an app, logging what I eat for total calories on an app, looking at how many macros (and grams of protein) I had for the day based upon what I logged in the app, what my average protein grams were for the week, logging my daily walk on an app, (taking a walk just so I can log it), looking at how many kilometers I have totaled up for the month (or recently, for the year), checking once a month how much body fat percentage my scale estimates I have, (and compare it to the previous month’s reading), checking my waist and hip measurement about once a month too, and so on, and so on…
Am I obsessed? Or just committed? Do I need to continue to be this enthusiastic to keep prioritizing my health like this…for the rest of my life?
Honestly, I think yes, I do have to spend part of my day, every day, paying attention to all these things. In the past, if I did NOT spend time paying attention to making my overall health a daily priority in this way, I did NOT maintain my weight, nor the level of fitness I had previously accomplished. I don’t just mean a previous weight loss. There was a time (2004-2006) when I belong to a gym, Workout Express, and I went there after work 3 or 4 times a week for a 30-minute circuit workout. I even did the 1-hour workouts a few times. And then I just stopped going. There was a time (2017-2021) when I worked out with a friend (treadmill and elliptical) at the gym in her building. And then we just stopped doing it one day, even before we both moved in 2022 to different towns.
And there was a time I stop tracking my walks on Runkeeper (in the first 4 months of 2013), and then it didn’t seem to matter if I took a walk or not. But it did matter, so I started tracking my walks again. Sometimes knowing I am going to track a walk, wanting to track it, is the ONLY thing that gets me out the door in the rain, for example. I find tracking highly motivating, simple as that.
Recently, I was very disturbed by my eating on Christmas Day. It was a true return to my old behavior. I know part of that eating was prompted by feeling terrible (physically), and thinking I could maybe find something to eat that would soothe how my stomach felt. First, I went to liquids, ginger ale, my favorite teas. Then I went to solid food, to soak up the liquid. However I was justifying it to myself at the time, I ended up over-consuming on a large scale, something I had not done in a very long time. I flirted with that behavior in October, over-consuming and indulging in “what’s the point in trying to be healthy” thoughts during Canadian Thanksgiving long weekend. But I was able to quickly stop that thinking, and stop that overeating. I still felt depressed, but thankfully, I stopped wanting to overeat. (I didn’t even really want to eat at all, I felt so down. But I blogged through it, and started to feel better).
But this last week since Christmas, boy, I cannot stop thinking about food. Excess food, sweets, and lots of it. The comfort of stuffing myself with food that day was intoxicating…it created physical discomfort, which somehow eased, or rather distracted, from emotional discomfort.
I think I need to pull out the big guns to get myself through this. So I ordered the smart scale.
Pulling out the big guns=diet obsession. But I find tracking so motivating, and a smart scale will give me new metrics to track. New metrics to obsess over? Maybe. But avoiding the obsession does not cure me of it either. I need to manage it, not hide from it. And if it keeps me going on a healthier path, instead of back to lack of regular activity (because it’s raining/snowing) and weight gain? Then I am choosing obsession.
Far be it from me to tell anyone else how they need to lose weight or maintain weight that has been lost. All I know is for me, counting things, tracking things, seeing small incremental improvements even, (more kilometers walked this month than last, or a faster pace, etc.), is motivating. Even when the numbers do not improve, knowing the numbers helps me to try again the next month, and to keep trying. Bone mass, muscle mass, protein grams, that is what I want to track, even more than a once a year Dexa scan.
Some people may be able to accomplish their goal intuitively, without tracking a thing. That is great. But I know I want to count and track, and I don’t resent having to do it daily. Some people reach a point where they think there is just no way they can keep tracking (whatever it is they are tracking) for the rest of their lives?!? Whereas for me, I am happy to think I can have my whole life sorted, organized, counted, and tracked, every single day, and sure, for the rest of my life, why not.
Even knowing my new scale is supposed to be delivered this afternoon encourages me to get all my winter gear on (which is actually a lot of gear these days) and go for a walk. And to stick only to the food that I plan to eat today, (instead of overeating unplanned leftover sweets), while prioritizing protein.
Whatever it takes to get me out the door each day for cardiovascular exercise, or gets me to do my yoga routine a few times per week, well, it’s worth it. If this scale influences me, I have decided that it will do so in a way that I will use as a super power. I am going to be passionate, committed, enthusiastic, devoted, engaged, and disciplined, and this scale is going to help me track it all.
