Strengthening our “bones” - both physically and spiritually

Assessing Our Physical Need - And Steps We Can Take -

I was at the grocery store a few days ago and saw this petite, elderly woman trying to shop. She had to walk almost like she was doing the limbo, kind of side-saddling to get into the cooler compartment where the eggs were kept, and then she kind of maneuvered herself to bend very far forward to get something further down on a different shelf.

I felt for her. And honestly, I said a prayer, asking the Lord to please strengthen my bones so I wouldn’t become her. Last January, my oncologist ordered a Dexa scan for me to check on the health of my bones, because after my radiation treatments the plan was to start me on an estrogen-stripping medicine to help prevent a recurrence of my hormone-driven breast cancer. I was shocked when a few days later I read the report to find out that I had osteoporosis. I mean I semi-expected to have to face this at like age 70, not my early 50s!

After a year of trying to supplement with calcium, and intending to exercise more, but not doing enough, I just had my repeat Dexa scan. To my dismay, my bones have become weaker and not stronger. So I’m doubling down on my resolve to exercise at least 4 times a week, following programs tailored to people with osteoporosis, and I also turned to a functional bone health expert, Keith McCormic, who is a chiropractic doctor. I’ll tell you about how that visit changed the trajectory of my treatment of osteoporosis in a few minutes.

First, though, I encourage you to get serious about exercise sooner than later, too, if your doctor okays it. If you find that you are at high risk for osteoporosis or if your Dexa scan confirms you have it, I recommend that you follow Physical Therapist, Margaret Martin. Her YouTube channel is a wealth of knowledge to help with knowing what exercises are safe if you’re in your mature years and likely have weakened bones. This is the link to her channel: Welcome to Margaret's YouTube Channel If Margaret’s workouts are a little too easy and you’d like a bit more intensity, I also highly recommend subscribing to Dr. Lisa Moore’s YouTube Channel: How to Navigate Brick House Bones Resources (OVERVIEW) , Brick House Bones: Foundations for Beginners (➡ START HERE!) - YouTube

For me learning that I have osteoporosis is just another reason to make moving my body in the right way a priority!

But why does all this matter to you? First off, it makes sense that stronger bones, and strengthened muscles bring more stability and better balance, and we all need that. Secondly, you’re never too young or too old to start! Science Daily reported a study done in 2007, which studied 18- to 30-year-old, constitutionally very thin women and found that 44% already had very significant bone mineral density loss. Also, did you know that osteoporosis is known as the “silent disease”, and usually people don’t find out they have it until they break a bone unexpectedly. Yikes! I’m thankful that I had my Dexa scans when I did! I encourage you to ask your doctors if they’d order you one if you’re over 50 and post-menopausal. I just found this great video by Dr. Ken Berry with more tips and information about how to fight against osteoporosis. He says that most insurance carriers will cover Dexa scans and if yours won’t then to ask what the out-of-pocket cost is. He’s found that it can be as low as $100.00 to get one. Here’s the link to his video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Qv01Wfq3LQ

According to Healthgrades author, Lorna Collier, 50% of women will experience an osteoporosis related fracture in their lifetime, 20% of men will develop osteoporosis, and men are actually more likely to die within the first year of having a hip fracture due to brittle bones than women. Besides breaking a bone unexpectedly from even a minor fall, losing height is one of the few signs of osteoporosis. There is a tool that can estimate your 10-year fracture risk without having the Dexa scan. It is accessible here: Frax Calculator | FRAXplus®. However, I just did the questionnaire without putting in my bone scan info, and it said I had a very low chance of breaking a bone in 10 years. Obviously, the factors that led to my early development of osteoporosis aren’t the factors that have been studied or included in their tool. It still may be helpful to you.

After digging more into why I have osteoporosis to the degree I do, when I don’t have the normal risk factors, I discovered that mold and mycotoxin exposure, as well as low grade inflammation in the body, can be drivers of osteoporosis. If you’ve read my previous blogs, you know that my family and I have been very affected by mold and mycotoxin illness over the years. Again, I knew our exposure could create havoc in many ways, but I was still surprised to get such unexpected Dexa scan results!

I soon found that I had several risk factors for developing osteoporosis. Being petite, and Caucasian (or if you are of Asian descent) often puts women at a higher risk because those of us in this category just have less bone to begin with. That said, from what I researched, osteoporosis just isn’t on doctors’ radars as much as you’d think it would be, and so this is just another reason to do your homework and advocate for yourself with your doctors. If this has piqued your interest, and you’d like to make sure your bones are as healthy as you hope they are, please ask your doctor to order you a Dexa scan.

Another check against me is being post-menopausal due to all the effects of very low estrogen, and for me being on a medicine that is known to degrade bone tissue, makes all of this an extra urgent topic. Lastly, even though I did not have the usual factors for developing this disease like a history drinking alcohol, or a history as a smoker, or a family history of fractures due to the disease, I do have a history of chronic inflammation and that pesky history of living in a mold environment much of my life. So, if you have any of the risk factors I’ve shared, please take this seriously and don’t just think it won’t happen to you!

