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Ok. Bones.
They move, they change with different stresses we place on them.
It's shaped and reshaped over and over again.
Osteoclasts eat bone and osteoblasts make bone.
They kind of dance together to keep our bones from breaking and allowing our bones to adapt and change.
When the bone eaters decide to steal the dance floor and overtake the bone makers, bone loss occurs. Osteopaenia and osteoporosis are a result of the bone eaters winning the dance competition. Bones break easier, vertebrae (the spine) can start to collapse. It's not pretty and it's pretty darn painful.
Medical treatment can involve getting a shot of Fosamax to stop the osteoclasts (bone eating cells) from working. However this doesn't help with the dance between the two types of bone cells. The bones become rigid. Much like trying to win an argument with a parent, it never works. So hips break, there's still a bit of pain, and it fixes the symptom for a while.
There is a super scientific paper https://www.researchgate.net/p... that points to poor mitochondrial health, nutritional deficiencies, and inflammation which help cause bone loss. It shows that in addition to nutritional supplements such as calcium, magnesium, boron, silica, vitamin K, vitamin K2, manganese, and vitamin D, we also need to consider mitochondrial health and decrease oxidative stress. Yeah, okay, gee thanks, that means a lot. I hear you.
We've known this in the herbal world and if any of you who have come for osteoporosis advice you are probably already taking appropriate supplements. Great, but what are they?
**Resveratrol. Antioxidant. Not too much though because taking too much can prevent cells from fighting cancer. Hurray! How are you supposed to know? Natural health care practitioner can help. Maybe your doctor can. The Nerd always hold out hope!
**Lipoic acid. A beautiful antioxidant and helps with heavy metal removal (but that's another story!) How much? Again, health practitioner. If you're having chemotherapy, avoid this supplement please. And if you are on warfarin, don't do it unless you get advice.
**Ubiquinol. Or CoQ10. This feeds the mitochondria. Gives them energy. Kind of like an energy drink for the little cell engines. If you're exhausted, have fibromyalgia, polymyalgia, chronic fatigue, or low thyroid this can help a bit. It does depend on your nutritional status and other things. If you are on warfarin, NO. Sorry, but warfarin has a narrow range of therapeutic value it's best not to mess with it. That's the medical doctor's world! If you're taking statins and not on warfarin then yes to ubiquinol. Diabetics, consult your physician please.
**Vitamin C. Regular vitamin C, take no more than 500 mg at a time as that's about as much as we can absorb. You'll just pee out the rest. So divided doses or go the liposomal route.
**Turmeric. Always turmeric. Inflammation fighter, friend of the heart, handshakes with bone health, genetic telomere helper, and so on.
**Glossy privet. Sounds Harry Potterish, doesn't it? It's a weed here in New Zealand. And the lovely herbal company, PhytoMed, gather it, test it, dry it, make a tincture out of it for us.
It helps modulate the bone eaters and the bone makers. It's like a really good band at a dance.
I could rattle on some more. I know some of you will try to treat yourselves. You'll do your googling and figure it out. You'll buy non-professional grade supplements and spend heaps of money on them. You'll take your five to seven tablets to our one or two and believe you are saving money when in fact you're consuming high excipient, low dose products.
You'll be unaware that maybe your adrenals are struggling or your immune system is down or your thyroid is rattling. Bone health, heck health, is multifactorial. Meaning, it's never just one thing.
See a natural health care provider or maybe there's a doctor or two who are on to this. You should be able to do it with two or three quality supplements, diet modifications, and some lifestyle changes. We understand the interactions with your medications, with your foods. We have access to products that are quality tested, high strength, and get the job done. But as always, the choice is yours.
So if you've been told your bones are weakening do one thing for me.
Remove dairy from your diet. It is acid forming and the calcium in it is not the best bioavailable form. Then see someone because trying to do it all on your own is darn right overwhelming!
This wee tome has been written with the intention of love and caring.
Our bones are so important.
Especially for those of us in the autumn and winter or our lives.
You young'uns look after d'em bones!
Peace and love. The Nerd.