In my last 2 blog posts of 2025 here and here, I mentioned not being influenced by unknown and uncontrollable things, and not to be influenced without instead taking the time to gather myself an adequate amount of information that will make me feel empowered in my decision making.
That is my word for this year: uninfluenced. To be uninfluenced is to be deliberate. Influence can come over you without you realizing it, or thinking about it. You just go along with something, without much thinking at all. I want to be uninfluenced, so that when I decide and choose something, it is NOT because I am merely going with the flow. I will seek out and independently research topics of my interest, and if I choose to then be positively influenced by what I discover, I do so with my eyes wide open, and with my own autonomy.
I have started this year, January 1, 2026, weighing exactly 4 pounds more than January 1, 2025, 1 year ago today.
And that is over 20 pounds less than January 1, 2024, just 2 years ago when I declared for the first time, “I am in maintenance!”, and meant it.
When I started to maintain my weight 2 years ago, I did not deliberately set out to lose 20 more pounds. Yes, I was vigilant with tracking my food in my LoseIt app, wanting to maintain and preserve my new healthy weight. But the extra 20 pounds lost happened somewhat organically. I did start eating more as I began maintenance, but I was also incrementally increasing my regular walking. I didn’t make any sudden large changes with my eating, but I was no longer actively seeking a calorie deficit. I just kept planning what I eat, (a little bit more than before), and eating what I planned. The scale kept creeping down.
After about 10 months into 2024, my weight stabilized at about 120 pounds, and it finally just stayed there. Then throughout 2025, it was not difficult to stay at or around 120 pounds. My body seems very comfortable here. Even with the probably half a dozen times in 2025 that I did not eat what I planned, and instead ate more, I did NOT have to restrict food to get the scale to come back down. All I did was return to eating what I planned, (maybe one less piece of cheese per day, me and cheese have a long history, lol), but for the most part, nothing dramatic. About week later I was always back to what was and appears to be my new “normal.” This tells me that for now, (maybe not always, but for now), my current weight is sustainable.
I know I am currently at what is considered a low BMI, (although still healthy for my height, and yes, I know, the BMI has flaws). And I know I need to be okay if my weight eventually climbs up and stabilizes at a slightly higher amount. In fact, I may be seeing a little of that happening already, because I did start HRT on December 15. It’s hard to say, because I also did overeat the night of December 21, followed by significant overconsumption of unplanned food on December 25, after which I saw a very large increase on the scale that has not yet entirely disappeared. And maybe it won’t. I do not feel the need to create a calorie deficit to try and lose those 3 or 4 pounds. I just do NOT want to slide into any old habits! I want to continue to simply plan what I eat, and eat what I plan, (with lots of protein).
I definitely want (yes, want) my weight to climb IF I am gaining muscle, (or maybe, please Lord, bone mass)! I am working on tracking my daily calories to include prioritizing daily protein amounts, combined with muscle building, mostly through targeted body movement exercises. I have my repeat Dexa scan already booked for June 12, 2026, which will be my next benchmark to see where I have got to in terms of my body composition, hopefully for the better.
So, I mentioned in yesterday’s post that I would write about my new plan of action. It’s fairly specific to me, because at 54-years of age, my lumbar spine has been diagnosed with a t-score of -3.3, which is already half way through the osteoporosis scale heading for really severe (-4.0), whereas my hips are only osteopenic, (-2.1), but inching fairly close to osteoporosis themselves. This difference is common in connective-tissue–related bone fragility. So, maybe none of this would really apply to a fifty-something-year old woman who did NOT have hEDS. And even then, not everyone with hEDS will get dealt this osteoporosis card, (or the heart mitral valve card either, for that matter).
I used Chat GTP as a sounding board for the things I am about to talk about in this blog. To be clear, Chat GTP did not diagnose me. I was diagnosed by a doctor, by an echocardiogram done at a hospital, by a bone density scan done at a radiology clinic, and even by a Dexa scan, which even though is not considered medically diagnostic according to my doctor, did show questionable findings that got the ball rolling for me. (Best $249 I ever spent on that Dexa! The rest is covered by my medical insurance).
Anyhow, Chat GTP has real information at its disposal on my real diagnosed medical conditions, so it was a great place to have an evidence-based and knowledgeable chit chat. This is not medical advice, it’s just my experience and decisions based on information I have gathered.
