Bone health during cancer treatment

I’m all over this, trying to get women to take note BEFORE they begin their treatment for breast cancer. After a year of chemotherapy, and then years of adjuvant chemo-suppresant therapies, I have osteoporosis. Despite lots of weight bearing exercise, and plenty of calcium and Vitamin D3 - and my Vitamin D3 levels have been tested BTW.

Sigh. So now I’m taking the evil but necessary Fosamax.

Read on:

Healthy bones are essential to our well-being. They provide structure and support for our bodies through the skeleton network, protect vital organs from injury, and store necessary minerals. Since strong, healthy bones allow us to participate in activities of daily life without pain and loss of function, attention to bone health is important at any stage of life. It is an especially important consideration for people living with cancer because cancer and cancer treatments can increase the risk of bone problems.

Osteoporosis

As we age our body loses the ability to replace the cells needed to repair and rebuild bone mass, and bones become thin and more porous. This condition is called osteoporosis, the most common kind of bone disease. When bones become weak and fragile, they are more likely to fracture (break) and cause pain and disability that can interfere with a person’s daily life.

In addition to age, other factors that can contribute to loss of bone mass include:

• Cancer metastasis (spread) to the bone, which causes bones to weaken in certain places. This can include breast cancer, prostate cancer, multiple myeloma, and lung cancer.
  
  
• Some types of chemotherapy

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Save money and ditch your multi-vitamin

Oh, boy did I ever used to be a ‘true believer’ about the power of the vitamin pill. Back in the 1970’s I read Adele Davis, and got on the bandwagon with mega-doses of this, that and the other thing. But over the last couple decades I’ve been getting rid of them one by one.

This has happened as the scientific research simply failed to document what those hawking the vitamins claimed.

Today, I take 3,000 to 4,000 I.U. daily of Vitamin D3 (that much because I’ve had cancer) and a couple of fish oil/Omega 3 capsules. That’s all I take in the way of supplements.

Vitamin D3 can’t be gotten from food sources, only coming from sunlight. It has also been shown, in study after study to reduce the risk of initial cancers, in addition to reducing the recurrence of cancer. It also strengthens bones. We don’t get as much as we used to historically, since we live most of our lives indoors, and we use suncreen.

The vitamin industry is a multi-billion dollar business, that I believe, exists largely to get into the wallets of Americans afraid of getting sick.

It seems that I’m not alone in this belief:

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Do Vitamin D and Omega-3s live up to their promise?

Here’s another case of government interference in health care - the National Institutes of Health is funding the largest study of its kind into whether or not Vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acids really do prevent cancer, heart disease or stroke.

It’s going to be a five year clinical trial named VITAL for VITamin D and OmegA-3 TriaL.

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Kids not getting enough Vitamin D for future good health

Here’s something that I’d forgotten: Vitamin D isn’t a vitamin. It’s a hormone. That helps to understand why it’s so important.

More reasons to get additional Vitamin D

As a cancer survivor I know the importance of Vitamin D supplements to help keep my breast cancer from returning, but my endocrinologist also tells me that it’s critical in keeping my bones strong, since the cancer meds have a way of making them brittle. So I take 3,000 IU daily of Vitamin D3 capsules. That’s right, 3,000. The Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) - which seems to come from nutrition studies conducted in the 15th century or maybe the 1950’s - is still hanging in there with 400 IU for those under 70 years of age, and 600 IU for those over 70.

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