Hi, mangosmom1, and welcome to Daily Strength and the Osteoporosis forum. This board isn't very active right now, but there are still nice people here. You might want to read some of the recent posts, because someone else brought up the matter of DEXA scans possibly not giving a full picture of one's condition.

I'm not a doctor, but 2 of my doctors told me not to take calcium by itself. They said that I should also take magnesium, vitamin d3, and vitamin k2, because they work synergystically with calcium. And one of those doctors told me to also take strontium citrate.

The doctor who found my osteo put me on once-a-month Actonel. After one dose, I couldn't take it anymore, because the side effects were very bad and lasted 4 weeks. At that time I had to find a different doctor, who told me that if I can't handle Actonel, that she wouldn't put me on Boniva or Fosamax either, because they are in the same family of meds. She is the doctor who added the strontium citrate supplement to my cal-mag, d3, & k2. This combo worked well for me, because I am now upgraded to osteopenia--right on the borderline of osteoporosis, but at least I'm headed in the right direction. I hope you find what works for you. Best wishes.

I don't know what happened but I just typed up a very long reply and it disappeared! So for now I will just suggest you search 2 websites for more info: therienstraclinic.com for the DEXA newsletter and thenaturalrecoveryplan.com for an article on calcium and osteoporosis. Another thing I will say is look carefully at your BMD numbers for comparison rather than the T scores since apparently they change the reference values but BMD is what is measured-sort of. Actually they measure the darkness of a shadow cast by your bones when exposed to x-rays. Someone who is taller with larger bones to support their frame will cast a darker shadow even if they have exactly the same mineral content per cc of bone and that is how the results are skewed for smaller boned people. I will try to recreate my longer reply later I actually had a higher BMD in my spine than previous DEXA but it was given a lower T score. There is more to bones than the mineral content and higher BMD does not guarantee bone strength and visa versa. And nanny is right you need other things beside calcium and actually you need those other things even more than the calcium for good bone mineral levels since many of us get a lot of calcium in our diets already.

nanny is on the right track. I would listen to her advice. We are all different but she seems to have it togather.

Thanks everyone for your helpful and thoughtful replies.
I am currently taking a womans
multivitamin by Pure Encapsulations called Woman's Nutrients.This brand was endorsed by one of my doctors.I have also read positive reviews on the net. It is a high potency formula and hoping it helps as I have been having issues this last year plus with malabsorption due to Erosive Gastritis . It does have magnesium 100mg and K1 100mg, but may not be correct doseages for bone loss.
I have an appointment in Santa Cruz the end of this month with a naturopathic Dr. I will see what she recommends for the osteoporosis as well

How do the Woman's Nutrients work for you

wow looked up those womens nutreints and they are very expensive