[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/testing\/lack-of-improvement\/#Article","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/testing\/lack-of-improvement\/","headline":"Tests included in the medical workup for osteoporosis","name":"Tests included in the medical workup for osteoporosis","description":"Print PDF eBook Facebook Twitter Gmail LinkedIn Pinterest The other day, I had an e-mail from a 70-year-old woman who is following the Better Bones approach. She was obviously very frustrated by what she considered a lack of progress. \u201cI\u2019m doing everything I\u2019m supposed to,\u201d she said, noting that she was eating alkaline and testing […]","datePublished":"2011-08-01","dateModified":"2026-04-22","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/author\/brownbetterbonesgmail-com\/#Person","name":"Dr. Susan E. Brown, PhD","url":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/author\/brownbetterbonesgmail-com\/","identifier":72,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8e08d87bd45250c6616e1752933a6576aba077f335d97ee337a0cde5e435cbd3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8e08d87bd45250c6616e1752933a6576aba077f335d97ee337a0cde5e435cbd3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Center for Better Bones","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Better-Bones-AMP.png","url":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Better-Bones-AMP.png","width":150,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/osteoporosis-blog.jpg","url":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/osteoporosis-blog.jpg","height":512,"width":1024},"url":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/testing\/lack-of-improvement\/","about":["Testing"],"wordCount":800,"keywords":["medical work up"],"articleBody":" Print PDF eBook\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFacebook\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTwitter\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGmail\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLinkedIn\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPinterest\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe other day, I had an e-mail from a 70-year-old woman who is following the Better Bones approach. She was obviously very frustrated by what she considered a lack of progress. \u201cI\u2019m doing everything I\u2019m supposed to,\u201d she said, noting that she was eating alkaline and testing her pH, exercising daily with weights, meditating, and taking her vitamin supplements religiously. But she\u2019d just had a DEXA scan and was upset because nothing had changed. Her bone density was no different than it had been the last time she\u2019d had her bone density measured 2 years ago, and she couldn\u2019t understand why it hadn\u2019t improved.At first, this struck me as a little bit funny. She clearly didn\u2019t understand something very important. For a woman after menopause, keeping bone density stable is a big accomplishment! Keep in mind that the average in her 60\u2019s and 70\u2019s loses 1 or 2% of her bone mass every two years. That means that over the course of 3 years, this particular woman had maintained her bone density instead of losing the 1-2% she might normally have expected to lose just from the average wear-and-tear of aging. Compared to a lot of her peers, she\u2019s doing pretty well! In light of the fact that the average women loses as much as 47% bone of her bone mass by her late 80\u2019s, this client\u2019s stability of bone as she ages is a real sign of success.Then I reconsidered. I thought, “this woman thinks she\u2019s failing at something when she\u2019s succeeding \u2014 that\u2019s a problem!” Here she was, beating the odds and keeping her bones stable year after year, yet she felt like she wasn\u2019t doing enough. I did not want her to walk away feeling defeated when she\u2019d just won a wonderful victory. But how to get that point across to her and others like her?Well, here\u2019s a small analogy for you. Many personal trainers will tell someone they\u2019re helping to lose weight to pay no attention to what the scale says, but instead gauge their weight loss success by how their clothes fit. It\u2019s somewhat the same with bone health. For many of us, \u201coptimal bone health\u201d might mean results not visible to the naked eye or even to a DEXA scan \u2014 a strengthening of bone that leaves it more flexible and less prone to fracture, but that doesn\u2019t increase its overall density. Some might also find their bone density stabilizes, as the woman who wrote me did (even if she didn\u2019t recognize this stability for the achievement it is). Some see small gains in bone density, and a few see significant increases in bone density. But for most, the improvement might not really show up on any measurement made by a DEXA scanner.What you do often get with a natural bone health program is a visible improvement in overall health \u2014 stronger nails, more supple skin, healthier teeth and gums, often better digestive health \u2014 that signifies that the body is getting what it needs and therefore doesn\u2019t need to tap the bones for resources. Like a pair of suddenly loose pants on a person whose bathroom scale says she hasn\u2019t lost a pound, sometimes the measuring device should be disbelieved if the body itself says that good changes are happening.It\u2019s also true that one might have such gains but not see them, since (as I\u2019ve commented in earlier blogs) DEXA machines are notorious for having poor accuracy from one scan to another. A DEXA scan must show a change in density of at least 5-6%, according to noted bone researcher Susan Ott, to indicate a definite change in bone density; anything less than that could just be variation in the scanner or operator skill. The woman who e-mailed me, for example, could very well have had an increase in bone density of 1% from year to year, but the variability in DEXA measurements might have masked the increase.So there are two points I\u2019d like everyone to take away from this. One is that your success might not be measurable or quantifiable in terms of increased bone density\u2014but that doesn\u2019t mean you should discount it. Having stable bone mass as we age is something to celebrate! The other is that the point of a Better Bones Health Package and the approach I\u2019ve long advocated is not to make sure everyone has bones equivalent in density to a 25-year-old athlete, but to give the bones \u2014 and the body, too \u2014 the resources they need to obtain optimal health. For guidance on supplementation alongside testing, see our guide to the best supplements for bone health."},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Testing","item":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/testing\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Tests included in the medical workup for osteoporosis","item":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/testing\/lack-of-improvement\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]