Osteoporosis And Patient/Doctor Interactions
Do I need a specialist to diagnosis osteoporosis?
With regards to osteoporosis, I do not believe you need a specialist to diagnose osteoporosis. That may affect my income as a specialist, but that's life. I think as a patient you need a doctor who has some knowledge of osteoporosis and who knows about ordering bone density tests, but you don't need a specialist to do that.
How will my doctor know if my osteoporosis medication is effective?
The treatment of osteoporosis is fairly simple, but following the affect of the drug is not quite as simple. Bone density tests of course can be done over a period of years, perhaps no more often than every two years is reasonable. One can see increases of a slight degree in bone density. However, the measurement has a certain error and sometimes it's difficult to be sure about a change. An alternative means of doing this for the drugs like estrogen or bisphosphonates, is to measure a blood or urine sample which measures a chemical that comes from the bone. So, before treatment it's a certain level and during or after treatment the level of bone resorption and break down drops and this chemical test drops and you can see quite a change and that would convince me that the medicine was affective.
What if I have a fracture while taking my osteoporosis medicine?
It is not rare to have a fracture while taking an even effective osteoporosis medicine. There is no cure for osteoporosis, so people with severe osteoporosis, even though they're responding to treatment, may have a fracture because their bone density is still low, even though it may be better. At that point, if one has a fracture while taking a certain drug, a discussion has to take place with the doctor and a decision has to be made: "Do we stay on this drug or do we try something else?"
What is "human parathyroid hormone 1-34"?
Human parathyroid hormone 1-34 is a fragment of the hormone made by the thyroid glands in the neck. These glands produce human parathyroid hormone 1-34 to maintain normal calcium. An injection of human parathyroid hormone 1-34 everyday, stimulates bone formation.
When should human parathyroid hormone 1-34 be used in my treatment?
Regarding osteoporosis, most patients with osteoporosis are treated with a bisphosphonate drug. However, if someone has quite severe osteoporosis and has had a fracture, some doctors choose to use human parathyroid hormone 1-34 as a treatment, because it actually stimulates new bone.
