Building Better Bones
"It may be a bone-deep change you're going into, my beloved," counsels Grandmother Growth. "You must hospitable your very marrow for this transformation. No cell is to stay untouched. you're to open quite you ever dreamed you'll open, quite you've got opened in birth or in passion. You open now to the breath of mortality because it plays the bone flute of your being. What are you able to do but dance to the haunting melody, develop a passion for a chic posture and an extended stride?
"Ah, yes," Grandmother Growth smiles rather wantonly. "It would does one well to develop a taste for dark greens tarted with vinegar and mated with garlic. this stuff will build strong flexible bones to support you as you become Crone."
Did you recognize that your bones are always changing? a day of your life, some bone cells die and a few new bone cells are created. From birth until your early 30s, you'll easily make many bone cells. goodbye as your diet supplies the required nutrients, you not only replace bone cells that die, you've got extras left over to elongate and strengthen your bones.
Past the age of 35, new bone cells are harder to form . Sometimes there's a shortfall: more bone cells die than you'll replace. within the orthodox view, this is often the start of osteoporosis, the disease of low bone mass. By the age of forty, many American women have begun to lose bone mass; by the age of fifty, most are told they need to take hormones or drugs to stop further loss and avoid osteoporosis, hip fracture, and death.
Women who exercise regularly and eat calcium-rich foods enter their menopausal years with better bone mass than women who sit tons and consume calcium-leaching foods (including soy "milk," tofu, coffee, soda pop, alcohol, white flour products, processed meats, nutritional yeast, and bran). But regardless of how good your lifestyle choices, bone mass usually decreases during the menopausal years.
For unknown reasons, menopausal bones hamper production of latest cells and appear to ignore the presence of calcium. This "bone-pause" is usually short-lived, occurring off and on for five to seven years. I noticed it in scattered episodes of falling hair, breaking fingernails, and therefore the same "growing pains" I experienced during puberty.
I didn't see it during a bone scan, because I did not have one.
The idea behind bone scans may be a good one: find women who are in danger of broken bones, alert them to the danger, and help them engage in preventative strategies. There's just one problem: bone scans don't find women who are in danger of broken bones, they find women who have low bone density.
I would wish to assist you abandoning of the thought that osteoporosis is vital . within the Wise Woman Tradition, we specialise in the patient, not the matter . within the Wise Woman tradition, there are not any diseases and no cures for diseases. once we specialise in a disease, like osteoporosis, we cannot see the entire woman. The more we specialise in one disease, even its prevention, the less likely we are to nourish wholeness and health.
Focusing on osteoporosis, defining it as a disease, using drugs to counter it, we lose sight of the very fact that postmenopausal bone mass may be a better indicator of carcinoma risk than broken bone risk. The one-fourth of postmenopausal women with the very best bone mass are two-and-a-half to fourfold more likely to be diagnosed with carcinoma than those with rock bottom bone mass. which hormones which maintain bone mass also adversely affect carcinoma risk. Women who take estrogen replacement (often given to stop osteoporosis), even for as little as five years, increase their risk of carcinoma by twenty percent; if they take hormone replacement, the danger increases by forty percent.
Focusing on bone mass, we lose sight of the very fact that a robust correlation between bone density and bone breakage has not been established, consistent with Susan Brown, director of the Osteoporosis Information financial institution , and lots of others. We lose sight of the very fact that ladies who faithfully take estrogen or hormone replacement still experience bone changes and suffer spinal crush fractures.
Bone-pause passes and therefore the bones do rebuild themselves, especially when supported by nourishing herbs, which are exceptional sources of bone-building minerals and better at preventing bone breaks than supplements. The minerals in green plants seem to be ideal for keeping bones healthy. Dr. Campbell, Professor of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University , has done extensive research in rural China where rock bottom known fracture rates for midlife and older women were found. He says, "The closer people get to a diet supported plant foods and leafy vegetables, the lower the rates of the many diseases, including osteoporosis." Women who consume many calcium-rich plants and exercise moderately build strong flexible bones. Women who believe hormones build bones that are massive, but rigid.
