Osteoporosis

THE TRUTH ABOUT OSTEOPOROSIS

• Here are some facts:
• There are over 300,000 hip fractures in the U.S. each year which are directly related to an increased mortality (death) rate. In one British study, the mortality rate after one year in those who suffered hip fractures was 33%, and increased with advancing age where in those over 90 years old it was 51%.
• Osteoporosis can be so severe that riding in a car over bumpy roads, or sneezing, can lead to small fractures in the spine.
• With 10 million American women entering menopause in the next ten years, osteoporosis will become a serious women's health issue. The costs related to loss of work, hospitalization and rehabilitation are estimated to be 20 to 30 billion dollars nationally each year.

There is adequate information and there are new therapies available to prevent and manage osteoporosis. This condition does not have to negatively impact one's health. Fortunately their are several things that can be done to secure strong bones that last a lifetime. Staying active is one of the most important things that you can do. Placing demands on the bones through exercise stimulates bone integrity. Find something you enjoy doing and do it regularly.

Maintaining healthy estrogen levels can be accomplished both by proper diet and use of natural estrogen in cream or tablet form. Foods like soy or flax can supply what are called phytoestrogens, compounds that work like estrogen. Minerals of course are important in the control of osteoporosis. It is interesting to note that Asian women have very little problem with osteoporosis and get a third to a half the amount of calcium in their diet that American women get. Yet we hear on TV that were not getting enough calcium. The facts are some American women do need calcium supplementation, most American women need other minerals, particularly magnesium. Magnesium is the No. 1 deficient mineral in the American diet. Other minerals like manganese, iron, boron, etc can be needed. Lab work is the best tool to determine what minerals are deficient and a hair analysis is one of the best tools for mineral analysis. There is also a simple urine test that can be run to determine if a person is losing too much collagen from bone.

A study which appeared the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and authored by researchers from the Medical College of Ohio in Toledo has identified three main risk factors for osteoporosis that will help physicians decide which women may need a test to determine if the disease is present.

Osteoporosis can best be detected through the use of a bone mineral density test called a dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry scan, commonly known as a DEXA scan. The second most common cause of death in women over 50, osteoporosis affects 25 million Americans.

In the study, a team led by Dr. Weinstein professor and chair of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at MCO, found that women with the following factors were more at risk for developing osteoporosis: decreasing weight at the time of menopause, a longer period of time since menopause, and a history of never having taken estrogen supplements from oral contraceptives or hormone replacement therapy. Of the 1,610 menopausal women in the study, two-thirds of the women did not have signs of osteoporosis when undergoing the DEXA scan. In one-third of the women, osteoporosis was seen in one or more sites in their bodies.

The study found that among women with a history of oral contraceptive use, osteoporosis was present in the spine of 17.8 percent of the women, while the percentage of non-users with osteoporosis in the spine increased to 30.9 percent.

• Guyton's Textbook of Medical Physiology, 6th Edition states:
• "The organic matrix of bone is 90-95 percent collagen fibers (a protein).
• "Osteoporosis, the most common of all bone diseases in adults and especially in old age, is a different disease from osteomalacia, for it results from diminished organic matrix rather than abnormal bone calcification.
• "Osteomalacia is rickets ... Rickets occurs in children as a result of calcium or phosphate deficiency in the extra-cellular fluid. Ordinarily, rickets is due to lack of vitamin D. "

From this we plainly see that osteoporosis is the loss of bone matrix (made up of collagen -- a protein), and actually osteomalacia is the loss of calcium. Picture it somewhat like making the floats seen in parades. The float has a structure of chicken wire that makes up the frame. Crepe paper is stuck to this. The chicken wire is like the collagen fibers. The crepe paper is like the calcium.

It is true that there is a loss of calcium in osteoporosis, however it is because there is no collagen for the calcium to stick to. Without the chicken wire there is nothing to stick the crepe paper to and it just blows away. The collagen makes up the "frame" that calcium sticks to. Without the collagen, the calcium just blows away. Adding calcium when there is no collagen is like making a float by adding crepe paper when there is no chicken wire to hold it in place. Collagen adds tensile strength and flexibility, calcium adds hardness.

FACT -- Osteoporosis is NOT the loss of calcium from the bones. This is a deception that has been foisted upon us. Many doctors and health care providers have been more educated by a TUMS commercial than by a science text book. In analyzing data from the Nurses' Health Study, which included 77,761 women, aged 34 through 59 years, researchers found no evidence that higher intakes of milk or calcium from food sources actually reduced fracture incidence. In fact, women who drank two or more glasses of milk per day had a 45% higher incidence of hip fracture compared with women consuming one glass or less per week. We have the best product to build bone matrix on the market. ASK ABOUT MCHC.

WARNING--There is this notion that you can't get too much calcium. That is wrong. Calcium overdose leads to many health problems. Don't try to be your own doctor.