How I reversed my osteoporosis at 58 – without medication

Sarah found out she had the condition in her 50s. Here’s how she improved her bone health naturally

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Although I wasn’t very sporty at school, I’ve always kept myself fit and healthy as an adult. In my 20s, I would go to the gym and do circuits and in my early 40s I took up running seriously. I had no clue that someone my age could suffer from osteoporosis, or develop a fracture simply from running, but that’s what happened.
The first inkling that something was wrong came when I was training for my first marathon in 2008. A few weeks before the race, I felt some pain in my left leg. It was unlike any discomfort I’d experienced before – not a muscle ache or joint pain, but a deeper soreness. I couldn’t even step off a kerb. I tried to push through it, but the pain worsened. A scan revealed a stress fracture in my shin.
I couldn’t compete in the race and I was desperately disappointed, but put it down to the miles I’d been doing and the fact I have pronounced pronation (when the foot rolls in) when I run. I dutifully rested my leg and then got into hot yoga instead. No one suggested my bones might be the problem: I thought it was a one-off.
At the time I was living in Dallas in the United States with my husband Paul, a sports therapist who was working for a pain relief tech company while I worked in international sales.
In 2013, we returned to the UK and I started running again. About five years ago, I tackled the 31.5-mile Tring ultramarathon, not giving my previous injury a second thought. During training, I started to feel pain in my left leg in a similar place, but this time the pain was not consistent. I wasn’t too worried.
Dosing up on painkillers, I completed the race in six hours and 24 minutes. It was uncomfortable, but I certainly didn’t feel like I had a broken leg. However, afterwards I was still in pain and a scan three weeks later revealed another stress fracture in my left tibia. “Not catastrophic, but significant,” said the consultant. He offered no suggestion as to an underlying cause and advised me to rest for eight weeks as well as take a break from running. But I felt there must be one.
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At the same time, a new bone scanner came onto Paul’s radar. Paul thought it could offer a significant improvement on the usual Dexa scan X-ray, which is the standard way of testing bone mineral density, as it used radiation-free ultrasound, so had none of the health risks associated with X-Rays. We went to try it out, with a view to buying one for his sports therapy clinic, and I was used as a guinea pig for the demonstration.
I don’t think anyone in the room – except perhaps my husband, who had a suspicion my bone health might be sub-optimal – was prepared for the results. As the scans of my spine and hips appeared on the screen, I could see the colours indicating my bone density. Two of the vertebrae in my spine were showing up in the red zone, revealing I was in the osteoporotic range. My hip scores were not much better, hovering on the borderline between osteopenia (low bone density) and osteoporosis.
It was a devastating shock to come out of the blue like that. But as I processed the news, I realised there were likely some contributing factors. My mother has osteoporosis, so I have a genetic risk. At 5ft 4in, I’ve always maintained a steady weight of 8-8.5st, but as a young girl developed an unhealthy relationship with food. I began reading women’s magazines at an early age and would pore over the diet tips and workout routines.
I became hyper-aware of my weight: I remember going to a birthday party and then rushing home to weigh myself, worried that I might have put on a few ounces from the crisps I’d eaten. It was an unhealthy mindset, and in my 20s and onwards, I followed every fad diet going, such as keto and paleo, or dairy-free and gluten-free regimes. Unfortunately, this could have impacted my calcium levels, affecting my bone health. Restricting calories is also known to have a detrimental impact.
This history of restrictive eating has taken a toll, as has my habit of fasted running, as I like to train early in the morning without eating first. Studies have shown that there is a link between low energy availability while doing endurance training and deterioration of bone health, and this can – as in my case – lead to a higher chance of picking up a bone stress injury.
Finally, my early menopause, which occurred in my early 40s, will also have accelerated the rate of bone loss. From the age of about 30, your bones lose about 1 per cent of their density per year but this doubles to 2 per cent loss per year during menopause.
