A trip to Lithuania is one to remember for 73-year-old Charlotte Beard, learning about her family history and where her grandparents are from.
It’s a trip she was able to take stress free knowing she’s been working hard to stay on top of her bone health.
“About a year ago, I think it was May 2023 I started seeing Dr. Prestbo,” said Avera patient, Charlotte Beard. “I had some degeneration and she looked at my DXA scan and she said ‘you need some improvement.’”
Charlotte has osteoporosis, meaning she’s at a higher risk for breaking a bone.
“When we are defining osteoporosis we use a number called a T score which compares a person’s bone mineral density to a group of young, normal people,” said Avera family medicine physician, Leah Prestbo, MD. “If you get more than two standard deviations below that young, normal group, so a negative 2.5 or lower on a bone density study, we know you have osteoporosis, but there are even higher risk categories if you’re below a negative 3 on that bone density study or if you’ve broken a lot of things then you’re in a category we call osteoporosis with very high fracture risk.”
Since Charlotte is in the very high fracture risk category, Dr. Prestbo wanted her to start a treatment with "bone builder" medicines.
“Osteoporosis we treat with either bone building or bone keeping medicines depending on how severe the situation is when we see the patient. So if you’re very high fracture risk or have broken a lot of things and a very low T score, then we are going to recommend the bone builders, those stronger, more potent drugs, if you’re not at that higher risk, we might start out with a bone keeping medicine,” said Dr. Prestbo.
Along with taking her medications, Charlotte also includes exercise as a way to support her bone health.
“I do try to walk, which helps, exercise helps,” said Beard.
“Anything you do with that can support calcium and Vitamin D in a good range, doing that weight bearing exercise can support what we are trying to help your bones do with the medicines we are using,” said Dr. Prestbo.
And the combination of all of this is already paying off for Charlotte.
“I had a DXA scan since, and my spine is at 10% improvement,” said Beard.
“We’re seeing an upshot in her bone density which is exactly what we want to see, she also hasn’t broken anything in the meantime, so this points to being successful with treatment,” said Dr. Prestbo.
Allowing Charlotte to make trips around the world.
“My future is going while I can and taking care of my health the best I can because that is so important. I think when you’re younger you don’t realize it, and then when you get older you realize that your time traveling, your time doing anything, the clock is ticking fast, so it's important to take care of your health,” said Beard.
