The Health Diva

It’s never too late — or too early — to do something about osteoporosis. You can take steps to keep bones strong and healthy throughout life.

Your Doctor or consultant will dicuss the various medical approaches to osteoporosis, however there are a few natural remedies, that can support your bones.

The first supplement that comes to mind when we consider osteoporosis is calcium. There’s no doubt that calcium is important to build up and maintain the strength of our bones, but high levels in our diets or in supplements do not necessarily mean that the calcium is actually reaching our bones. When we consume calcium we need both stomach acid and vitamin D in order to absorb calcium properly.

Many other nutrients are equally crucial for healthy bones, and these include magnesium, vitamin C vitamin D, zinc and boron. This is why it is important not to focus exclusively on calcium as a supplement for bone health, but to take a range of nutrients that are important for the bones.

Multivitamin and Mineral Supplement

A good quality multivitamin and mineral would form the foundation of your supplement program to make sure that you are getting a ‘little bit of everything’. You then add in the nutrients listed below in slightly higher amounts, which are known to be helpful for osteoporosis.

Vitamin D

Vitamin D helps to regulate blood levels of both calcium and phosphorus. Without good levels of vitamin D you cannot absorb calcium from your food or your supplements. You may be getting plenty in your diet, but if your body thinks there is not enough in the blood, it will begin to leach it from your bones. Over time this will cause bone loss. Doses of 800iu up to 2000iu per day have been recommended.

Vitamin C

This builds up collagen, which is a sort of ‘cement’ that holds the bone matrix (the architecture of the bone) together, so it is as important as the minerals for prevention of osteoporosis.

Folic Acid

High homocysteine levels in menopausal women have also been associated with an increase in bone loss. Homocysteine comes from the breakdown of one of the essential amino acids (methionine) and should, under normal circumstances, be detoxified by the body. Giving women folic acid has helped to reduce the homocysteine in the blood. It has been suggested that a B complex supplement that contains folic acid should be sufficient, and this will also contain vitamin B6, which is important for the bones. Vitamin B6 has been found to be deficient in people with hip fractures, and rats fed a vitamin B6 deficient diet developed osteoporosis.

Calcium

You do need calcium for your bones but you also need to be able to absorb the calcium you take. Not all calcium supplements are the same. Calcium carbonate is the cheapest form of calcium. It’s literally mined from the ground. This isn’t a naturally occurring form of dietary calcium, as no foods (either plant or animal) that we eat contain calcium carbonate. This is the most difficult form of calcium to absorb and you need a pretty efficient digestive system in order to manage it. If you have low levels of stomach acid (hydrochloric acid), you will struggle to absorb the calcium from a calcium carbonate supplement.

One study showed that of a group of post-menopausal women, 40 percent were severely deficient in stomach acid. Those with the low levels only absorbed 4 percent of the calcium from calcium carbonate, as compared to 45 percent of the calcium from another form of calcium supplement, called calcium citrate. In another study, 500mg of calcium citrate was absorbed better than even 2000mg of calcium carbonate.

Magnesium

Magnesium is just as important as calcium for your bones. It helps in metabolising calcium and helps to convert vitamin D to the active form necessary to ensure that calcium is efficiently absorbed by your body.

A recent study showed women diagnosed with osteoporosis, had low levels of important bone nutrients, including magnesium and zinc. They also had low levels of the enzyme alkaline phosphatase, which is an indication that the bone is not renewing itself adequately. Magnesium is required for normal levels of this enzyme.

Magnesium also prevents the build-up of unwanted calcium deposits elsewhere in the body.

Boron

Boron is another mineral that is being widely studied in relation to osteoporosis. Research conducted by the US Department of Agriculture demonstrated that giving post-menopausal women a short course of 3mg boron supplements daily resulted in a 44 percent reduction in the amount of calcium excreted in their urine. The conclusions of this study were that boron improved the metabolism (the way it is used by the body) of both calcium and magnesium. Boron is found in alfalfa, kelp, cabbage and leafy greens.

Zinc

Zinc helps vitamin D absorb calcium. Zinc is needed for the proper formation of osteoclasts and osteoblasts, the two cells which are essential for bone turnover. Zinc has found to be deficient in older people with osteoporosis.

Soya Isoflavones

Soya Isoflavones help in the preservation of the bone substance and fights osteoporosis. This is the reason why people in China and Japan very rarely have osteoporosis, despite their low consumption of dairy products, whereas in Europe and North America the contrary happens. Unlike oestrogen, which helps prevent the destruction of bone, evidence suggests that isoflavones may also assist in creating new bone. Other studies are not entirely consistent, but evidence suggests that genistein and other soya isoflavones can help prevent osteoporosis.

Pycnogenol

A powerful antioxidant, pycnogenol is important for the production of collagen a vital component of the bone matrix.

Essential Fats

Maintaining a proper balance of dietary fats may ward off much of the bone loss associated with post menopausal osteoporosis, according to a recent study by scientists at Purdue University and the Indiana University School of Medicine.

The researchers found that diets with a low ratio of omega-6 fatty acids to omega-3 fatty acids minimized the bone loss typically brought on by oestrogen deficiency, which is common in post menopausal females.

Taking Eicosanoil daily is a way of ensuring adequate dietary intake of omega 3, 6, and 9 in it’s natural ratio.