The Truth About Osteoporosis and Osteopenia
Drug advertisements greatly exaggerate post-menopausal risks of osteoporosis. Though they play on your fears, more than likely you will not end up severely hunched-over with a weak back and brittle bones.
Hip fractures are more common, though that can be prevented with some minor behavior changes and natural health care in your earlier years.
Lower your risk of osteoporosis:
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Eat a natural diet full of vegetables and natural fatty acids, such as those found in nuts, avocados and olive oil.
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Perform moderate exercise, using light (3-5 pounds is plenty) weights or resistance bands.
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Get some sunshine every day (Don't let me get started on how much the dermatologists have scared everyone to death in this country about sunshine! Our bodies need twenty minutes of sunshine a day - without sunscreen - to create enough vitamin D so that we can use the calcium available in our bodies. Without the appropriate natural Vitamin D, that calcium becomes excess garbage that gets dumped in your joints and become arthritis.) Yes, use sunscreen after twenty minutes, or get out of the sun.
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Avoid soft drinks, caffeine, nicotine and excess simple sugars. Soft drinks are especially bad - the phosphates in them will actually pull calcium out of your body.
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Take the complete multi-mineral complex that is my favorite product listed in my Natural Vitamin Reviews. Our diet does not contain enough minerals to accomodate the levels of stress that we all face daily in this century. You MUST take a clean, absorbable (this is key) mineral with the appropriate ratios of calcium, magnesium and phosphorous.
Because society encourages women to be thin, we are more likely to follow unbalanced, deficient diets. We tend to consume more carbohydrates than men, often refined and processed sugars and flours, which can deplete the body of nutrients such as calcium.
The "diet" foods in grocery stores often contain altered fats, such as partially hydrogenated oils or trans fats. These fats are toxic to the body and deplete it of nutrients.
Even worse for the body is the consumption of "fat free" foods that are loaded with sugar and chemicals. These products make your body more acidic. When your pH becomes acidic, your body will pull calcium from everywhere it can (bones included) in order to bring your system to a more alkaline, or neutral, state for greater health.
Most Americans are magnesium deficient, rather than calcium deficient. Our soils have been over-planted, and vegetables are picked when not yet ripe. Our foods are irradiated and covered with pesticides and synthetic hormones.
All these factors contribute to magnesium-deficient foods, leading to magnesium-deficient bodies. Calcium must have magnesium to be absorbed in your body.
Instead of taking calcium supplements, it is often more important to take extra magnesium in an absorbable form. (see my Brand-Name Vitamin and Supplement Product Reviews to find out which magnesium, calcium, and complex mineral brands are my favorites and have been clinical shown to REVERSE osteoporosis).
Obtain your calcium from calcium-rich foods such as wild salmon, raw spinach, greens and kale.
Synthetic estrogen replacement therapy also can interfere with your body's ability to absorb calcium.
Have you seen the television commercials telling you that certain chewable antacids will provide you with all the calcium you need? That's misleading information.
Calcium must have an acidic environment in the body to be absorbed, but these antacids are designed to neutralize acids.
These chewable antacids do indeed contain calcium, but the tablets use this calcium to neutralize the acid in your stomach. Calcium is very alkaline and is used naturally as a buffer in the body. The calcium in those antacids is not going to your bones, or even past your stomach.
As a side note, those of you with heartburn problems should also know that taking antacids over the long term will actually increase your heartburn problems. Antacids alkalize your stomach pH, which is the opposite of what you need to digest food and absorb nutrients. Ironically, your stomach not being acidic enough causes most heartburn problems.
The best enzyme for digestion I have found is listed in my product reviews, and many patients found that their digestion issues went away once they got on this digestion enzyme.
I tried many, many different enzymes over the years; some of them my patients really liked. But none ever helped my sensitive digestion.
The enzyme that I review in my"Brand Name Product Reviews" is the one that I found truly makes me a feel an improvement in my digestion, including relief from bloating and constipation.
Healthy digestion is the first step to restoring your health - without basic nutritional absorption, which happens in the small intestine, you cannot improve your health.