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Osteoporosis and You
Osteoporosis is a condition where bones become weak and more brittle. This typically happens as people age, but can happen other times. Here are some facts about osteoporosis that you may not know:
- Even young, healthy men can get osteoporosis. The perfect example of this are male astronauts living away from earth's gravity for extended periods. Unless they do exercises that duplicate the effect of gravity their bones become brittle.
- No amount of calcium will fix the problem without exercise. In one experiment, the bone mass of chickens fed calcium doubled, but only in the group that had their wings gently twisted every day to simulate exercise. Bones are similar to muscles in that both need exercise to remain strong.
- The typical modern diet with high levels of processed foods and sugars prevents people from eating adequate amounts of healthy natural foods to nourish their bodies. This is reflected in the health of their bones. In addition, highly processed foods can actually remove important minerals and other building blocks from your body, thus aggravating the loss.
- Foods often presented as 'health food,' such as grains and soy, are actually full of phytates. Phytates in food act like anti-nutrients by blocking the absorption of other nutrients such as calcium. This problem can be reduced by soaking grains overnight before preparing them. Soy must be fermented to avoid this problem.
- Steroid drug use (cortisone, etc.) can lead to weakened bones.
- Drugs used to 'treat' osteoporosis (Fosamax®, Boniva®, etc.) are made from industrial waste products and function by killing the part of the bone that breaks down old bone tissue. Unfortunately, over time this also suppresses the part of the bone that makes new bone and can lead to bone that is hard and brittle, not strong and flexible.
- Although broken bones aren't usually fatal in young people, in older people a broken hip can sometimes be fatal, usually because of secondary problems that develop after the break. My father-in-law died from these complications.
So what can you do to prevent and reverse this condition? See the article on How to Make Sure You're Getting Enough Calcium.
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