Osteoporosis Reversal: What Actually Changed Ann’s Bone Scan

Meet Ann. She’s a 60-year-old accountant. She’s fit, energetic, and eats healthy… so it was a huge shock when she was first diagnosed with osteoporosis.

We’ll cover:

• Ann’s diagnosis, and how it affected her.
• What she tried to improve her osteoporosis – and how it worked.
• The exercise program that she used to improve her osteoporosis.
• The nutritional approach we used to improve her osteoporosis.
• The bottom-line results that she achieved.
• How her life is different now that her bone density is better.

 

Notice that I’m saying that she improved her osteoporosis. I’m not saying that she reversed her osteoporosis. That’s because she’s only 3-4 months into her journey. While she still has osteoporosis, her T-scores (bone density) are better than before. This isn’t so much a “before and after” article. This is more of a “here’s what can happen after about 3 months of the proper approach.” There’s still more work to do to say that her osteoporosis is truly reversed, but at least we know she’s on the right track.

By the way, if you’d like to see Ann tell her own story, she does so in this 7-minute video:

And if you want your own osteoporosis reversal program, tailored to your body. You can see if you qualify to work with us by simply filling out the application form on our home page. All that’ll do is simply set up a quick, 10–15-minute chat. No pressure, no sales pitch, no obligation. Just an exploration of what’s your current situation, and to figure out if we can help you.

 

Ann’s Diagnosis and How it Affected Her

Ann was always a fit and healthy person. Despite that, years ago, she was found to have high cholesterol, and was put on a medication for it. She did fine with that. She didn’t experience any side effects, her cholesterol was normal while on meds, so there weren’t any problems.

Fast forward a few years, she got a bone density scan, and it revealed a scary truth: she has osteoporosis.

At first, it was a huge shock. At that time, she didn’t even know what osteoporosis was. Once she came to terms with it, there were some mixed feelings (none of those mixed feelings were positive). First of all, her self-image was shattered. After all, she saw herself as strong, but once she got that diagnosis, her self-image started to change. Was she actually not as strong as she thought? Was she in fact frail and vulnerable? She felt like the term “frail” was mostly for older women. She was in her late 50s at the time, so she didn’t feel like that applied, yet her bone density test said otherwise.

After the shock wore off, the next emotion kicked in: embarrassment. After all, how could it happen to her – she was fit, took care of her body, and ate healthy. In her video, she mentions that in the first year after her diagnosis, she was too scared to tell anyone.

Then came the next stage in this emotional roller coaster: confusion. After the shock wore off, she spent about 2 years researching her condition. She’d see one article saying to consume calcium, and a different one saying to avoid calcium. She’d see another article saying that jumping was beneficial, and a different article, claiming that jumping should be avoided. What was she to believe?

 

What She Tried to Improve Her Osteoporosis – And How it Worked

The first thing she tried after getting her osteoporosis diagnosis was to go on a vegan diet. She believed that perhaps she developed osteoporosis because of the statin (cholesterol-lowering medication) that she was on, so she thought she’d go off the statin, but control her cholesterol with her diet. Although she successfully managed her cholesterol, going off the statin didn’t improve her bone density.

Next, she tried looking for a personal trainer who was BoneFit certified. This is a certification by the Canadian government for fitness professionals who work with clients who have osteoporosis. She couldn’t find anyone within a reasonable distance, which is just as well, because BoneFit sucks anyway. I wrote an entire article with my criticisms of BoneFit. If you want the full story, check it out here. If you just want the Cliff’s notes, here they are: BoneFit focuses on just not making things worse. It’s not about making things better. My approach is more about aggressive reversal.

Since she couldn’t find someone who was BoneFit certified, she just hired a regular personal trainer (not me). After a year of working with him, her bone density decreased again. It seriously sucks to be spending time, money and energy, and still not get the result that you’re after.

But she didn’t give up. Eventually, one day, she was trying to find a video that shows the technique for a certain exercise. She went on YouTube, and found my video. In the video, she learned that I wrote a book, titled Osteoporosis Reversal Secrets. She bought the book immediately, devoured it in 2 days, and learned that, to her surprise, I actually live in the same city as her, and my gym is just about half an hour from her. Cool coincidence. After all, lots of our osteoporosis readers and clients are all over the world – US, UK, Ireland, Australia, etc.

So she contacted me, explained her situation, and we got to work.

The Exercise Program That She Used to Improve Her Osteoporosis

Here are some of the highlights of Ann’s exercise program, along with the thought process behind them:

• Reverse hypers. This is an exercise for primarily the lower back muscles, and secondarily, the glutes and hamstrings. We used it because it helps improve the T-scores at the lumbar spine.
• Lat pulldowns. As the name implies, lat pulldowns work the lat muscles (that’s not lateral, by the way. That’s latissimus dorsi). The reason that I selected this exercise is because the lats attach to the lumbar spine.
• Lateral bends. This is another exercise for the lower back muscles. Also improves the T-scores of the lumbar spine.
• Squats. These work the muscle of the quads (front of the thighs) and glutes (butt muscles). That’s good for the T-scores of the femoral neck and total hip.
• 1-legged deadlifts: These works the muscles of the glutes primarily, and secondarily, the hamstrings and lower back. These are also very effective for the T-score of the femoral neck and total hip.

