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Osteoporosis is a serious health problem
in the United States that affects more than 25 million
people and results in more than 1.5 million fractures
of the back, wrists and hips each year. Eighty
percent of people affected by osteoporosis are women. It
is the major underlying cause of bone fractures in
postmenopausal women and the elderly. People
who have inflammatory arthritis (such as rheumatiod
arthritis) and who take glucocorticoid medications
have an increased risk for developing osteoporosis.
Bone is a constantly changing, living
tissue- a honeycomb-type structure packed full of
calcium and minerals. During a lifetime, bone
undergoes a process called remodeling in which old
bone is broken down and replaced with strong, new
bone. Between the ages of 12 and 25, the calcium
you get from food helps bone rebuild faster than
it breaks down. By approximately age 25, you
reach peak bone mass when your bones are at the strongest
and most dense they'll ever be.
By the time women reach menopause,
bone mass begins to decline slowly. After menopause,
women lose bone mass rapidly due to a drop in estrogen
level. For the next five to 10 years, women
can lose up to one-third of their bone mass because
bone breaks down faster than it can be replaced.
Bones with less mass are more likely
to break or fracture, even in a minor fall. In
fact, the first warning sign of osteoporosis may
be a broken bone. In some cases, spine fractures
may result in a loss of height and rounded shoulders.
Risk Factors
The amount of bone mass you have as a young adult and rate at which you
lose it as you age determine your risk for osteoporosis. Researchers
cannot yet predict exactly who will develop osteoporosis, but the disease
is more common in:
-
women, especially those past menopause;
-
people who eat few calcium-rich
food;
-
women who go through menopause
early (before age 45);
-
people with thin or small frames;
-
men with low levels of testosterone;
-
people who take drugs that reduce
bone strength (glucocorticoids, anticonvulsants
or herparin);
-
smokers;
-
those who drink more than two alcoholic
beverages a day;
-
those with a family history of
osteoporosis;
-
people with an inflammatory form
of arthritis or related condition
-
people who don't exercise regularly;
-
those with a family history of
osteoporosis;
If you have one or more of these risk
factors, you are at greater risk of developing the
disease and of breaking a bone. Women are at
greater risk of losing bone mass than men because
women's bones are 20 percent to 30 percent less dense
than men's bones. However, gradual age-related
bone loss in both sexes plays a role in causing hip
fractures in later life.
How to prevent osteoporosis
The keys to preventing osteoporosis
are building strong bones and preventing bone loss. Before
age 35, you can take the following steps to build
as much bone mass as possible: increase your calcium
intake; avoid smoking; avoid heavy alcohol consumption;
do weight bearing exercises for 30 minutes at least
three times a week; and try to maintain an appropriate
weight for your body frame. These steps also
may help slow the rate of bone loss later in life.
Being too thin lowers estrogen levels,
which, in turn, can lead to bone loss. Heavier
women produce more estrogen, which protects bones
and stimulates formation of new bone.
Increase Your Calcium Intake
Calcium intake not only influences
bone density, but it also affects other body processes. Your
body must maintain a certain level of calcium in
your blood for muscle contraction, heart beat and
normal blood clotting. Because these functions
take priority over calcium's role in bone density,
the body draws calcium from the bones to keep blood
levels normal when calcium intake isn't adequate.
How much calcium you need depends on
your sex, age and risk for osteoporosis. Most
adults need 1,000 to 1,500 mg of calcium per day
from food and/or calcium supplements. Unfortunately,
most women only get about half that amount, or 500
mg, from their diets.
Getting enough calcium is especially
important if you're a woman under age 35 because
your body is still able to absorb and store calcium
in your bones easily. Experts recommend 1,500
mg per day for teenagers and women who are pregnant
or breast-feeding.
As you age, your body absorbs and uses
calcium less efficiently. Increasing your calcium
intake to 1,500 mg is an important way to combat
this inefficiency after age 50.
Getting 400 to 800 IU (international
units) of vitamin D per day also is important. Vitamin
D increases the amount of calcium your body absorbs
from your intestines. Your body produces vitamin
D in response to exposure to sunlight. Good
sources of vitamin D include: liver, fish oil, vitamin
D-fortified milk and multivitamins.
@1999 by the Arthritis
Foundation. All rights reserved.
Is there hope?
As you have just read, osteoporosis
is a serious problem affecting both men and women
in the United States. Though women are at a
higher risk of developing the disease, one out of
five affected are men! Fracture complications
resulting from osteoporosis have resulted in more
deaths than breast, uterine and ovarian cancer combined. Sadly,
osteoporosis is one of the few diseases identified
by the World Health Organization as being preventable.
It is no secret that the most important
elements of preventing osteoporosis are being able
to absorb enough calcium and complimentary nutrients
necessary to build strong bones and then taking the
necessary steps to prevent or slow the rate of bone
loss after you have built these strong bones.
Unfortunately, this is where most of
the confusion and misinformation on preventing this
disease lie. Individuals relying exclusively
on their diet for their source of calcium must realize
that they also must have magnesium. Then for
the magnesium and calcium to properly absorb they
also need boron. In order for all of these
to properly assimilate, amino acids are required...and
so on. Ideally we should be able to get all
the complimentary nutrients for optimum calcium absorption
from our diet as well. However, with four to
five crop rotations each year on a single plot of
land, intense farming practices have depleted vital
nutrients from the soil. These deficiencies
are showing up in our bodies. U.S. Senate
Document 264 and the 1992 Earth Summit Report support
these findings and suggest that 99 percent of Americans
are mineral deficient.
This is nothing new and certainly not
a secret. It is understandable why millions
of Americans are spending billions of dollars on
supplements. Unfortunately, the body only absorbs
10 to 20 percent of the nutrients found in traditional
pills and capsules. The remaining nutrients are literally
flushed down the toilet. In Tacoma, Washington
alone, 250,000 pounds of undigested name-brand vitamin
and mineral pills are pulled out of the sewers every
six weeks. This is particularly frightening
to individuals who have been led to believe they
are getting the recommended 1500 mg from their daily
calcium pills only to find out the hard way that
they have been deficient! To make matters worse,
as we age we have even more trouble being able to
break down the nutrients due to lower amounts of
stomach acid available for digestion.
If you are still taking your vitamins
and minerals in what is termed elemental form, most
common today because of how inexpensive they are
to produce, you have most likely not heard of chelated
minerals. The technology for chelating minerals
in our supplements was brought to the market some
20 years ago. Chelated minerals have amino acids
or proteins wrapped around them to aid in assimilating
them into your body. If you are taking chelated
minerals, studies show that you have the luxury of
being able to absorb between 40-50% of the nutrients
in pill or capsule form. But like any 20 year
old technology, this too is outdated. The new
technology for nutrient absorption is in liquid form. Nutrients
in liquid form are 98% absorbable (1996 Physician's
Desk Reference page 1542). This gives us
tremendous hope for preventing and repairing the
ravages of osteoporosis as well the many other mineral
deficiency diseases plagueing our society today. Keep
in mind, just as all vitamins and mineral pills weren't
created equal, not all liquid nutritionals are either,
due your research!!!
For more information on a liquid
calcium product with a documented 98% absorption
rate, which has all the complimentary minerals
and vitamins needed to enhance the calcium's effectiveness,
along with a host of cutting edge nutrients reported
to build strong bones, ligaments, tendons, cartilage
and muscles, please visit the "OsteoProCare" section
of our website.
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