Don’t trust this common method used to measure your bone density

How to avoid the ‘gateway’ test that leads to deadly drugs

It’s the “gold standard” test that will tell you how likely you are to break a bone.

And you’ve probably been told that you must take it every 2 years.

But this common procedure is filled with problems, errors and mistakes. The results are totally unreliable — what it shows about your bones one day could very well be different the next.

And it’s mainly used as the “gateway” to get you going on some terribly dangerous drugs.

That’s why these three little letters — DXA — can turn out to spell — DISASTER.

No one loves the DXA scan (sometimes called DEXA) more than Big Pharma does.

If your DXA shows your T score is low — a few points lower than a healthy woman in her 30s — well then it’s time to get going on the bone drugs.

And these aren’t just any drugs, but ones that can cause fractures, not to mention cancer, heart inflammation, bone death, and low calcium levels that can be life-threatening.

The DXA scan hit the scene in 1994 — as a way to predict your future of breaking a bone.

This scanner calculates bone minerals — namely calcium — by hitting your bones with an x-ray beam and measuring the darkness of the shadow that’s cast. Then it calculates your T score based on that estimate.

And lots of things can — and do — go wrong with it.

For one, smaller bones show a lighter shadow, and the machine will “say” you have less calcium, and that means a low T score.

Now that’s precision!

But about all this test can predict with any accuracy is that you do have bones. The rest is a big crapshoot.

Experts say it’s just about the most unreliable medical test you can get.

And if you’ve already had one, or more, any further testing done on a scanner from a different manufacturer, or even the same brand at a different doctor’s office, can have wildly different results.

Here’s just how crazy this test is:

• Different brands of scanners can give results that vary as much as 20 percent. And that can make the whole test meaningless as bone changes are measured in very, very, small numbers.
• These devices work like Google does — with something called an algorithm — programed instructions that calculate a result. And these instructions, the ones your T score is based on are kept trade secrets — even from the doctors who use them!
• You can get a different result each time due to seemingly small things, such as the x-ray technician’s technique, the way you lay on the table or even the kind of clothes you’re wearing.

Now, as I said, when your T score is a bit below a 30-something, that’s when the Rx pad comes out, and the bone drugs, like Boneva or Prolia are prescribed. And of course, your doctor will want to see if those drugs are “working.” So he’ll order one of these DXA scans every 2 years — or less.

But this test won’t tell him that, either.

The DXA scan is so unreliable that experts say it takes around 10 years to overcome the test’s margin of error to find out if the drug is even doing anything for you!

And even when these devices are being calibrated, which is done by scanning the spines of cadavers (oh, yuk!), they don’t work. Precise mineral testing showed that the scanners underestimated the density of these test spines by up to 33 percent!

So don’t subject yourself to all the worry and false results this test can cause, as well as the risky drugs it can get you going on.

What you really need to do instead is keep your bones strong in the first place. And there are some simple ways to do that. Ways that really work!

Regularly taking vitamin D is a very important one. Another is taking vitamin K supplements made from natto or nattokinase. Vitamin K works synergistically with D to protect bones. And adding K is especially important if you’re taking calcium.

And ditch the DXA scam — I mean scan.

Sources:
“Questioning medicine: DXA scan overuse” Sarah Wickline Wallan, August 21, 2014, MedPage Today, medpagetoday.com