It’s probably safe to say that most people don’t know osteoporosis can be reversed.  Bond Wellness Center member Cathie Runyon has learned this first-hand.Based on her latest bone density scan, Cathie says, “I’m in osteopenia, which means I no longer have osteoporosis except perhaps in one spot (L4).”Cathie credits her exercise program at the Wellness Center for this marked improvement in a disease that was first diagnosed 14 years ago, when she was 50 years old. At that time she was told, “I had the bones of a 70-year-old and I had to do something about it immediately.”

The diagnosis wasn’t a total surprise. Cathie’s mother essentially died of severe osteoporosis. “She just disappeared,” Cathie said, “It was awful. She went from 5’-6” to 4’-11” and was 85 pounds in the end. She just disintegrated. She couldn’t hold her head up. It was horrible to watch.”

Knowing that history, Cathie’s bones were checked well before she’d shown any signs of trouble from the disease.  On her T-scores, the measure of bone density loss as compared to a 35-year-old’s, hers was a negative 2.4. Today it stands at a healthy 1.6 in most spots.

With her diagnosis, the doctor recommended she significantly increase her weight-bearing exercises.  Cathie had been a runner for many years and has completed several marathons, so that background has served her well.

At the Wellness Center, she began doing the weight machines, but those were not bearing her own weight, they were building muscle.  She then turned to the various Pilates classes offered here. After two years of consistent Pilates, Cathie noticed at her annual check-up that somebody had written in her chart that she was 5-foot, 3-inches tall. She tried to correct it with the doctor, saying, “No, I’m 5-foot-2 inches.”

They rechecked. Nope! She was now 5’3” tall–she’d gained an inch.  Meredith explained that, with the help of Pilates, she had built up her core muscles and supported her bones, “You are now standing at your true height,” Meredith told Cathie.

In addition to Pilates training with Meredith once a week, Cathie still runs three miles every day and at the Wellness Center she does strength training three times a week, 3-D Muscle Toning once a week, Salsa Dance on Tuesdays, Cardio Dance on Thursdays, and usually something on Mondays like a strength or step class.

She also makes time to jump 100 times every day, as some experts recommend.  Jumping specifically programs the body to strengthen the bones.  “Jumping,” she says, “tricks your body to build bone as a response,” she said.

How does she have time for it all?

“I make it my job to be here,” she said. “It’s a big priority.”

“I don’t have time not to do it because I know what a big difference it’s made to me in everything—my energy level; my appetite. It’s changed everything,” she said. “I just feel good.”

Cathie serves as the Wellness Center’s Corporate Wellness Representative, talking with local business about offering memberships to their employees, and says she does a lot of other tasks around the Wellness Center that need doing on a per diem basis.

Meanwhile she had bone scans done every two years and those were making steady progress.  Her doctor, Cathie said, assumed she would plateau at some point. “But, I just keep going up,” she said.

And she had to have minor shoulder surgery three years ago for a frayed rotator cuff.  She was laid up only a couple of days before she began getting active again, “I know all this helped with the recovery and getting my strength back,” she said.