Now, here’s where my battle for my bones took a turn that I did not want to go on. If you’ve read my Journey into Trust book, or even just my Preface on this site, you’ll recognize that this is a familiar trend lately between God and me! I saw an Rheumatologist who specialized in osteoporosis and her extensive lab panel showed that I was peeing out tons of calcium and she told me I had to go on medicine for the rest of my life. I, in my usual fashion, did not like that answer at all and really hoped for a way out. I found Dr. Keith McCormick who has written several books on how to overcome osteoporosis and set up a consultation with him. (Home - Great Bones) I sent him all my labs and scans and health history etc. hoping for a great natural alternative. However, when I met with him, the first words out of his mouth were, “Dawn, you’re not going to want to hear this…” My heart sunk, but I listened and respected him. He explained that for me, being on Letrozole (the estrogen stripping medicine for cancer) was simply too big of a deficit to overcome with supplements, diet and exercise, but he said when I’m off the medicine in a few years he’d work with me to help me make gains without being on the medicine for life!

Even though what he told me was not what I wanted to hear, God in HIs grace did answer my prayers. Dr. McCormick really listened to my fears about going on the IV medicine called Zometa, which all of the doctors I had consulted told me I needed to go on, and he gave me a plan that helped me move forward. He told me to ask my oncologist to order a trial dose of one or two milligrams of Zometa and have it administered over a longer period of time than normal. I did, and my oncologist was great about all of it. So I did the trial last year, and my body handled it fine so I had the rest of the total 5 mg dose administered a few weeks later. This last time, I did the whole dose in one IV session - still extra-long and with the saline IV with it and I’m doing well. I am still making time for exercise and still mindful of my diet.

This all led me to think that maybe we all need a spiritual Dexa Scan from time to time to make sure our spiritual makeup, and our character, is as strong as we may believe it to be.

1 Corinthians 10:12 says, “Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” James 1:21-27 instructs us, “Therefore putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror,” and immediately forgets “what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer, but an effectual doer, this man shall be blessed in what he does. If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless. This is pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father, to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”

James puts forth several good tests for us to use to scan our lives and see if we are living out our faith sincerely. He also gives us the task of exercising our faith! It is clear in Scripture that it is not our works or our following the law that saves us, but it is also clear in Scripture that our salvation and our faith will manifest itself in good works and following God’s Word out of love for Him.

In Scripture, believers are often compared to trees. Jeremiah 17:7-8 says, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD and whose trust is the LORD. For he will be like a tree planted by the water, that extends its roots by a stream and will not fear when the heat comes; but its leaves will be green, and it will not be anxious in a year of drought nor cease to yield fruit.” We are given an example through God’s desire for Israel’s remnant in 2 Kings 19:30, which says, “And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward.” I love that analogy.

Several years ago, I had my world rocked by a close friend who shared her grievances against me in a way that really hurt. I share about the experience and what I learned from it in my book, Journey into Trust. The piece is called, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend….and needed are the prayers of one also.” In the piece, I recount how my truest Faithful Friend, Jesus, showed me that the painful pruning He was doing in my life was for my good. He brought to mind an important scene from a Christian movie I’d seen called, Finding Normal.

“In it the preacher described pecan trees and how they needed to be pruned down severely for the tree’s own good. It was said that if they aren’t cut back, they can overbear and their immature branches would be too weak to hold up such a heavy load. Left to themselves, without intervention, the tree branches could break in such a way that the whole tree could be lost. The preacher told how the pruning process is needful, not only to strengthen those branches to maturity, but to save the naturally overbearing tree from a much greater loss” (Hill 51).

Maybe you’re going through some difficulties that are forcing you to your knees and causing you to pour out your heart to God, as I was during that season of my life. Please press in to the Lord and His love. Cry out to Him and let Him teach you, renew you, and eventually strengthen you through the pruning process, knowing that for spiritual growth, and trees, pruning is much preferred to breaking.

For me, I’m asking the Lord to restore all that the locusts of the past have eaten (Joel 2:18-27). I’m asking for His blessing over my bones and that He will restore strength and density to them. I “praise the name of the Lord, (my) God, who has dealt,” and will deal, “wondrously with (me)!” I know that He is “the Lord (my) God and there is none else” (Joel 2:26a & 27a). I hope you know that, too, for He is the Maker of our frame, physically (Psalm 139), and spiritually (Ephesians 2:4-5 & 4:24). Like the Apostle Paul, I pray that the Heavenly Father “would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith….” (Ephesians 3:16-17a). That your “bones”, the depths of your being, may be strengthened for His glory!

Works Cited

Collier, Lorna. “8 Surprising Facts about Osteoporosis.” Healthgrades, 30AD, resources.healthgrades.com/right-care/osteoporosis/8-surprising-facts-about-osteoporosis.

Endocrine Society. "Just Being Naturally Thin May Raise Risk Of Osteoporosis In Women." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 13 November 2007. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071109192742.htm>.

Photo Credit: @bruno_nascimento