When it comes to the different t-scores between my spine and my in my hips, the bone densitometry I had done on October 3, 2025, also looked at the neck of the hip versus the total hip, where again there was a slight difference for me:
“In your case:
• The total hip is lower than the neck
• This suggests relatively greater compromise of cortical bone than trabecular bone at the hip
This pattern is actually very consistent with connective-tissue–related bone fragility, where:
• Collagen defects affect bone matrix quality
• Cortical bone can become thinner and less resilient
• BMD may underestimate true fracture risk.”
Hmmm. Good to know.
Here’s the interesting part, if my osteoporosis was just because I started menopause about 2.5 years ago, then firstly, my t-score should not be this bad already! It’s only been 2.5 years! So we can feel confident my osteoporosis is connective-tissue related. And:
“Contrast this with:
• Postmenopausal estrogen deficiency, which often hits trabecular bone first (neck worse than total).”
Okay. It is my total hip that is worse, not the neck, (and it’s my spine that is really bad for my age). None of this would make any sense, really… except in terms of my having hEDS.
Because I have hEDS, I am very hesitant to take any bisphosphonates (like Fosomax) because of my digestion issues related to having hEDS. “GI intolerance risk is meaningfully higher in your case.”
And besides, for me specifically:
“Potential limitations of Fosamax for you
• It does not address collagen or bone quality
• It can over-suppress remodeling, which:
• May be problematic when baseline bone quality is abnormal
• Is a concern raised specifically in some hEDS populations
• Spine BMD gains tend to plateau quickly
• Fracture risk reduction in younger postmenopausal women with non-classic osteoporosis is less robust than in older populations.”
Yeah. Many women with these same t-scores that I have, are actually much older than me. I have strong legs and good balance, (and I can work on increasing my core strength also), so I am not really at risk of falling in the same way a woman coming up on 80-years old would be, (although if I did fall, I could break more easily, yes, that is true). Fracture risk is a huge concern for older women, especially in their seventies and eighties. All it takes is that one fall, leading to a fracture, and they can lose their independence. Woman in their seventies and eighties that find themselves with significant osteoporosis need to pull out the big guns to get the best return on their fall prevention investment.
I need to invest in fall prevention too, but, in theory, I should have many decades of life ahead of me, so it would probably not be good to be taking harsh medication for the next 30+ years!?!
Anyhow, even though my bone loss is not directly caused by menopause, that certainly has not helped things.
“But here’s the key distinction in your case
Postmenopausal osteoporosis:
• Primary problem = estrogen deficiency
• Estrogen replacement can be foundational therapy
• Primary problem = bone matrix / collagen quality
• Estrogen deficiency is secondary or additive
• Estrogen cannot correct defective bone scaffolding
So in your situation:
• Estrogen may help reduce the speed of loss
• It may slightly improve spine BMD
• But it cannot reverse the underlying fragility
This is why your hips are osteopenic, not osteoporotic — estrogen deficiency alone does not explain your pattern.”
So, estrogen may help a bit, so that is what my doctor and I have decided to do, good old Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT). Sure, there is a slight increased risk of breast cancer, but leaving my osteoporosis unchecked has risks also. Everyone must make their own informed decision in this regard, weighing benefits versus risks. (And for me personally, I am also taking micronized progesterone, because I still have my uterus, so a balance of both hormones on HRT is protective for that).
And for people with osteoporosis primarily because of menopause, if their doctor recommends it, I thought this was interesting:
“For lumbar spine osteoporosis, the timing of estrogen therapy is critical, with the greatest benefits occurring when treatment is initiated in the “window of opportunity” which is in the early postmenopausal years (typically within 10 years of menopause onset or before age 60).
Key Timing Effects
Early Initiation (Critical Window): Starting estrogen soon after menopause is most effective for preventing rapid bone loss. The first 5 to 7 years after menopause are when the most significant bone loss occurs in women due to estrogen deficiency. Initiating therapy during this period helps stabilize bone mineral density (BMD) in the lumbar spine and effectively reduces the risk of future fractures.”
I am only be 2.5 years into menopause. So, I now begin HRT as part of how I am starting to work on this problem for myself, based on my own personal “issues with my tissues,” that have been most probably been the main cause for me of this significant osteoporosis problem in the first place. And it looks like I am still within this good window of opportunity to be starting HRT.
That is it in a nutshell. I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year’s. Even with health concerns, being in the driver’s seat of my decisions, and putting those decisions into action, certainly feels better than instead simply allowing myself to be influenced, without taking the time to gather an adequate amount of empowering information on which I can make my own decisions.
The Bio Joy Diet 