In an article by Dr. Nan Fuchs in her Women’s Health Letter, November 2009, she warns that the most often used, DEXA Bone Density Test is not reliable for determining if a person has Osteopenia or Osteoporosis.

Many of us think of bones as just dry posts to give our body a frame to hang our flesh on.  However bones are living tissue that is constantly “remodeling”.  That is the continual process by which old bone tissue breaks down and is replaced with new cells.

When women go through menopause that process slows down and
often the old bone tissue breaks down faster than it is
replaced.  So your bones become gradually less dense and more
fragile.

There are several problems with the DEXA Bone Density Test.
1. The density of the bone is shown just for that day. It does
not show if the bone is stronger or weaker than it was before.

2. Then the patient must wait a year or two for a later test
to compare with the first one.

3. When a later test is done, if the technician does not aim
the X-ray at exactly the same spot on the same bone as the
previous test, the test will not be dependable.  If it is off
by only 1/16th of an inch the results will be different even
if the bone density has not changed.

4. The DEXA test cannot tell you how quickly your bones are
breaking down.

Dr. Fuchs recommends a more reliable check for bone density
that can tell you how well the remodeling is working and how
quickly you are losing bone. It is a simple urine test called
Pyrilinks-D.

When bone breaks down it produces something called Dpd which
is excreted in your urine. The Pyrilinks-D test measures the
Dpd in your urine and tells you if your bones are breaking
downfaster than they’re being rebuilt.

The test can be performed every few months for comparison,
and it is covered by insurance.  There are several labs
that do the test now, so be sure to ask your doctor if you
can get that test instead of the DEXA test.  The test results
will tell you immediately if your bone is breaking down
faster than it is rebuilding.

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