Hormone replacement regimes don't increase somatic cell creation; they slow (or suppress) somatic cell killers (osteoclasts). there's a rebound effect; bone loss jumps when the hormones are stopped. Women who take hormones for five years or more are the maximum amount as fourfold more likely to interrupt a bone within the year after they stop than a lady of an equivalent age who never took hormones. Women who build better bones with green allies and exercise nourish the somatic cell creator cells (osteoblasts).
Hormone or estrogen replacement, taken as menopause begins and continued for the remainder of your life, is claimed to scale back post-menopausal fracture rates by 40-60 percent. Frequent walks (you don't even got to sweat) and a diet high in calcium-rich green allies (at least 1500 mg daily) are shown to scale back post-menopausal fractures by 50 percent. the primary is dear and dangerous. The second, inexpensive and health promoting. it is easy to ascertain why quite eighty percent of yank women just "say no" to hormones. it's never too late to create better bones, and it's never timely . Your best insurance for a fracture-free, strong-boned cronehood is to create better bones before menopause. The more exercise and calcium-rich green allies you get in your younger years, the less you will have to stress about as you age.
"A woman has lost half all the spongy bone (spine, wrist) she'll ever lose by the age of fifty , but little or no of the dense (hip, hand, forearm) bone. Attention to bone formation at every stage of life is vital; there's no time once you are too old to make healthy new bone." - American MD
CALCIUM
"Osteoporosis is far less common in countries that consume the smallest amount calcium. that's an undisputed fact." -T. C. Campbell, PhD. Nutritional Biochemistry
Step 1: Collect Information
Calcium is, without a doubt, the foremost important mineral in your body. In fact, calcium makes up quite half the entire mineral content of your body. Calcium is crucial to the regular beating of your heart, your metabolism, the functioning of your muscles, the flow of impulses along your nerves, the regulation of your cellular membranes, the strength of your bones, the health of your teeth and gums, and your vital blood-clotting mechanisms. Calcium is so critical to your life that you simply have a gland (the parathyroid) that does little else than monitor blood levels of calcium and secrete hormones to make sure optimum levels of calcium in the least times.
When you consume more calcium than you employ , you're during a positive calcium balance: extra usable calcium is stored within the bones and you gain bone mass (insoluble or unusable calcium could also be excreted, or stored in soft tissue, or deposited within the joints). once you consume less calcium than you employ , you're during a negative calcium balance: the parathyroid produces a hormone that releases calcium stores from the bones, and you lose bone mass.
To ensure a positive calcium balance and make strong, flexible bones for your menopausal journey, lookout to:
Eat three or more calcium-rich foods daily.
Avoid calcium antagonists.
Use synergistic foods to magnify the effectiveness of calcium.
Avoid calcium supplements.
Step 2: Engage the Energy
The homeopathic tissue salt Silica is claimed to enhance bone health.
What does it mean to you to support yourself? To be supported? to face on your own? to possess a backbone in your life?
Step 3: Nourish & Tonify
What can we got to make strong flexible bones? Like all tissues, bones need protein. they have minerals (not just calcium, but also potassium, manganese, magnesium, silica, iron, zinc, selenium, boron, phosphorus, sulphur, chromium, and dozens of others). And so as to use those minerals, high-quality fats, including oil-soluble vitamin D .
Many menopausal women I meet believe that protein is bad for his or her bones. Not so. Researchers at Utah State University, watching the diets of 32,000 postmenopausal women, found that ladies who ate the smallest amount protein were the foremost likely to fracture a hip; which eating extra protein sped the healing of hip fractures.
