LifeCare Chiropractic

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Osteoporosis cures and bone health

BONE TURNOVER A GOOD PREDICTOR OF FRACTURE RISK IN WOMEN – (03-15-04)

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Biochemical Markers of Bone Metabolism, Prediction of Fracture in Elderly Women

I’m a little surprise at this article. The authors determined that urinary markers of bone turnover are a good predictor of verterbral fracture risk in elderly women. However, these markers have been commercially available for years. Oh well–it’s still nice to see the acknowledgement of these tests in the medical literature anyway.

Bone mineral density has been used for too long as a stand alone test for bone health when it is only a snapshot of bone and does not tell how fast or how slow you’re losing bone. Also, there is some concern that bone density does not always equal bone strenth. The crosslinks in bone are very important in the tensile strength of bone, and these are not adequately evaluated by DEXA scans.

http://www.jbmr-online.com – Biochemical Markers of Bone Metabolism and Prediction of Fracture in Elderly Women.

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CALCIUM CARBONATE NOT A WAY FOR BONE HEALTH – (10-04-04)

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Comparison of the effects of calcium loading with calcium citrate or calcium carbonate on bone turnover in postmenopausal women

This one has been an ongoing debate in the natural healthcare field for some time now. While this is a small study, and one study does not constitute a definitive answer, I usually tell patients that, if they are serious about bone health, then calcium carbonate is NOT the way to go. So, toss the TUMS and pick up calcium citrate or MCHC. SpringerLink – Article –

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BONE LOSS MAY LEAD TO INCREASED RELEASE OF SUBSTANCE P AND TNF-ALPHA – (01-14-04)

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Bone Loss Induced by Magnesium Reduction to 10% of Nutrient Requirement in Rats Associated with Increased Release of Substance P and TNF-alpha

Sorry for the long title, but there are two lessons here. First, osteroporosis, despite what you may believe from the dairy advertising, is not all about calcium. There are many other factors such as Vit D and magnesium that go into bone health. It is a disease of lifestyle and magnesium depletion may be one facet that osteoporotic patients are affected by. Second, magnesium deficiency resulted in up regulation of the immune system via TNF-alpha. So, you can take from this that magnesium may help lower overall inflammatory burden, or you can see how inflammation also plays a role in osteoporosis just like every other chronic disease it partakes in…

Nutrition.org — Abstracts: Rude et al. 134 (1): 79 –

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VIT D LOWERS THE RISK OF FRACTURE – (04-24-06)

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Effect of Cholecalciferol Plus Calcium on Falling in Ambulatory Older Men and Women

Wow. We are really just starting to understand the full impact that Vit D has on our health. In this study, confirming many other studies before it, the authors find that Vit D supplementation at 700 IU/day (a pretty low dose) has a 46% reduction in the number of falls. And, given that Vit D is essential to bone health, the likelihood that this same Vit D will lower the risk of fracture is great as well.

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MILK INTAKE HAS NO EFFECT ON BONE HEALTH – (04-24-06)

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Growth, bone mass, and vitamin D status of Chinese adolescent girls 3 years after withdrawal of milk supplementation

Chalk up another story debunking the “Nation’s greatest marketing success story” played out by the dairy industry.

In this study, milk intake had no effect on the bone health of adolescents 3 yrs later. Guess they’re going to have to change their marketing ploy…

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VITAMIN D PLAYS A STRONG ROLE IN DEFENSE AGAINST PATHOGENS – (05-15-06)

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Toll-Like Receptor Triggering of a Vitamin D-Mediated Human Antimicrobial Response

While this article is a little technical, the take home message is that vitamin D may play a strong role in defense against pathogens. The problem? Because of the induced fear of the sun (which our ancestors did not share) the levels of vitamin D deficiency in the population are nearing 75%. That’s a staggering level of deficiency for a hormone (called a vitamin, but it actually acts like a hormone) that has very important roles for our health: bone health, mental health, helping insulin do it’s job, cancer prevention, and now immune support.

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DEMONIZING SUNLIGHT HAVE NEGATIVE IMPACT ON HEALTH – (10-23-06)

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Estimation of optimal serum concentrations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D for multiple health outcomes

For those of you that have not heard me rant about how the public health recommendation to demonize sunlight (ok, so I’m paraphrasing here…) are having major negative impacts on our health. Vit D is actually a hormone, and deficiencies can have far reaching effects from bone health to insulin resistance to depression to autoimmune disease.

Current dietary guidelines fall short at what research recommends by at least one order of magnitude. I typically recommend 2,000-4,000 IU/day to patients at risk for Vit D deficiency.

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SOLUBLE FIBER IN DIET INCREASES CALCIUM ABSORPTION – (09-06-05)

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A combination of prebiotic short- and long-chain inulin-type fructans enhances calcium absorption and bone mineralization in young adolescents

This study finds that the addition of soluble fiber added to the diet increased both the amount of calcium absorption and the amount of bone density at 1 yr.  I’m sure there are a multitude of other dietary factors that will also increase calcium utilization.  Put this into the picture of cultures that have very low intakes of calcium and yet very low incidence of osteoporosis.

We have become so programmed by the dairy industry that calcium from dairy is the end all and be all for bone health, that we have forgotten that there are many other dietary factors that go into bone health.  Osteoporosis is a disease of lifestyle, NOT calcium deficiency.

Read entire article here