Most osteoporosis success stories come from people who do everything right. Linda didn’t.

She’s a 65-year-old retired data manager from Indiana, who is successfully reversing her osteoporosis and osteopenia.

Sometimes, with people like Melissa, it’s inspiring to hear what can happen if you do everything right – exercise, nutrition and supplementation. As expected, you get aggressive reversal of your osteoporosis. Other times, it’s also helpful to hear the case study of someone like Linda – that even though she didn’t follow everything to the letter, she still managed to make progress.

How is she doing it? That’s exactly what we’ll cover in this article. You can expect to learn:

  • What Linda did when she was first diagnosed
  • How she exercised initially
  • What she changed about her nutrition
  • Which supplements she took
  • How her T-scores changed
  • Challenges along the way
  • What I would have done differently if I was her osteoporosis trainer

 

If you’d like to hear Linda tell her own story, you can check out this 8-minute video:

And if you’d like help reversing your own osteoporosis or osteopenia, we have a special program called the “Osteoporosis Reversal Program.” You can see whether this program is for you by simply filling out the application form on our home page. Doing so doesn’t obligate you to anything – it simply sets up a quick, 10-15-minute chat so that we can understand your situation, and see whether we can help you. There’s no pressure, obligation or sales pitch.

 

Linda’s Diagnosis

When Linda was first diagnosed with osteoporosis, it came as a shock, as it does to most women. They often think “but I’m active, and I eat healthy. How could this happen to me?” Of course, once I talk to these women about what they’re doing in terms of physical activity and diet, it’s not surprising to me at all, but it is to them.

And of course, when she was first diagnosed, she went to her doctor, and the recommendation was unsurprising and pretty standard: take medications (Fosamax), and go on calcium.

This wasn’t the route that Linda wanted to go down, so she looked into other ways of reversing her osteoporosis/osteopenia. She went on Amazon, bought a few books on osteoporosis, and one of those was mine.

I guess it was convincing enough, since she ended up following several of the recommendations in the book.

 

Linda’s Exercise Program

Linda did things solo (neither I nor any of my team members were her personal trainers), so she chose a few of the exercises that I recommended, specifically:

  • Squats: They work the muscles of the quads (front of the thighs) and glutes (butt muscles). They’re particularly good for the T-scores of the total hip and femoral neck.
  • Deadlifts: They work the muscles of the lower back, glutes and hamstrings (back of the thighs). They’re particularly good for the T-scores of the lumbar spine and total hip.

 

Yes, there were other exercises as well, but these are just the highlights.

And to her credit, she even took my recommendation of progression to heart. One area that people (including personal trainers and physical therapists) get seriously wrong with osteoporosis is thinking that the exercises are the most important part of the program. They’re indeed important, but not the most important. The single most important factor in an exercise program is the progression model.

When Linda felt that she was ready to increase the weight, she did.

For the first 6 months after her diagnosis, she exercised 3 times per week, using 8-12 reps.

You can bet that the rep range wasn’t chosen willy-nilly. There’s a specific reason I recommend 8-12 reps in my book, and not higher reps.

In one study, researchers divided up participants (who were both men and women, 60-83 years old) into 3 groups:

Group 1: control group. They didn’t exercise

Group 2: low intensity strength training. They did 1 set of 13 reps at 50% of their maximum, 3 times per week, for 6 months.

Group 3: high intensity strength training. They did 1 set of 8 reps at 80% of their maximum, 3 times per week for 6 months

At the end of 6 months, group 1 saw no changes. Group 2 improved their strength, but not their bone density. Group 3 improved their bone density by almost 2%. What does this tell us? That light strength training is not enough to strengthen bones.

One large meta-analysis, that reviewed a bunch of studies found that strength training, using 2-3 sets of 8-12 reps, with 70-90% of your maximum, done about 3 times per week increases bone density. A range of 70-90% of the max translates to a weight that you can lift 5-12 times.

Exercise variables are serious factors to consider – not random variables that are a matter of simple preference. You might prefer light weights for higher reps, but it’s not effective. You might prefer walking and yoga over lifting weights. But it’s also not effective for your bones. The body doesn’t care about our preferences. The body simply responds to stimuli. The stimulus for stronger bones is progressively heavier weights over time.

 

Linda’s Nutrition

A few years before Linda was diagnosed with osteoporosis/osteopenia, she was diagnosed with high cholesterol. To manage that, she went on a strict vegan diet for 2 years. And it worked – for her cholesterol (it decreased), but it clearly didn’t work for her bones – there’s way more osteoporosis amongst vegans than amongst omnivores. That’s not to say you can’t get enough protein as a vegan. There are indeed vegan protein options, and you can get adequate protein as a vegan, but it’s just far more difficult, because the best protein sources (meat, fish and seafood) are off the table.

And a lot of vegan propaganda says “protein is bad, blah, blah, blah. You need to eat less of it” (oh man, and I started this article with the intention to be polite to vegans. I guess I just blew it). Sure, they say it a lot, but unfortunately, never back it up with scientific evidence – because there is none.