Acids created by protein digestion are buffered by calcium. Traditional diets combine calcium- and protein-rich foods (e.g. seaweed with tofu, tortillas made up of corn ground on limestone with beans, and melted cheese on a hamburger). Herbs like seaweed, Urtica dioica , oatstraw, purple clover , dandelion, and comfrey leaf are rich in protein and supply many calcium too. Foods like tahini, sardines, canned salmon, yogurt, cheese, oatmeal, and milk offer us protein, generous amounts of calcium, and therefore the healthy fats our bones need. If you crave more protein during menopause, follow that craving. CAUTION: Unfermented soy (e.g., tofu) is particularly detrimental to bone health being protein-rich, naturally deficient in calcium, and a calcium antagonist else .
Bones need many minerals not just calcium, which is brittle and inflexible. (Think of chalk, carbonate , and the way easily it breaks.) Avoid calcium supplements. specialise in getting generous amounts of calcium from herbs and foods and you'll automatically get the multitude of minerals you would like for flexible bones.
Because minerals are bulky, and don't compact, we must consume generous amounts to form a difference in our health. Taking mineral-rich herbs in capsule or tincture form won't do much for your bones. (One cup of nettle tincture contains an equivalent amount of calcium - 300 mg - together cup of nettle infusion. many ladies drink two or more cups of infusion a day; nobody consumes a cup of tincture a day!) Neither will eating raw foods. I frequently encounter the thought that cooking robs food of nutrition. Nothing might be beyond the reality . Cooking maximizes the minerals available to your bones. Kale cooked for an hour delivers much more calcium than lightly steamed kale. Minerals are rock-like, and to extract them, we'd like heat, time, and generous quantities of material .
Green sources of calcium are the simplest . Nourishing herbs and garden weeds are far richer in minerals than ordinary greens, which are already exceptional sources of nutrients.
But calcium from green sources alone isn't enough. we'd like calcium from white sources also . Add a quart of yogurt every week to your diet if you would like really healthy bones. Because the milk has been changed by Lactobacillus organisms, its calcium, other minerals, proteins, and sugars (no lactose) are more easily digested. This carries over, enhancing calcium and mineral absorption from other foods, too. (I have known several vegans who increased their very low bone density by the maximum amount as 6 percent in one year by eating yogurt.) Organic milk cheeses are another superb white source.
Horsetail herb (Equisetum arvense) works sort of a charm for those premenopausal women who have periodontal bone loss or difficulty with fracture healing. Taken as tea, once or twice each day , young spring-gathered horsetail dramatically strengthens bones and promotes rapid mending of breaks. CAUTION: Mature horsetail contains substances which can irritate the kidneys.
Step 4: Stimulate/Sedate
Beware of calcium antagonists. Certain foods interfere with calcium utilization. For better bones avoid consistent use of:
Greens rich in ethanedioic acid , including chard (silver beet), beet greens, spinach, rhubarb.
Unfermented soy products, including tofu, soy beverages, soy burgers.
Phosphorus-rich foods, including carbonated drinks, white flour products, and lots of processed foods. (Teenagers who drink sodas rather than milk are fourfold more likely to interrupt a bone.)
Foods that produce acids requiring a calcium buffer when excreted within the urine, including coffee, white sugar, tobacco, alcohol, nutritional yeast, salt.
Fluoride in water or toothpaste.
Fiber pills, bran taken alone, bulk-producing laxatives.
Steroid medications, including corticosteroids like prednisone and asthma inhalers. (Daily use reduces spinal bone mass by the maximum amount as one-tenth a year.)
Restricted calorie diets. Women who weigh the smallest amount have the best loss of bone during menopause and "neither calcium supplements, vitamin D supplements, nor estrogen" slow the loss. Among 236 premenopausal women, all of whom consumed similar amounts of calcium, those that lost weight by reducing calories lost twice the maximum amount bone mass as women who maintained their weight.
