Healthy Living With Osteoporosis

In addition to taking medication to treat osteoporosis, you can supplement with calcium and vitamin D and adopt healthy habits like exercising and maintaining a healthy diet to help strengthen your bones. No matter your age, you can start new routines to help reduce the risk of broken bones. Remember to talk to your doctor before starting any exercise program.

How Much Calcium and Vitamin D Is Enough?

The National Osteoporosis Foundation (NOF) recommends that adults aged 50 and older get
1200 mg of calcium per day.

The recommended daily amount of vitamin D for individuals 50 and older is 800–1000 international units (IU). Ask your healthcare provider what amount is right for you.

Check food labels for calcium and vitamin D amounts per serving.

Consider These Foods

Some good sources of calcium and vitamin D are in a variety of foods. Talk to your healthcare provider about other food choices. Ask whether calcium and vitamin D supplements may be right for you.

Good Sources of Calcium

• Low-fat dairy products
• Non-fat milk
• Yogurt
• Cheese
• Dark green, leafy vegetables
• Canned sardines and salmon
  (with bones)
• Tofu

Good Sources of Vitamin D

• Dairy products fortified
  with vitamin D
• Egg yolks
• Fatty fish (like salmon, tuna, sardines, or mackerel)

Give Your Bones a Workout

Bone is a living tissue that may become stronger by exercising. Weight-bearing and muscle-strengthening exercises may help bones become stronger and more dense. You'll find a few bone-strengthening exercises below. Be sure to consult with your healthcare provider before beginning any type of exercise program.

Weight-bearing Exercises

• Walking
• Doing low-impact aerobics
• Using stair-step machines

Muscle-strengthening
Exercises

• Using elastic exercise bands
• Lifting weights
• Using weight machines

Communication Is Key

It's important to maintain open communication with your healthcare team. Use the interactive Doctor Discussion Guide to start a conversation about healthy living with osteoporosis and treatment goals for the future.

Get Started

Keeping Your Balance

As osteoporosis progresses, it becomes more important than ever to maintain your balance. Good balance helps prevent falls and can reduce the risk of more broken bones.

Our vision changes as we get older, making it difficult to see the steepness of stairs and height of curbs. It also gets tough to see obstacles in our path. Get your eyes checked regularly and keep your home well lit.

Aging also causes changes in our middle ear, which helps regulate balance. Plus, certain medications and illnesses can affect the middle ear. If your ears begin to ring, the room begins to spin (vertigo), or if you start having problems with balance talk to your healthcare professional.

Weak muscles and inflexible joints can also affect your balance. Talk to your healthcare professional if it's difficult to keep your body weight centered over your feet.

Ongoing Patient Support

FORTEO Connect is more than a support program.
It's an entire team that's dedicated to helping you fight osteoporosis every day.

Learn More

Important Safety Information About FORTEO

What is the most important information I should know about FORTEO?

Who should not take FORTEO?

• You should not take FORTEO for more than 2 years over your lifetime.
• Do not use FORTEO if you are allergic to any of the ingredients in FORTEO. Serious allergic reactions have been reported.

What should I tell my healthcare provider before taking FORTEO?

• Before you take FORTEO, you should tell your healthcare provider if you have a bone disease other than osteoporosis, have cancer in your bones, have trouble injecting yourself and do not have someone who can help you, have or have had kidney stones, have or have had too much calcium in your blood, take medications that contain digoxin (Digoxin, Lanoxicaps, Lanoxin), or have any other medical conditions.
• You should also tell your healthcare provider, before you take FORTEO, if you are pregnant or thinking about becoming pregnant. It is not known if FORTEO will harm your unborn baby. If you are breastfeeding or plan to breastfeed, it is not known if FORTEO passes into your breast milk. You and your healthcare provider should decide if you will take FORTEO or breastfeed. You should not do both.

What are the possible side effects of FORTEO?

• FORTEO can cause serious side effects including a decrease in blood pressure when you change positions. Some people feel dizzy, get a fast heartbeat, or feel faint right after the first few doses. This usually happens within 4 hours of taking FORTEO and goes away within a few hours. For the first few doses, take your injections of FORTEO in a place where you can sit or lie down right away if you get these symptoms. If your symptoms get worse or do not go away, stop taking FORTEO and call your healthcare provider. FORTEO may also cause increased calcium in your blood. Tell your healthcare provider if you have nausea, vomiting, constipation, low energy, or muscle weakness. These may be signs there is too much calcium in your blood.
• Common side effects of FORTEO include nausea, joint aches, pain, leg cramps, and injection site reactions including injection site pain, swelling and bruising. These are not all the possible side effects of FORTEO. You are encouraged to report negative side effects of Prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.fda.gov/medwatch or call 1-800-FDA-1088.

Additional safety information about FORTEO

• There is a voluntary patient registry for people who take FORTEO. The purpose of the registry is to collect information about the possible risk of osteosarcoma in people who take FORTEO. For information about how to sign up for this patient registry, call 1-866-382-6813 or go to www.forteoregistry.org.
• The FORTEO Delivery Device has enough medicine for 28 days. It is set to give a 20-microgram dose of medicine each day. Before you try to inject FORTEO yourself, a healthcare provider should teach you how to use the FORTEO Delivery Device to give your injection the right way. Inject FORTEO one time each day in your thigh or abdomen (lower stomach area). Do not inject all the medicine in the FORTEO Delivery Device at any one time. Do not transfer the medicine from the FORTEO Delivery Device to a syringe. This can result in taking the wrong dose of FORTEO. If you take more FORTEO than prescribed, call your healthcare provider. If you take too much FORTEO, you may have nausea, vomiting, weakness, or dizziness.

How should I store FORTEO?

• Keep your FORTEO Delivery Device in the refrigerator between 36°F to 46°F (2°C to 8°C). Do not freeze the FORTEO Delivery Device. Do not use FORTEO if it has been frozen. Do not use FORTEO after the expiration date printed on the delivery device and packaging. Throw away the FORTEO Delivery Device after 28 days even if it has medicine in it (see the User Manual).

For more safety information, please see Medication Guide and Full Prescribing Information, including Boxed Warning regarding osteosarcoma.

See Full Delivery Device User Manual that accompanies the Delivery Device.

TE Con ISI 07Mar2011