To Linda’s credit, she wasn’t a dogmatic vegan. She was the kind of vegan that I like – agnostic. She runs an experiment on her body, notices the results, and if they’re not what she was hoping for, changes her approach.

Once she read in my book how much protein you really need, she started to emphasize it. She began eating meat, sardines, and other high-protein foods, and even supplementing with protein powder.

And what about her cholesterol? Fortunately, meat elimination is not required to normalize/optimize cholesterol levels. In my cholesterol book, I talk about 5 ways to improve cholesterol profiles without eliminating delicious meat.

 

Linda’s Supplements

Supplements are the easy part. They don’t require a major change in routine or time. In my osteoporosis book, I talk about the only 3 supplements that improve bone density without any changes in your nutrition and exercise. Linda took those. They were:

  • Type 1 collagen
  • Vitamin K2
  • Soy isoflavones

 

And a special request: please don’t email me, asking for specific brands. I deliberately stay away from recommending specific brands a reason – I have readers all over the world, and I don’t know every brand in the world. I’m only familiar with Canadian brands, and since I don’t know where you are in the world, I didn’t want to suggest a brand that isn’t available in your country. That’s why I give criteria in my book of how to find brands that are effective.

 

Linda’s T-Scores: Before and After

How did Linda’s T-Scores change in the 1 year since her diagnosis? Here’s how:

  • Left hip:
    • At diagnosis: -2.3
    • One year later: -2.1
  • Right hip:
    • At diagnosis: -2.8
    • One year later: -2.6
  • Right femoral neck:
    • At diagnosis: -2.2
    • One year later: -1.9
  • Lumbar spine:
    • At diagnosis: -2.1
    • One year later: -2.1

 

When she went to her doctor a year later, the doctor was seriously impressed that despite rejecting medications and calcium, her bone density improved. Linda took my book with her to her doctor’s appointment, and the doctor was so impressed, she started actually using that approach with her mom (who has osteoporosis).

Do Linda’s improvements look modest to you? They’re actually quite impressive, when you consider…

Linda’s Challenges

Linda’s improvement certainly came with its fair share of challenges.

  • You know how she was exercising 3 times per week? Well, that only happened for the first 6 months. After that, her exercise frequency really dropped, to the point where she was only exercising about 7 times per month for the next few months, and eventually, not at all.
  • Protein: According to her calculations, she needed 143 grams of protein per day. She found that hard to get, but she did end up getting about 90 grams per day. When she ate a vegan diet, it was significantly less than that. It shows you that just progress, not even perfection, goes a long way.

 

The big takeaway from Linda’s challenges is that even with a suboptimal approach, you can improve your T-scores. It doesn’t have to be all-or-nothing. Of course, it’s better if you use the Cadillac version that I talk about in my article on osteoporosis reversal without limitations, but it’s nice to know that just doing more than what you’re doing now is helpful.

 

What I Would Have Done Differently

First of all, Linda has to be commended on the time, effort and energy that she put in to improve her T-scores. That takes serious determination.

I’m always looking for ways to improve, so what would I have done differently if I was her osteoporosis trainer? A few things:

  • The most obvious: get her strength training 3-4 times per week. It’s no surprise that with more strength training, there’s more benefit. The great advantage of personal training is accountability. Linda didn’t decrease her training frequency due to any life challenges (she actually retired during this time, so she had more time) – simply because she didn’t have accountability.
  • Jumping: research shows that jumping is quite effective for bone density. According to one study, 6 months of jump training improved bone density by 1.3%. I’d have Linda jumping 6-7 days per week. Fortunately, jumping is very time-efficient (100 jumps only take about 5 minutes), and you don’t need to go to the gym to do it.
  • Progression: Linda did indeed progress in her weights, but it could have been faster. A common mistake that people often make when it comes to progression is they go by feel. They wait until a weight feels easy before moving on to the next weight. That’s a mistake. Our feelings lie. Ignore those pesky things. Instead, progression should be based on objective markers of performance – not subjective feelings. A simple objective marker is “did you complete all your reps?” In other words, if you’re aiming for 12 reps, it’s a simple yes/no decision: Did you complete 12 reps? If yes, raise the weight next workout. If not, don’t raise the weight next workout. Notice what I didn’t ask about your feelings. I didn’t ask “how did those 12 reps feel?” Why? Because I don’t care about your feelings 😉 Unless you’re my wife reading this. Then it’s a different story.
  • Protein: This one was obvious to Linda herself – she needed 143 grams/day, but was only getting 90. Though even 90 grams was better than what she was getting as a vegan.

 

If someone implements all of the suggestions, we typically see improvements of 0.3-0.5 in T-scores in a single year, and about 0.5-1.2 in a 2-year span.

Again, Linda’s results are impressive for the very reason that her approach was very “real-life” (i.e. imperfect).

If you want help improving your own bone density, we have a special program called the “Osteoporosis Reversal Program.” You can see whether this program is for you by simply filling out the application form on our home page. Doing so doesn’t obligate you to anything – it simply sets up a quick, 10-15-minute chat so that we can understand your situation, and see whether we can help you. There’s no pressure, obligation or sales pitch.