LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

osteocalcin

The Hip Bone is Connected to the…Testis??????

by

Ok.  I KNOW that the body is wildly interconnected.  But some connections are too incredible to be believed at first glance.

I recently wrote a blog article about how weight gain is not one of the low T symptoms, but rather, weight gain leads to lower testosterone levels.  So you know that hormone levels are directly related to lifestyle choices.  Certainly the reverse can be true, where off-kilter hormone levels can create health problems.  But more often, poor lifestyle choices throw off the balance of your hormones.

When it comes to your bones, as little as 15 years ago the view of what your bones do was limited to an attachment site for muscles so you can move.  Pretty inert.  They basically just sit there doing nothing, until, of course, they fracture and create a problem and pain.

Then all hell broke loose.

We now have a drastically different view of bone.  It is a highly active tissue at the heart of some very important physiological processes.  Here’s what I’ve written about in the past:

  1. Serotonin from the gut (the body’s main source of this neurotransmitter) will actually stop bone cells called osteoblasts from building more bone.
  2. Osteoblasts secrete a hormone called osteocalcin.  More osteoblasts = more bone = more osteocalcin released.
  3. Osteocalcin has an effect on abdominal fat and lowers your risk of diabetes.

This is already a pretty impressive list.  And it’s about to get a little bit bigger.

In this particular study (which was a mouse study, so keep this in mind), researchers found that osteocalcin had an effect on the Leydig cells in the testis.  These cells produce testosterone.

Good bone health drives testosterone levels.  Go back in time to 1995 and mention this to any researcher looking into bone and they would think you’re crazy.  Heck–when I mention this to people today, they still think I’m crazy.

But look at what this means.  We already know that healthy behaviors, as well as the opposite behaviors, affect testosterone levels as was described in a recent blog article that can be read by clicking here.

But just how deep this link is what shocks me.  It’s not a matter of getting the right nutrients, vitamins and minerals so you can make testosterone.  Rather, a healthy lifestyle may produce optimal testosterone levels through the gut-bone-testis axis.

Further, this means that merely taking natural hormone treatments will do absolutely NOTHING to the problem at hand.  In other words, the poor bone health seems to drive low T levels, but the reverse is not true–giving testosterone will not miraculously improve bone health.

Which further reinforces the fact that, if you have symptoms of low T, lifestyle is your ONLY answer.  Supplementation  / replacement is a train wreck waiting to happen.

Weight Loss Program Focuses on WHAT Organ System??

by

Ok.  We’ve got a big obesity problem in the US.  And while there are any number of diet plans to try to lose weight, none I’ve come across address this organ system.

The human body does not function in systems.  It’s not like your cardiology system completely ignores your dermatological system, or your neurological system does not ignore the gastrointestinal system.  You get the idea.

So how did medicine ever decide that this was a good idea?  To blissfully think that your heart condition has no effect on your GI tract is dangerous and misguided.  Pretty much every chronic disease has multiple other chronic diseases associated with it.

So how does this relate to this particular article?  Bone produces a hormone called osteocalcin.  Osteocalcin is produced specifically by cells called osteoblasts.  Osteoblasts build bone.  This means that when bone is healthy it will secrete osteocalcin.  Osteocalcin than acts on the beta cells of the pancreas to release more insulin as well as act on fat cells to release an anti-diabetic hormone called adiponectin.  Some research even suggests that osteocalcin has the ability to increase the release of testosterone.

Pretty connected, huh?

But what happens when bone health is poor and osteocalcin levels go down?  Following these connections, poor bone health will lead to abdominal fat, weight gain and diabetes.

Wait…Poor bone health leads to diabetes??

With this as background, let’s go back to this particular study.  Researchers looked at the relationship between osteocalcin levels on fat free body mass and found a clear association.  The higher the osteocalcin levels, the lower the body fat.

Good bone health = lower body fat.

Do you toss the Atkin’s diet book and buy a book on improving bone health (preferably mine, which can be found by clicking here)?

The reality is that improving your overall health will, automatically, improve bone health.  Pretty cool.  But, before you think it’s that easy, you need to know that the presence of inflammation and stress in your gut will result in the release of more serotonin which will slow osteoblast activity.

Pretty connected, huh?

OSTEOPOROSIS DRUG LEADS TO OBESITY AND DIABETES?

by

Never forget that the human body is of such incredible design that we could never even begin to understand the depth of relationships within it.  Every cell, every tissue, every organ communicates with one another in a harmony of such incredible proportions as to exceed true comprehension.  This is exactly why interfering with normal physiology with medications is a very, very bad idea in almost all cases.

In this particular case, our understanding of just how integral bone is to maintenance of body composition and diabetes has come to light in the past few years.  Healthy bone contains active cells called osteoblasts that build bone.  These cells also produce a hormone called osteocalcin.  Osteocalcin can be considered an anti-diabetic hormone, helping us to maintain an ideal body weight and keeping visceral fat under control.  So basically, healthy bones = healthy body composition.  The reverse is also true.

So that should mean that drugs like Fosomax, Boniva, Actonel or Reclast, that are good for our bones, should help with body composition, right? 

Pump the brakes, bro…

Many make an incorrect assumption in noting that these drugs are actually good for the bones.  They are not.  They kill off the cells that breakdown bone and destroy healthy bone turnover.  While this may add bone density in the short term (2-5 years), overall they worsen bone quality.  In case this seems hard to believe based on all those wonderful ads we see in magazines and on television, consider this particular article.

Researchers looked at a compound called undercarboxylated osteocalcin (ucOC), which is the form of osteocalcin that helps to maintain an ideal body composition.  Higher is better.  However, the use of alendronate (Fosomax) actually lowered ucOC levels.  Not a good thing and indicates that bone health is in no way improved with this class of drugs.  Rather, our bones become sicker under the influence of this class of drugs and may begin to have long term consequences on our risk for many other chronic diseases like obesity and diabetes.

So, rather than opt for the sickening of your bones, consider lifestyle changes well known to improve bone health.

BONE HEALTH = DRINKING MILK?

by

Bone health is something most of us do not worry about on a daily basis.  Poor bone health is silent and asymptomatic.  Maybe your mother or grandmother had it, but that’s usually the limits that it crosses your mind.  Or worse, maybe you’ve been diagnosed with osteoporosis or osteopenia (“pre” osteoporosis).  Your doctor told you to drink your milk and take calcium.  If you were lucky, he didn’t prescribe a bisphosphanate like Fosamax for osteopenia, because this is a completely inappropriate use of this class of drugs.

But bone health is a systemic problem (or solution).  This means that the healthier we are, the healthier our bones will be.  It is NOT about calcium, and most studies find little impact on calcium supplementation and bone health above what we get in our diet.  It’s certainly not about drinking milk (countries with the highest intake of dairy have the highest incidence of osteoporosis).

This particular article is not the only studies discussing the relationship between bone health, body composition and our risk for diabetes.  Hate to shatter the orthopedic docs sheltered view of bone, but they are going to have to learn more about helping patients maintain ideal body composition.  The hormones that regulate body composition (and subsequent risk for diabetes) leptin and adiponectin and the bone hormone osteocalcin are all mixed up in affecting levels of one another.

The bottom line is that bone health is more far reaching than many realize, and needs to begin with an overall healthy lifestyle.  No big shocker there, though, huh?  It also means that, if you’re doctor’s view on how to help your bones is to drink more milk and take calcium, maybe you should find a doctor who stays current with the medical literature.

http://jcem.endojournals.org/content/96/6/E884.abstract