Although chocolate contains ethanedioic acid , the amount are so low on have only a negligible effect on calcium metabolism. An ounce/3000 mg of chocolate binds 15-20 mg of calcium; an oz of cooked spinach, 100-125 mg calcium. Bittersweet (dark) chocolate may be a source of iron. Recent research has found chocolate to be very heart healthy. like any stimulant, daily use isn't advised. Chocolate is a crucial and helpful ally for ladies . Guilt about eating it and belief that it's damaging to your health interferes together with your ability to listen to and answer your body wisdom. If you would like to eat chocolate - do it; and obtain the simplest . But if you're doing it a day - eat more weeds.
Excess phosphorus accelerates bone loss and demineralization. Phosphorus compounds are second only to salt as food additives. they're found in carbonated beverages, soda pop; white flour products, especially if "enriched" (bagels, cookies, cakes, donuts, pasta, bread); preserved meats (bacon, ham, sausage, luncheon meat , and hot dogs); supermarket breakfast cereals; canned fruit; processed potato products like frozen fries and instant mashed potatoes; processed cheeses; instant soups and puddings.
To avoid phosphorus overload and improve calcium absorption:
Drink spring water and herbal infusions; avoid pop and soda water .
Eat only whole grain breads, noodles, cookies, and crackers.
Buy only unpreserved meats, cheeses, potatoes.
Avoid buying foods with ingredients; they're highly processed.
Excess salt leaches calcium. Women eating 3900 mg of sodium each day excrete 30 percent more calcium than those eating 1600 mg. the most sources of dietary sodium are processed and canned foods. Seaweed is a superb calcium-rich source of salt. Sea salt could also be used freely because it contains trace amounts of calcium. Salt is critical for health; don't eliminate it from your diet.
Increase acid production (in your stomach) and you will make better use of the calcium you consume. Lower stomach acid (with antacids, for example) and you'll receive little bone enjoy the calcium you ingest. Some ways to acidify:
Drink juice in water with or after your meal.
Take 10-25 drops dandelion root tincture during a little water before you eat.
Use calcium-rich herbal vinegars in your salad dressing; put some on cooked greens and beans, too.
Step 5a: Use Supplements
I really wish you would not use calcium supplements. They expose you to dangers and do not prevent fractures. A study in Australia that followed 10,000 white women over the age of 65 for 6 and a half years found "Use of calcium supplements was related to increased risk of hip and vertebral fracture; use of Tums antacid tablets was related to increased risk of fractures of the proximal humerus."
If you enforce supplements, choose calcium-fortified fruit juice or crumbly tablets of calcium citrate. Chewable calcium gluconate, salt , and carbonate are acceptable sources. Dolomite, bone meal, and shell are best avoided as they typically contain lead and other undesirable minerals.
For better bones, take 500 mg magnesium (not citrate) together with your calcium. Better yet, wash your calcium pill down with a glass of herbal infusion; which will provide not only magnesium but many other bone-strengthening minerals, too.
Calcium supplements are simpler in divided doses. Two doses of 250 mg, taken morning and night, actually provide more usable calcium than a 1000 mg tablet.
Step 5b: Use Drugs
Even if you're taking hormone therapy (ERT or HRT) you want to get adequate calcium to take care of bone mass, consistent with researchers at Columbia University . That's 1200-1500 mg each day (a cup of plain yogurt, two cups of nettle infusion, a splash of mineral-rich vinegar, plus three figs is about that). As you increase your intake of calcium-rich foods/herbs, gradually crop on your hormone dose if you would like .
Step 6: Break & Enter
Bone density tests are frequently wont to push women into taking hormones or drugs. If your bone density is low, use the remedies during this section and schedule another test (for a minimum of six months later) before agreeing to such therapies.
Legal Disclaimer: This content isn't intended to exchange conventional medical treatment. Any suggestions made and every one herbs listed aren't intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease, condition or symptom. Personal directions and use should be provided by a clinical herbalist or other qualified healthcare practitioner with a selected formula for you. All material contained herein is provided for general information purposes only and will not be considered medical advice or consultation. Contact a reputable healthcare practitioner if you're in need of medical aid . Exercise self-empowerment by seeking a second opinion.
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