No one warned me I needed calcium while I was taking my asthma drugs
JULIE SHARP, who lives with her 32-year-old husband Sam, was diagnosed with osteoporosis last December as a result of being prescribed steroids off and on for 29 years for her severe asthma.
Julie, who is also 32, took various different types of the drug including high-dose oral steroids — a common side-effect of the latter is that these affect absorption of vital bone minerals including calcium and vitamin D.
‘My condition was often well-controlled, but sometimes I could have 200 to 300 hospital admissions a year because of my frequent severe attacks,’ says Julie, who cannot now work as she is in a wheelchair. ‘Corticosteroids definitely weren’t the wrong treatment, but at no point was it ever mentioned to me that the drugs might lead to calcium and vitamin D deficiencies and osteoporosis.
‘In my 20s, though, my doctors did start saying they had to wean me off steroids because of the side-effects, but they didn’t spell out what they were.’
Only when Julie moved to a different area and was referred to a new consultant was she given a bone density scan.
Experts recommend that DXA scans should be offered to all adults on high strength longterm oral steroids. Julie says: ‘I was confused about why it was being recommended and, when I asked, they said it was because the drugs had put me at high risk of thinning bones. I was shocked as this had never been mentioned before.
‘I was even more shocked when the scan revealed that my bone density in my spine was -3.7 and that any figure less than -2 is classed as osteoporosis. What’s more, they also said that I’d already lost 1cm in height.
It’s not causing me any pain, but I’m worried about the future. My dilemma is that I need to be on corticosteroids for my asthma,
but I am worried about what it will do to my bone density long term.
‘Something could have been done to prevent this happening to me. Surely I should have been offered calcium and vitamin D supplements to protect my bones?’
Julie is now on a monthly highdose vial of vitamin D.
‘I wasn’t prescribed calcium as the consultant was happy I was getting enough from my diet. But I’d never have been aware I was at risk unless I’d had that scan.’