 

Why did I choose these specific exercises? After all, there are lots of different exercises for the lower back or glutes, etc. That’s because there are specific criteria of what makes an effective exercise. These exercises met those criteria. Yes, there’s a superiority to certain exercises over others, even when the muscles worked are the same. I elaborate on the criteria extensively in this video:

But exercises by themselves don’t make an exercise program. As I talk about in my article, they’re actually only the 4^th most important variable.

Do you wonder why I had 3 exercises for Ann’s lower back/lumbar spine, but only 2 for her femoral neck/total hip? That’s because she had the lowest T-scores (bone density) at the lower back. So we did more work there. If she had a lower T-score at the femoral neck, we’d do more exercises for that area.

The other devil is in the details:

• Frequency: number of days per week.
• Intensity: how much weight to lift.
• Volume: number of sets and reps.
• Tempo: how fast to lift the weight.

All the exercises could be the same, but if they’re done with the wrong frequency, intensity, volume, or tempo, you won’t get results, and you’ll be left scratching your head, wondering “but I do strength training – why are my bones not getting stronger?”

If you think of exercise as medicine, it becomes more understandable. If you take a medication at a dose that’s too low, it won’t do what it’s supposed to do. The same thing for exercise. If the exercise version of “dose” is the number of days per week, the sets and reps, and the weight, you can understand how using the wrong parameters will lead to no results.

Just because you’re strength training doesn’t mean you’re strengthening your bones. To use the broad term “strength training” is like using the broad term “shoes.” Within shoes, you have running shoes, sandals, boots, stilettos, etc. They’re all shoes, but they all serve a different purpose. The same thing is true for strength training. Strength training for osteoporosis is different than strength training for fat loss or toning or high blood pressure or diabetes.

Anyways, let’s continue with the details of Ann’s program.

 

• Frequency: she was strength training 3 days per week. Once a week strengthens muscles, but not bones. Twice a week does strengthen bones. Three times per week strengthens bones even more. Four times per week is not any better than 3 times per week.
• Intensity: Ann was to lift the heaviest weight she could lift for the prescribed number of reps. So really, the reps dictated the weight/resistance.
• Volume: Ann was doing 5 sets of 5-8 reps. Why did I select 5-8 reps? Why didn’t we do higher reps? Because according to the monumental LIFTMOR study from Australia, heavy weights are needed to strengthen bones. Notice how I said “needed” – not “better than.” I emphasize that because while you can lift lighter weights for more repetitions, and it’ll be just as difficult, it won’t be equally effective. Yes, lighter weights will strengthen your muscles, but they won’t strengthen your bones. So I selected 5-8 reps because you can lift more for fewer repetitions than for higher repetitions. No baby weights for Ann.
• Tempo: initially, I gave Ann no instructions about tempo (how fast to lift the weight). That’s just to get her used to both the technique, and progressively raising the weight over time. After her first month, I instructed her to lift the weight as quickly as possible. If the weight is heavy, it won’t actually move fast, but that didn’t matter. It’s the intent to move it fast that matters.

 

In one study, postmenopausal women were divided into 2 groups:

 

• Group 1: traditional strength training
• Group 2: same as the group above, but they lifted the weights as fast as possible. Same exercises, same sets, same reps, same frequency.

Despite everything being the same between groups 1 and 2, there was a HUGE difference in bone density in favour of group 2, after 2 years. Group 2 lost 0.3% of their bone density. Group 1 lost 2.4%.

Do you see how these “little” variables matter? Just the tiny difference in tempo made a huge difference in bone density, even when everything else was the same.

However, just because we got her on this program doesn’t mean that this is the program she’ll be doing forever. This was just Ann’s first program. After 3 months on this program, we got her on to a new program. Why change programs? Because after a time, she progressed enough to necessitate something different. Additionally, most people plateau (stop making progress) after 2-6 months, and this was indeed the case for Ann. Just because a program is effective for a time doesn’t mean that it’s effective forever. In fact, no program is effective forever. Every program “expires” at some point.

Furthermore, if you just read about the exercises, you’d miss the “secret sauce” of the exercise program – the progression model, and the workout-by-workout adjustments that were made based on Ann’s progress from the previous series of workouts, energy/fatigue levels, equipment availability/limitations, and more. After all, no exercise program should be a static program, where you’re doing the same exercises for the same weights, sets and reps every single time. An exercise program should be dynamic, intelligently, purposefully, and systematically changing the exercise variables to move the client forward… as opposed to haphazardly changing the program whenever you feel like it, without rhyme or reason… like a lot of personal trainers do.

