osteopenia

Carole was diagnosed with osteopenia at age 43. Her most recent bone scan, 22 years later showed no osteopenia. It is the nature of osteopenia to progress to osteoporosis; Carole certainly does not fit the mold.

While there is no cure for osteopenia, strength training has been demonstrated to be an effective treatment. Treatments can slow, or temporarily stop or reverse symptoms – in Carole’s case dramatically so.

Carole is a client who has been working out at our Austin facility for five years. Carole has significant scoliosis, and her past attempts to do weight bearing exercise invariably resulted in injury to her back. When she started our program she was living with daily back pain. She was able to do our program without further injury and her back pain soon disappeared. We use primarily MedX rehabilitation exercise equipment and an protocol that is gentler on the joints.

Between the ages of 20 to 70 it is likely that one will lose up to 30 percent of one's lean muscle mass. That can be reversed with proper strength training. Of all the segments of the population the elderly stand to gain the most from strength training.

Number ten in a series about what clients have to say about their workouts.

I have had two women (aged 51 and 56) with osteopenia start strength training on the recommendation of their doctors. Both were told to strength train for six months and then have their bone density retested to see if there was an improvement. In both instances their bone density increased, and their doctors told them it would not be necessary to start a drug treatment.

From this NYT article Splits Form Over How to Address Bone Loss: