This Thursday, October 20, is World Osteoporosis Day. While some of the international "authorities" are beginning to recommend some common sense approaches to osteoporosis, you'll find that if you go to your average medical doctor, you'll get a few basic thoughts, as they follow our sorely lacking governmental recommendations: rink milk, take your calcium with some vitamin D, exercise (at least walk every once in a while), and take our latest version of drugs that we believe will stop this process from continuing in your body.
To understand osteoporosis, we first need to realize that bone is a dynamically remodeling tissue. It is not this hard piece of mineral that is made once and forgotten unless broken. It is continually being broken down and rebuilt according to the stress you apply to it (called Wolff's Law). This is done by cells called osteoclasts (break down) and osteoblasts (build up). The osteoclasts are actually a part of the immune system while osteoblasts are stem cells that turn into mature osteocytes after they have laid down the bone matrix. It is a balancing act between these two cell lines that determine whether your bones are increasing or decreasing in density. If we are doing things in our lives that make the osteoclasts pull calcium out of the bone, then we'll be losing bone density. If, on the other hand, we live our lives in a way that allows for normal building and don't pull too much out, we'll end up with healthy strong bones. Unfortunately, modern western society is full of lifestyle choices that pull calcium from the bone.
In order for bone to be built correctly, the osteoblasts lay down a matrix of protein for the minerals to be placed in. It's like a sponge, where the holes are lined with calcium. If the holes get too big (because there is no matrix), then there is no place to put the calcium and it really doesn't matter what else we do. That makes this matrix the base of building bones, and it's mostly made of a protein called collagen. In order to build collagen, you have to have a good supply of protein and adequate vitamin C. While the average American eats an adequate amount of protein, that doesn't mean it is always digested and absorbed correctly. In order to digest protein, you must first have a very acidic environment in the stomach. Without that acid, the protein will not be digested properly, and will end up rotting instead. With the numbers of acid blockers and proton pump inhibitors that are being consumed today, this acid production is being eradicated. Even those not on these medications often are insufficient in stomach acid. This is a very energy intensive process, and requires a constant supply of vitamin B1 as well. It is not difficult to determine whether a patient has adequate stomach acid, and I rarely find patients over 40 that are sufficient. In addition to proper digestion of protein, we also need a highly acidic environment in the stomach to bind calcium and magnesium.
Providing we have enough stomach acid to digest protein adequately and bind our minerals, we then need adequate vitamin D in our system to bring calcium into the body. The research is telling us that we need at least a blood level of 40ng/ml to have any effect at all on the absorption of calcium. In all of the patients I have tested over the years, I have yet to find anyone, even those taking over the counter vitamin D supplements, that are even "medically" sufficient at 32ng/ml. Every single patient, even in the middle of summer, has been frankly vitamin D deficient, and some don't even have enough to register. Vitamin D is vital for so many functions of our body, and as a society, we are grossly deficient.
Once calcium has been absorbed with the help of vitamin D, we then need to get it into the bones. This is where our lifestyle choices make a huge difference. Many things will keep the calcium in the blood and ultimately push it into the urine.
I've written before about the dangers of caffeine, and here's another. Each cup of coffee (or other equivalent beverage) will take 80mg of calcium with it into the urine. That includes caffeinated sodas, energy drinks, and even caffeinated black teas. For bone health, avoid all caffeine and carbonated beverages.
Bones need protein, but if we have too much, then we will end up using calcium to buffer its acidic effects on our blood. Too high of a protein intake will pull calcium from the bones. Refined carbohydrates (my "white" group of foods), alcohol, and smoking also pull calcium into the blood and urine due to their acidification of our bodies.
Stress has a huge impact on our systems, including breaking down the collagen that makes up the bone matrix, creating a more acidic environment, and inhibiting the osteoblasts that build new bone. We need to get better at handling stress.
Lack of physical activity is probably one of the most important things to consider in osteoporosis. Regardless of age, weight bearing resistance exercise is the number one addition to any prevention or bone rebuilding regimen. Bones remodel according to stress, and resistance exercise is that stress that bones need to become stronger. That means walking is not enough; we need to pull out the soup cans if nothing else, and start getting our muscles stronger.
If you eliminate those lifestyle choices that increase bone breakdown, you will have a canvas to build bone on again. Once there, you must have the rest of the nutrients to make good bone. These include magnesium, phosphorus, and vitamin K2 to get the calcium from the bloodstream into the bone tissue, vitamin C and silica to make good collagen, and zinc, copper, boron, and manganese for the enzymes in the osteoblasts to work properly.
On top of all of this, you will need to make sure that your hormones are at least somewhat balanced. In our estrogen dominant world, medicine has added more estrogens as drugs to prevent osteoporosis. In some worlds, this makes sense, since estrogen prevents osteoclasts from breaking bone down as quickly. What is conveniently forgotten is that progesterone actually increases osteoblast activity, and is much more important to bone building than is estrogen. We need a balance of these hormones in our bodies, and randomly giving one or the other only makes patients sicker.
Finally, if you have osteoporosis, or look like you're heading in that direction, you'll likely be paying Sally Fields' salary and put on something like Fosamax, which is an osteoclast inhibitor. This class of drugs will eventually be shown to increase the risk of fracture, since patients end up with old brittle bone, instead of tearing the old stuff out when the body wants. Currently, they're keeping the studies to less than three years, but we're seeing a whole host of nasty side effects that are concerning patients, not the least of which is osteonecrosis (bone death) of the jaw bone. Once they increase the length of study to five or more years, we'll start seeing all the fractures that these drugs are not preventing.
Building bones isn't all that easy, but neither is it difficult. My osteoporosis regimen, if done correctly, has repeatedly shown to increase bone density, regardless of the patient's age. I don't care if you're 50 or 90, you can still build bone. You may have to make some lifestyle changes, but with proper testing and targeted supplementation, osteoporosis can be beaten naturally, without the serious side effects of the drugs, and your overall health will improve along the way.
Look for future blogs that will give more information and insights into improving your health with natural health care. You can also visit my website, like me on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter.
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