Paul and I immediately began researching ways we could address this issue. I wasn’t keen on taking alendronate tablets, the standard treatment to slow down bone loss. My mother takes them and they are effective, but have side effects like nausea and heartburn – and at any rate, my consultant reviewed the scan results and did not deem further action necessary.
I embarked on a comprehensive plan to strengthen my bones. The programme was based on a high-intensity routine suggested by Dr Nicola Keay, an honorary clinical lecturer in endocrinology and sports and exercise medicine at UCL. She’s an expert who has looked at how cyclists, who do little high impact training and often eat a restrictive diet, are at risk of osteoporosis.
I’d learnt during the scan that even though I was suffering from low bone density, my bones were in fact still quite strong. My fragility score from the REMS scanner had been good – the honeycomb “scaffolding” structure inside the bone is responsible for up to 30 per cent of bone strength, so that even if mineral density is low, strength and flexibility of the bone can still be good. Mine was well-organised, healthy and strong, and would be able to cope with high-impact training.
I started a regimen of high-impact exercises such as hopping and lunge jumps to strengthen my bones, around 40-60 hops a day, on each leg which is the amount research shows is most effective.
I also lift weights three times a week. My resistance workout, which lasts around 30-40 minutes, includes a number of different exercises using weights and body weight exercises. Next year I will be starting a new regimen based on the Liftmor trial in Australia, which involves doing five sets of five reps at 85 per cent of my one rep max. That’s quite heavy, but I feel more than strong enough to embark on this next stage. The trial showed this level of resistance works really well to build bone in men and men and women with osteoporosis.
The goal of these exercises was to stimulate my bones to rebuild. Research has shown subjecting bones to high-impact forces can trigger the body’s natural bone-building processes.
I also started taking an algae-based calcium supplement, which provides a plant-derived source of calcium along with other bone-supporting nutrients such as magnesium, vitamin K2, boron and vitamin D. I changed my overall diet, to make sure I was getting enough protein to develop my muscles and preserve bone mass. I also eat plenty of vegetables for vitamins and minerals essential to bone health, and include healthy fats like omega-3 which prevent bone loss and provide the building blocks my bones need.
Typically I now have salmon and eggs for breakfast, tuna salad for lunch and protein with veg for dinner. I do love a glass of wine, having been brought up in South Africa, but don’t drink to excess as that can impact bone health. I love steak and chips. I’m not fanatical about dieting any more, although I’ll never be one for cake.
Admittedly, progress was slow. Paul did regular scans with the REMS scanner and we were able to see the gradual improvements for the first two or three years. Then suddenly, bingo! My last scan revealed I was no longer in the osteoporotic range. Over a period of four years, my bone density in my spine had increased over 9 per cent, and in my hips by 4.5 per cent, when naturally one would have expected it to decline as we lose around one per cent a year.
That’s a net gain of 13 per cent and 8.5 per cent for my spine and hips respectively. All done naturally. I’m now comfortably in the osteopenic range (indicating only mild to moderate bone loss) and if these improvements continue, I expect to be above average for my age in just another three years or so.
This year I was able to complete a lifelong ambition and finally completed the London Marathon, 16 years after I’d first attempted it.
Crossing the finishing line, it was an incredibly emotional moment. Not only had I raised money for a cause close to my heart, but I’d proved to myself it was possible to naturally reverse the weakening effects of osteoporosis – the condition where bone mineral density and bone mass decrease as we age.
Aged 57, I had completed the 26.2 miles in a good time of four hours and 26 minutes, buoyed by shouts of encouragement from the crowd. It was a far cry from the disappointment I felt in 2008, when I could not compete after suffering a stress fracture in my left shin.
With the success of the London Marathon behind me, my next goal is to tackle the Tring Ultra again – but this time without a broken leg! I also want to spread the message about how life-changing this has been for me. I think people think it’s only little old ladies who suffer from osteoporosis, but that’s far from the truth. The reality is, the sooner you know you’re at risk, the earlier you can take action to avoid full blown osteoporosis.
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