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Preventing osteroporosis using natural methods

Did you know that women have a higher risk of dying from osteoporosis than from breast cancer?

As the population continues to age, the prevalence of osteoporosis will only increase. It is already a widespread condition, with 1 in 4 women and 1 in 8 men suffering from this disease.

Osteoporosis is a problem which is seriously under-appreciated by most. This lack of appreciation is largely due to the fact that osteoporosis happens late in life. Most people are not aware that more women die from hip fractures than breast cancer.

Osteoporosis is defined as a "skeletal disorder characterized by compromised bone strength which puts a person at an increased risk of fracture". It is this risk of fracture which makes the disease so deadly. Women have a 1 in 6 lifetime risk of a hip fracture. This is a higher risk than that of developing breast cancer, where the risk is 1 in 9 (1). Of women who suffer a hip fracture, 50% become dependent on others to perform daily tasks and 20% need long-term care.

Osteoporosis is typically diagnosed based on a person’s history of a fragility fracture, or on the basis of low bone density.

Would you like to know how to help prevent osteoporosis? EAT VEGETABLES! Vegetables help to preserve your bones, and help fight the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis. Juicing is an excellent way to make fresh vegetables a major part of your healing diet.

A university study (2) showed that vegetables and herbs can improve your bone metabolism. Researchers discovered that rats that ate common vegetables and herbs, such as onions, parsley and salad greens, had significantly less bone loss than rats not on this special diet.

Interestingly, milk powder and soybeans - foods believed to help slow the process of osteoporosis - had no effect on the rats' rate of bone resorption.

Another recent study (3) also showed a major link between fruit and vegetable intake for increased bone density but no such effect for dairy products.

As researchers have suggested for many years now, the minerals in our bones serve as a buffer against all the acid foods we eat. After a lifetime of buffering the acid load from eating diets which are full of grains, we have gradual loss of minerals in the bones and bone loss.

The therapy of osteoporosis may lie in its prevention. It is certainly worthwhile to consider decreasing the rate of bone attrition through the use of a diet favoring "alkaline ash". This type of diet would emphasize the ingestion of vegetables, fruits and protein.

2 nutrients which may have the necessary buffering effect are magnesium and potassium. Potassium supplements are recommended if, like me, you take frequent coffee enemas. The Gerson therapy recommends potassium supplementation. Magnesium and potassium are found in a variety of whole, unrefined foods, including fruits and vegetables.

There are theoretical reasons to expect a link between bone loss and potassium and magnesium. For instance, metabolic balance studies have shown that potassium helps your kidneys retain calcium, while a low potassium intake leads to increasing losses of calcium in your urine.

One of the best ways to normalize high body acid levels is vegetable juicing. Vegetable juice is also high in vitamin K (phylloquinone) which will actually cement the calcium into your bone matrix. Women should also investigate going on natural progesterone.

Calcium and protein's role in preventing osteoporosis

Urinary calcium loss is the most important physiologic determinant of calcium retention. If our diet does not contain enough protein, bone rebuilding is low on the body's priority list. But the other 50% of bone is mineral, and here calcium plays a crucial role. If our diet does not contain sufficient calcium and protein, new bone formation will be limited.

One of the arguments which vegetarians are found of stating, is that "increased protein intake, especially animal protein, results in loss of calcium from the bone".

This does not appear to be entirely true. If one has inadequate protein intake, it is quite clearly detrimental to bone density. There are many studies which demonstrate this.

During a recent 3-year study (4) of nearly 350 elderly women and men who were taking calcium supplements and vitamin D supplements, investigators found that bone density increased the most in people whose diets contained the most protein. Whether protein came from mainly plant or animal sources did not affect the increase in bone density.

Bone density may be improved by increasing protein intake in many older women and men, so long as they meet the currently recommended intakes of calcium and vitamin D.

The more protein someone eats, the more calcium is excreted in urine. Excess protein intake should be bad for bones. But the findings of the study (1) suggest that concerns about protein intake are probably unfounded.

This study and other recently published research go a long way toward refuting concerns that animal protein is bad for bones.

You need both protein and calcium for bones, and if your diet has plenty of both, then your bones are likely to be in better health than if you are lacking in one or both of these nutrients. I spend a lot of time researching the best prices for supplements on the internet, and in my opinion, the lowest price for high quality calcium supplements on the internet are here.

Problems with osteoporosis drugs

Taking a combination of 2 common drugs could dramatically increase your risk of developing a stomach ulcer: the 2 drugs - Fosamax and the anti-inflammatory drug Naprosyn - can both cause stomach ulcers by themselves. But when taken together, the rate of stomach ulcers is far greater than would be expected from adding the effects of the 2 drugs taken by themselves.

Anti-inflammatory drugs like Naprosyn are often taken by people with arthritis. Because the elderly - particularly women - are most likely to suffer both from osteoporosis and arthritis, it would not be surprising for someone to be taking both drugs.

Stomach ulcers developed in 8% of one study's (5) participants receiving Fosamax alone, in 12% of those receiving Naprosyn alone, and in 38% of the study's participants taking both.

Even in volunteers who did not develop stomach ulcers, the damage to the lining of the stomach was significantly worse in those who received the combination of drugs than in those who took either drug by itself.

Two 1998 studies (6,7) said Fosamax prevents bone loss. It is interesting to note that Merck, the manufacturer of Fosamax, funded both of these studies and both appeared in 2 well respected medical journals the same week. Many people in the know consider Fosamax to be a metabolic poison that does absolutely nothing to address the cause of osteoporosis.

Dr. John Lee is the physician who wrote "What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About PRE Menopause". He is very strongly opposed to the use of Fosamax.

Fosamax is in the same chemical class (phosphonate) as the chemicals used in the cleaners which remove soap scum from your bath tub. It is a metabolic poison that actually kills the osteoclasts. These are the cells which remove your bone so your osteoblasts can actually rebuild your bones.

It is quite clear that if you kill those cells, your bones will get denser. What these studies do not show is that a few years later, the bone actually becomes weaker even though it is more dense.

This is because bones are dynamic structures and require the removal and REPLACEMENT of new bone to stay strong. Fosamax does NOT build ANY new bone. The true solution is to adopt a healing diet emphasizing vegetables, and to go on natural progesterone. One can review Dr. Lee's book for more information.

(1) Canadian Medical Journal November 12, 2002 page 167

(2) Nature 1999 Sep 23;401(6751):343-4 "Effect of vegetables on bone metabolism".

(3) American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 71, No. 1, 142-151, January 2000. "Dietary influences on bone mass and bone metabolism: further evidence of a positive link between fruit and vegetable consumption and bone health?"

(4) American Journal of Clinical Nutrition April 2002;75:609-610, 773-779

(5)Archives of Internal Medicine January 8, 2001;161:107-110

(6) The New England Journal of Medicine (1998;338:485-492)

(7) Annals of Internal Medicine (1998;128:253-261, 313-314)

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