LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

Osteoporosis Cures and Bone Health

COMPARISON OF THREE TECHNOLOGICALLY DIFFERENT BONE ULTRASOUND DEVICES – (01-15-07)

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Prediction of Hip Fracture Risk by Quantitative Ultrasound: Comparison of Three Technologically Different Bone Ultrasound Devices

One of the problems with current DEXA technology for bone density is that it does not adequately evaluate bone quality; just bone density.  A bone can be very dense and still fracture–bones’ strength comes from it’s amazing architecture with crosslinks and bridges within the bone as well as the strength of bone’s shell – the cortex.  With each step with take, bone actually flexes to some degree.  It is bone’s architecture that keeps it from snapping at this point.

Purely cortical increases in bone density would most likely actually increase the risk of fracture because there would be no “give.”  Ultrasound will likely give us addtional insight into a bone’s quality once we perfect the technique.

Read entire article here

 

RECOMMEND VITAMIN D TO EVERYONE WITH OSTEOPOROSIS – (01-15-07)

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The prevalence of vitamin D inadequacy amongst women with osteoporosis: an international epidemiological investigation

Speaking of wreaking havoc, in this study a whopping 64% of the women with osteoporosis were Vit D deficient.  I can honestly say that I have never had a patient come into my office on any type of anti-resporptive agents (like Fosomax or Actonel) that was told to take Vit D.  Most, but not all, are told to take calcium.

Given that Vit D at 2-4000 IU per day is practically free (and sunlight is free), the safety of taking 10,000 IU daily is well accepted and that Vit D has such a broad range of positive effects, there is absolutely no reason not to recommend this to everyone with osteoporosis.

Read entire article here

USE OF ANTIDEPRESSANTS AND RATES OF HIP BONE LOSS – (01-26-08)

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Use of Antidepressants and Rates of Hip Bone Loss in Older Women

There has been much controversy lately when it comes to antidepressants. It turns out that many of the clinical trials done on antidepressants were never published because they did not find a positive effect. What a way to paint your product in a better light–keep running clinical trials until you get one that comes out the way you want it to.

The bottom line is that this class of drugs is really effective in only a small percentage of patients. To make this worse, despite widespread availability of neurotransmitter testing to get a much better idea of what’s going on to cause someone to feel depressed, this form of testing is almost never used. So, now we have a clinical trial that finds the use of SSRIs almost DOUBLES the rate of bone loss, leading to a greater risk of developing osteoporosis, which is rapidly increasing in incidence.

Read entire article here

DO YOU KNOW THAT INFLAMMATION IS A MAJOR PLAYER IN BONE HEALTH? – (01-26-08)

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Inflammatory Markers and Incident Fracture Risk in Older Men and Women

As mentioned above, the approach to increasing bone mass needs to extend far beyond what is the current “standard of care.” Despite calcium supplementation showing little benefit in clinical trials for osteoporosis (note that calcium from diet is important, but that additional supplementation to a healthy diet full of calcium will not show much of a benefit) that is all that is ever recommended by mainstream medicine.

The bottom line is that inflammation is a major player in bone health. Higher levels of inflammation means more calcium is released into the bloodstream from the osteoclasts. So, any patient diagnosed with osteoporosis is likely demonstrating higher levels of inflammation, which will also increase the risk for any number of other chronic diseases. NOT addressing this aspect of osteoporosis can sentence the patient to an early death from some other cause.

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SOY BENEFITS HELPS TO INCREASE BONE DENSITY – (01-26-08)

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Effects of Phytoestrogen Genistein on Bone Metabolism in Osteopenic Postmenopausal Women

It still surprises me to hear such a strong anti-soy sentiment out there. Clearly, heavy, repeated exposure to any food antigen can lead to sensitivity, but the consistent research supporting the benefits of soy constituents makes any argument against soy sound weak.

This study finds the genistein compound from soy helping to increase bone density. However, as with any natural approach, improving bone density is multifactorial. Strong vit D status, calcium, a alkaline diet, exercise, whole body vibration. All these add up to increasing bone density. Sadly, many patients coming through my office are put on anti-resorptive therapy like Fosamax, but the lifestyle recommends rarely exceed “take Tums…”

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HOW EARLY CAN BONE HEALTH BEGIN TO DETERIORATE? – (02-04-08)

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Bone Loss, Weight Loss, and Weight Fluctuation Predict Mortality Risk in Elderly Men and Women

We view bone health as something that happens when we pass 60 years of age. However, this viewpoint grossly understates what bone health relates to and how early it can begin to deteriorate. Purely as a marker of Vit D status, it can give us an idea of whether we have enough Vit D decades before it may show up as something else.

This study finds that women with poor bone health have a higher overall mortality rate–again reflecting that the factors that negatively affect bone negatively affect everything else. As a society, we have to start placing increased value on checking bone density in men and women beginning in our 20s.

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BONES & STRESS FRACTURES–COMMON APPROACH DOESN’T HELP

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If you’re over 3, you’ve probably been ingrained with the idea that “milk-it does a body good.”  First by commercials promising to build strong bones and muscles (Seriously?  Where did they ever get the idea dairy had anything to do with muscle growth??) and grow into a strapping football player.  Next by indoctrination in the school systems where the concept of dairy being good for us is fully infiltrated.  Personally, I’d like to know what the first person was thinking who looked at a cow’s udder and said to himself, “Hey…I think I could drink from that…”

Regardless, the data on dairy’s benefits is shockingly weak and much of the data is not supportive.  Certainly dairy is not the wonderful bone builder Joe Public thinks it is.  On the other hand, there is a simple compound known to support bone growth.

You guessed it–Vitamin D.

This particular study looked at whether diary, calcium or vitamin D was effective at lowering the development of stress fractures in teenage girls.  Dairy and calcium had no effect.  One would think that, if dairy really was good for the bones that it would at least have an impact on a stress fracture.  Those with the highest intakes of vitamin D had 1/2 the risk of developing a stress fracture.

Not too shabby considering the cost, safety and myriad of other benefits that would occur with supplementation.

POSITIVE EFFECTS OF WHOLE BODY VIBRATION (WBV) – (04-28-08)

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Adipogenesis is inhibited by brief, daily exposure to high-frequency, extremely low-magnitude mechanical signals

While this is a mice study, it raises some very interesting questions. We know that whole body vibration has been shown to be effective for increasing bone density as well as increasing lean body mass.

Given that both adipocytes and osteoblasts share a common stem cell precursor, it looks, from this study, that vibration causes a precursor cell to produce a bone cell instead of a fat cell. Might it be that exercise merely vibrates the stem cell, resulting in many of the positive effects of WBV? If this is so, what does this portend for our current generation of sedentary teenagers when they get older? More fat, less bone?

Read entire article here