My father in law is a avid cyclist, he rides to work everyday and is out on the weekends at least 4 hours a day, he goes on trips with my mother in law, she drives the Airstream and he rides, and does anywhere from 60 to 100 miles on those days. He has been doing this for the last 10 years since getting a heart valve replaced, his doctors suggested after the surgery that he needed to get into really good shape and that is exactly what he did, my understanding is that the valve is suppose to be replaced every 10 years but his cardiologist said he doesn’t need to due mostly to his high level of fitness. His issue now is that he has been diagnosed with osteoporosis. He has actually shrunk a entire inch, he is in his early 50’s and has never been anywhere near overweight. His research has shown that there are a few studies of this happening to cyclist, my understanding is that even some guys in the Tdf have it. So my question is have any of you ever experienced this? How did you treat it? Did you take calcium supplements? Currently he is starting to run, I am bringing him a punching bag, and he is going to start doing more weight lifting. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.
Here is an article about cycling and osteoporosis - http://www.medpie.com/top-health-stories/featured-articles/0811101-getting-bird-bones-from-riding-a-bike.html
Rather than running which would be more pounding on the fragile bones, he may be better off weight training to strengthen the bones in addition to all the cycling.
You might want to suggest having his Vit. D level checked too. If your D is low, no matter how much calcium you take, it is not absorbed as it should be. The norm I believe is around 40, mine was 27 and my mother’s was 7! We both have osteoporosis. Weight training is good. We are not on medication as the meds are a disaster waiting to happen. That is our point of view. My mother in law was put on Fosamax and was on it for over 8 years. She broke her femur just walking. Now the FDA finally issued a warning on this kind of medication as there are more people having the same kind of break in the femur. Eat right, lift weights,read and then read more! Walking is very good also. The National Osteoporosis Foundation is a great site with a lot of information. The forum is a great place for up to date information.
weight training would definitely be beneficial for him, so great idea. vitamin D levels would be a good thing to check too, as somebody else pointed out. drink that milk!! especially with it about to be winter, the body’s not going to synthesize vit D from the sun nearly as much, so dietary intake will be an even more significant factor.
I raced for many years…and alas have Osteopenia and am a bit fragile. I am no doctor but have spoken to more than a few about my breaking issue. There really is nothing more than a daily multi-vitimin that he should do. Sure, some of the Rhumotologists may have a shot or two…but, a good diet and a good Multi with calcium (and K) are about the best I bet you could expect.
Please have your father in law see a very good osteoporosis specialist. Road bicycling by itself is typically not particularly good for your bones but osteoporosis is a multi-factorial disease and one-dimensional treatment suggestions no matter whether it is weightlifting (which may or may not help) or calcium supplementation (which may or may not help) are likely to fail.
Studies about the detrimental effects of cycling (if it’s your only form of exercise) have been around for a long time. I’m primarily a cyclist, but I do 20 minutes of core exercises (including some resistance work) and 30 minutes of brisk walking every day to mix things up as far as my bones are concerned. I’m nearing 55 and have had no issues wrt osteo.
I have had several cycling teammates diagnosed with osteopenia or osteoporosis over the years. One was in his late 20’s, others in their 30’s and 40’s. It helped lead to my decision to quit pure road racing and return to mountain bike and multisport.
Monique Ryan who used to write a column on Velonews had a good synopsis of the current research and treatments. If you are looking for bang for the time buck a small amount of plyometrics may be beneficial. I can recall the exact number of daily reps, but it wasnt a lot.
Its multifactorial as others have noted, so exercise is one part of it.
Kevin
flying wombat, would you pleeeeasssse try and find that article for me?
I was diagnosed with osteoporosis in 2005. Mine is not from cycling, but rather an eating disorder.
This is what I can tell you about treatments. I’m not limiting this to your father’s case.
-He may be a candidate for a bisphosphonate. While targeted at women (Sally Fields for Boniva), they can be prescribed for men too. Boniva, Fosamax, other bisphosphonates are shown to increase bone density in post menopausal women. . They are not approved for premenopausal women because of their half life (half life = 10 or 15 yrs, cannot remember which) meaning they stay in the body a long time, and they can cause birth defects.
-A calcium supplement is a good start (3 x 500 mg a day — either from foods or supplements - not more than 500 mg at a time and if a food item says “35% of your daily calcium” it means it has 350 mg because the RDA is 1000 mg) but will likely not be enough to reverse osteoporosis …
-
… bone has to be stimulated. Muscles pull on bone and make it stronger. I disagree with an above poster that running is bad. MODERATE running is good. Probably in your father’s case he’s only doing a couple miles anyway since he just started. Walking is fine; that is weight bearing exercise. Walking carrying some weight (I accomplish this with my school backpack) is even better.
-
Lifting weights is critical and has been shown to help reverse and or prevent bone loss. He should talk with a trainer to get some specific exercises. In general I will tell you that body weight exercises are great; think about doing a push up — that’s putting stress on the radius and ulna that aren’t usually in that position. Body weight squats, leg press, etc.
I took a graduate class from the food science/nutrition dept titled “Osteoporosis” three years ago. It was taught by the nation’s leading researcher and physician in osteoporosis — he’s the guy NASA calls when they need to know what happens to bone in outer space and how to counter it — fascinating class. The Jackson Lab (east coast / Bar Harbor, ME) is doing a bunch of research under him about osteoporosis - experiments with mice - a friend of mine worked for him and was doing research on IGF1 and growth hormone and how that affected bone density. Some fascinating stuff.
back to the practical stuff:
-I told you about the calcium
-We discussed lifting and weight bearing cardio
-Yes, get vitamin D levels checked
-The other test to ask for is an NTX study. Urine specimin from which they can determine bone turnover rate (or it might be calcium excretion, I forget, but this one is also useful to look at)
That is all I can think of right now - PM me if you have any questions. Not an MD but I have a bunch of personal experience and a little bit of academic experience (mouse lab + class 
Thanks to all of you for your responses. I will pass this along to him.