Marilyn and Steven are an interesting couple. They do almost everything together. They’re in their mid-40s, have raised three children, and they work together in a successful real-estate business. They soon will be celebrating their 25th anniversary. They were high school sweethearts who wed during college, and they got their business degrees at the same school while their first children were coming along.
They also have one more thing in common, something they just learned about this past year. They both have osteoporosis.
Marilyn learned that she had lost an inch in stature at her last check-up, so her physician ordered a bone density scan and confirmed significant bone loss. Shortly after that, Steven discovered his bone loss through dental X-rays. The family drinks lots of milk, so they each were very surprised when their bone loss was diagnosed.
Forget the Milk Moustache
A Harvard study has confirmed that women who drink three glasses of milk a day actually broke more bones than women who hardly ever had milk. And an Australian study showed the same surprising results in both sexes. The men and women who had the highest dairy consumption had twice the hip fractures of their low dairy counterparts!
As bones lose more of their strength, the risk of fractures rises. Each year an estimated 1.3 million older Americans suffer broken bones because of osteoporosis. Wrists, hips, and spinal vertebrae are the most susceptible areas.
After menopause, one out of three women show some degree of bone deterioration, so we could see an epidemic of hip, spine, and wrist fractures. And the hip fractures can be deadly since one-third of all elderly women who suffer a hip fracture die within six months. The toll this disease takes on our aging population will only get worse if everyone mistakenly believes that drinking more milk is the cure!
Steven was shocked to learn that he was losing bone. In the last few years, his major health concern has been prostate cancer, he lost a friend to the disease two years ago. But prostate cancer is not the only threat to men. Men must also learn about osteoporosis, because men over the age of 50 actually have a greater risk of developing osteoporosis than they do prostate cancer.
Most men are amazed to learn that the disease affects them, too. Osteoporosis is most often associated with women, since women have quadruple the rate of osteoporosis as men. But more than two million men in the United States have osteoporosis, and it’s estimated that another three million are at high risk.
Fortunately, osteoporosis is both preventable and reversible. There is an arsenal of supplemental therapies that make far more sense than the “drink milk and take Fosamax” approach endorsed by conventional doctors. Then with simple bone density tests, you can watch as your bone health improves.
Bones 101
Osteoporosis, which literally means porous bones, is a progressive condition. As people age, their bones gradually lose strength and density. Bone is living, growing tissue. It’s made mostly of collagen, a protein that provides structure, and calcium phosphate, a mineral that adds strength to the structure. This combination of collagen and calcium makes bone strong, yet flexible to withstand stress. All but 1% of the body’s calcium is contained in the bones and teeth. The rest is in the blood.
At every age, even in seniors, old bone is removed (resorption) and new bone is added to the skeleton (formation). The entire process is called remodeling. In children and teenagers, new bone is added faster than old bone is removed. So the bones grow and become larger, heavier, and denser. Bone formation continues at a pace faster than resorption until peak bone mass or maximum bone density and strength is reached around age 30.
Once the peak bone mass is reached, resorption slowly begins to exceed bone formation. Osteoporosis develops when bone resorption far outpaces bone development. Accelerated calcium loss is a characteristic of advancing osteoporosis, so putting the brakes on calcium loss and initiating bone formation allows us to reverse the condition.
Give Your Bones the Calcium They Need
The first step Steven and Marilyn did was to give their bones the calcium they need by eating foods that supply highly absorbable forms of the mineral. These foods are greens, beans, sardines, and fortified foods. The best calcium foods are leafy green vegetables and legumes. Broccoli, brussels sprouts, collards, kale, mustard greens, and Swiss Chard are also good choices. Spinach, which is high in calcium-binding oxalic acid, is not. Beans are loaded with calcium, too, and they provide magnesium, which your body uses together with calcium to build bones. Fortified orange juice provides 300 mg of calcium per serving and you can take bone-building formula supplements to provide the balance of what you need.
Exercise helps to get calcium to the bones. Active people tend to hold onto calcium while being sedentary speeds its excretion. The bottom line is this: Strong people have strong bones. Lifting weights and walking dramatically enhances the activity of bone-building osteoblasts (bone cells).
Vitamin D plays a role, too. Studies show that folks with osteoporosis have low levels of vitamin D, which controls your body’s use of calcium.
Keep the Calcium in Your Bones
Once you get the calcium into your bones, the next step is to keep it there. Certain factors are linked to the development of osteoporosis or contribute to an individual’s likelihood of developing the disease. Here are some important things to be aware of.
Sugar, alcohol, and smoking drive calcium out of your bones! The calcium in our bones can move into the bloodstream, then through the kidneys into the urine. This is called calcium excretion or urinary calcium loss.
If you still smoke, maintaining bone health is another great reason to kick the habit! Smokers have a 40% higher risk of bone fractures compared to non-smokers.
Some drugs also compromise your bones with the worst examples being corticosteroids for asthma or rheumatoid arthritis or excessive levels of thyroid hormone, either synthetic or natural.
Other Nutrients to Consider
Calcium supplements alone have little effect, however, when the other nutrients involved in calcium uptake are not at high enough levels. Better results are obtained when the calcium supplements are combined with vitamin K, magnesium, and vitamin D, which act as a hormone and help the body absorb calcium. Be sure you get at least 400 to as high as 1,000 mg magnesium, get 400 to 2,000 IU vitamin D, and get 65 to 80 mcg vitamin K.
Too much calcium may impair the absorption of another mineral, magnesium, which is also necessary for good bone structure. So it’s very important to take both minerals together.
A small amount of boron is needed to enhance the absorption of both calcium and magnesium, as well as control the urinary loss of these minerals. Three mg of boron is the best dose.
Vitamin C may help maintain greater bone density, researchers believe, and it also seems to enhance the production of the protein collagen, which is where the calcium is stored. I like to suggest three to four grams a day of vitamin C to be sure the collagen structure is sound.
Zinc and manganese encourage good mineral absorption and overall bone health. Zinc should be taken in combination with copper. Never take more than 100 mg of zinc per day — 50 to 75 mg is best — and take two mg of copper for balance.
Now that Steven and Marilyn are working together to build healthy bones, they’ve reversed their osteoporosis and are keeping more bone than they’re losing.