(((HUGS))) Lars. I'm not posting much any more, but I saw this and wanted to tell you I had parathyroid disease. The first indication were my calcium levels, which were very low as the parathyroid disease was sucking the calcium out of my bones. Sometimes it's hard to realize when your life isn't normal, as these things have a habit of creeping up on you, and your ''new normal'' seems like a continuation of the same old thing. They removed one parathyroid, and I have to tell you that within one week, I had my old energy back. That was when I realized things had really changed in a big way! The surgery was not a big deal, although I had to spend the night in the hospital so they could check on me until the next morning. (The worst part was I was in a room with a Laotian grandmother who spoke no English and was feeling so bad all she could do was moan. I finally went to sleep in the waiting room to get away from her until they moved me to a different room.) You will need a few days recovery time, but you'll be amazed at the difference in the way you'll feel in less than a week. The scar was miniscule, and in fact, I don't ever notice it any more, as the doctor made the incision in a normal neck fold. I just wanted you to know you will feel like a new man once you have that thing out of there, even with your current family trials. It's amazing how much your (para)thyroid can affect your hormone levels, which has everything to do with your health and feeling of well-being. You're going to be amazed at how much better you feel! (I think depression is also common because you're so tired and hormonal, although it's easy to think you're keeping up because it was a long time getting to that point.) I actually found someone doing the operation on-line and it was helpful to watch, since I knew what I could expect. The surgery itself lasts about 40 minutes, so you'll be in and out. I hope this helps you; it certainly helped me. My advice? Get it done ASAP; you'll be glad you did!

I believe it is a myth that too much protein intake causes bone loss - this summarizes the point: Gabe Mirkin, M.D.: Studies done many years ago suggested that eating a lot of protein increases calcium loss in the urine and therefore it was thought that eating protein weakens bones by taking calcium out of them. However, recent studies show that eating protein increases calcium absorption so the extra calcium in the urine comes from increased absorption, not from being take out of bones. Reports in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (Volume 78, Issue 3, 2003) show that eating plenty of protein and lots of foods from plants helps to keep bones strong. Most scientists now feel that a very low-protein diet can cause osteoporosis, while a moderately high-protein diet may help to prevent it.

Junelynne, I tend to agree with Leigh here. Why take something when you are perfectly healthy now? I started having signs of perimenopause at 39, and when I started having extremely heavy periods for weeks on end, I went on the pill. I'm 44 now. I recently went off the pill (so far so good, no periods, no cramps, no sore boobs, for two months!)...my aim is to go through menopause without a single medication or supplement, unless there is a clear medical reason to do so. My husband is a doctor (radiologist, so he's fairly clueless about primary care) and was a little leery initially. Doctors are just conditioned to prescribe (or take themselves) "something" to "cure" a problem, or perceived problem. I am sure many doctors prescribe meds and procedures because its easy money. Also because many patients will go away feeling uncared for and dissatisfied if all the doctor tells them to do is let nature take its course, or lose weight, exercise & eat right. But many docs are simply inculcated in medical school. I see this with Mick, and his coworkers. (Funny, I am in much better health than him, and I barely ever even take a vitamin--he takes tons, and medicates himself for every little thing.) Anyway...I am also active and eat very well. My mother likewise. She went through meno at 44. She is now 68, does yoga and walk/runs five miles every day. She steadfastly refuses to take anything, and is healthy as a horse. She smoked for over 20 years, and I recently quit. If women are getting osteoporosis more than 50 years ago, its probably because so many people in this country are fat, eat junk, and don't get off their butts to exercise. And because advertising scares them, they take a pill. My .02.

"4. Most osteoporosis experts believe that to maximize its positive effects on bone mass, estrogen replacement therapy should begein at the first signs of the onset of menopause, and should be combined with increased calcium intake. They also indicate that the greatest benefit occurs when estrogen is continued for FIVE YEARS OR MORE, since the greatest amount of bone loss occurs in the first seven years after menopause." When you stop taking estrogen you again begin to lose bone mass at the same rate as during early menopause. Two years after stopping estrogen your bone mass will identical to that which you would have had, had you taken no estrogen. "But I've come to the conclusion, that there's a LOT we don't know. Maybe there's a reason why bone starts reabsorbing more as we age. Are we stopping a process that we shouldn't?" This is an interesting question. The best indicator of breast cancer risk is bone mass at age 70. Those in the highest quartile of bone mass have a doubled risk of breast cancer. At this point the connecting factor is assumed to be lifetime exposure to estrogen including endogenous estrogen. That may or may not be the case. No one knows. But it would certainly indicate that women with normal bone mass after menopause might be well advised to avoid estrogen "therapy" since their exposure is already high and it appears that estrogen exposure like x-ray is cumultative and irreversible. Like you I have long wondered what purpose is served (or thwarted) when we desperately add those elements that the body is equally desperately trying to shed, primarily estrogen and calcium.