 

The Nutritional Approach We Used to Improve Ann’s Osteoporosis

Nutrition for osteoporosis is ridiculously simple: eat more protein and vitamin K2. I’ve been outspoken about the lack of effectiveness of calcium (if you want to see my rant, check out this 16-minute video), and the conditional effectiveness of vitamin D (if you’re deficient in vitamin D, it’ll work. If you’re not deficient, it won’t work).

However, as a lot of foods that are high in protein are also high in vitamin K2, but not all foods that are high in K2 are also high in protein, nutrition for osteoporosis is even simpler: eat more protein.

It’s literally that simple. There’s nothing that really reduces bone density. Not carbonated beverages, not coffee, not sugar, etc. All food either has no effect on bones or a positive effect on bones. There’s not a single food that has a negative effect on bones (in most people. A small segment of people does lose bone when they drink coffee). So there’s nothing to avoid. Just eat. More. Protein.

If any of these are mind-blowing to you, I elaborate on all of them in painstaking detail in my book – with lots of research to back it up, so you know it’s not just one eccentric guy’s theories.

But don’t take that to mean that I put Ann on a high protein diet. I didn’t. It’s more like I put her on an adequate-protein diet. It just so happens to be that most people who have osteoporosis are unintentionally on a low-protein diet (they just don’t have an appetite for high-protein foods). Or, they believe that things like nuts, dairy, and vegetables are loaded with protein (they’re not).

First, we calculated Ann’s protein requirements, and then, we figured out how much she was actually getting. It fluctuated day by day, but we learned that she got 50-80% less than she needed.

Yes, she was on a vegan diet, which doesn’t help things, but we often see these kinds of deficits in people who are omnivores as well.

Before you think I’m going to go on an anti-vegan rant (you know me well, my friend ), I will say that it’s possible to get adequate protein on a vegan diet. It’s just much harder, and takes more planning, but it’s possible.

So we figured out vegan-friendly ways to get adequate protein in her day, and she found it quite doable.

 

Ann’s Results

Methods are nice, but how do they translate to bottom-line results? Extremely impressively for only a 3-month time frame.

Here were Ann’s T-scores 1 year ago:

• Lumbar spine: -3.2. This was a 5.1% decrease from the previous year.
• Total hip: -2.4. This was a 1.7% decrease compared to the previous year.
• Femoral neck: -2.6. The report didn’t compare it to the previous year.

 

Here were Ann’s T scores most recently:

• Lumbar spine: -3.0. This was a 2.4% increase from the previous year.
• Total hip: -2.2. This was a 3.6% increase compared to the previous year.
• Femoral neck: -2.5. The report didn’t compare it to the previous year.

 

Again, I want to emphasize that this was after only 3 months of training. It’s not like she was training for a whole year to get to these results.

An acceptable result would be to slow down the bone loss. A loss of 3-5% in 1 year is extremely fast. A typical rate of bone loss in postmenopausal women who don’t have osteoporosis is 1% per year. Ann’s rate was significantly larger than that. A better result than slowing down bone loss is completely stopping it. The best result is actually reversing bone loss. In other words, increasing bone density. That’s exactly what happened to Ann.

Besides the improvements in her bone density, there were also substantial improvements in her muscle strength.

• Her reverse hypers improved from 15 pounds, up to 40 pounds. That means that her lower back and glutes are substantially stronger.
• Her lateral bends improved from 10 pounds, up to 45 pounds.
• Her one-legged deadlifts improved from 25 pounds, up to 45 pounds.

 

A lot of credit has to be given to Ann for how hard she works, and how well she follows instructions. Ann’s program called for 4-5 sets. She always took the upper limit (5 sets). Also, a lot of people with osteoporosis are understandably scared to progress appropriately. They’re afraid to lift heavy weights. Not Ann. We know that heavy weights are safe even for people with osteoporosis (although it has to be evaluated on a person-by-person basis). Because of that, she didn’t hesitate to increase the weight, as long as she could do it with good technique.

 

How Ann’s Life is Different Now

Results are nice, but how does that translate to her daily life? Pretty incredibly!

 

• Nowadays, when she carries heavy bags (groceries, etc.), her kids offer to help her, but she declines. She’s strong enough to do it herself. Heck, she might even be stronger than them now!
• She has her confidence back, and she feels like her old self again.
• She’s no longer afraid to fall, so it no longer affects her decisions of where to travel, and what kinds of activities to do.

It’s cases like these that make us very happy to do what we do. Ann makes it easy too, for being such a great, compliant, inquisitive client.

If you want help with your own bone density, just fill out the application form on our home page. Doing so doesn’t obligate you to anything. It’ll simply set up a quick, 10–15-minute chat to see what’s your current situation, and can we help you get to where you need to be. No pressure, no obligation, no hardcore sales pitch.