Jonny Bowden, Ph.D., C.N.S.
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 Where the Vegans Have It Wrong
Speaking of protein, I'm always amused by the vegan propaganda about how animal protein "causes" bone loss and osteoporosis. Actually, the opposite is true.
The Framingham Osteoporosis Study investigated protein consumption over a four-year period among 615 elderly men and women with an average age of 75. The amount of protein eaten daily ranged from as low as 14 g a day to as high as 175 g. Those who consumed more protein had less bone loss, and those who consumed less protein had more bone loss, both at the femoral bone and at the spine. |
David W. Grotto, RD, LDN
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 BONE LOSS: An animal study found that those mice given pomegranate extract for two weeks showed a significant decrease in bone loss.
Tips on Using Pomegranates
SELECTION AND STORAGE:
• Pick one that is heavy for its size, with taut, thin, shiny, smooth skin.
• Pomegranates should be stored in a cool, dark place, where they will last for about a month. If refrigerated, they can keep for about two months.
• Seeds can be stored in the refrigerator for about three days and can be frozen in an airtight container for about six months. |
Marshall Editions
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 Medication: The medications alendronate, raloxifend, and risedronate are approved for the treatment of osteoporosis for the prevention of bone loss. A bone density test should show that bone loss has stopped after one year of beginning medication.
TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE
Herbs: The herbs called for in the formulas below are available from Chinese pharmacies or online. For either formula, make a decoction be combining the ingredients in a ceramic or glass pot. Add 4 cups of water, bring the mixture to a boil, and simmer for 30 minutes. Strain the liquid and drink 1 cup twice a day. |
Jonny Bowden, Ph.D., C.N.S.
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| Those who consumed more protein had less bone loss, and those who consumed less protein had more bone loss, both at the femoral bone and at the spine. The study also found that "higher intake of animal protein does not appear to affect the skeleton adversely." Calcium is better absorbed on a higher-protein diet, even if there is somewhat more urinary calcium excretion. High-protein diets in two recent studies resulted in significantly more calcium absorption than the low-protein diets they were compared to. |
Lester A. Mitscher and Victoria Toews
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 During and after menopause, dietary calcium is essential to prevent the rapid bone loss associated with the advanced stages of osteoporosis, yet the average woman consumes only half the recommended intake for calcium, and amounts that low are associated with bone loss and the development of osteoporosis.
According to a study of bone resorption in animals, catechins can reduce excessive resorption that could lead to excessive loss of bone mass. Epidemiological studies of human populations support this theory. |
J. Douglas Bremner
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 For a long time estrogen replacement therapy was hailed as a natural way to prevent bone loss associated with the loss of estrogen after menopause. The Women's Health Initiative (WHI) indeed showed that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) prevented bone loss and reduced the risk of osteoporotic fracture.14 In this controlled trial, however, HRT was found to have unacceptable risks, including increasing the risk of breast, ovarian, and uterine cancer as well as stroke, heart attack, and gallbladder disease. Overall the risks were greater than the benefits. |
Thomson Healthcare, Inc.
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 In a smaller 3-year study involving 318 women and men over the age of 65 who lived at home, calcium 500 mg/day (as calcium citrate malate) plus 700 IU of cholecalciferol/day, in comparison to placebo, reduced the rate of bone loss in both men and women and significantly reduced the incidence of nonvertebral fractures. Rates of loss of bone mass were lower for femoral neck, spine, and total body in treatment groups after 1 year. However, significant differences between treatment groups in years 2 and 3 were maintained only for total-body BMD (Dawson-Hughes et al 1997). |
Herbert Ross, DC with Keri Brenner, L.Ac.
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 Estrogen slows down bone loss, helps reverse the incidence of heart attacks, and acts as an antiaging factor.
Progesterone: A female sex hormone produced in the ovaries that prepares the uterus for a fertilized egg and then stops cell proliferation in the uterus if pregnancy does not occur. When estrogen is high (days 7 to 14 of a woman's cycle), the level of progesterone is at its lowest. Its levels climb to a peak around days 14 to 24 and then drop off again just before the start of menstruation. Around age 35, a woman usually starts producing less progesterone. |
Bill Sardi
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 Journal Steroid Biochemistry Molecular Biology 95:151-4, 2005]
The importance of maintaining some estrogen production in the body is underscored by the report of a man who could not produce aromatase, had no detectable levels of estrogen and experienced rapid bone loss. In other words, widespread use of aromatase inhibitors could make osteoporosis a bigger epidemic among postmenopausal women than it is today. [Calcified Tissue International 59: 179-83, 1996]
Aromatase inhibitors in postmenopausal women also increase total serum cholesterol. |
Marshall Editions
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| Moderate your levels | of caffeine and alcohol consumption, as they contribute to bone loss. Unlike the popular belief, milk and milk products are not the best sources of calcium. This is largely due to intolerances to lactose and casein, which can lead to problems with absorption. Unsweetened yogurt is the exception.
Supplements: Calcium has been shown to be effective in helping to build bone mass. For optimum nutrition, the recommended calcium intake is between 1,000-1,500 mg per day, depending on your age, dietary intake, and other health conditions. |
Mark Sircus
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 I had periodontal disease when I was seventeen and severe bone loss through many years. My mouth was also loaded up with mercury amalgam starting at age five. It is very difficult to keep up the discipline of maintaing my mouth perfectly. A fine dentist told me six years ago that I had to brush and floss after every meal and never eat between meals to preserve my teeth.
I have had a hard time following those directions and the results are as expected. I now use salt water instead of fluoride toothpaste and that has helped out a lot. |
Marshall Editions
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| Vitamin K reduces bone loss and low levels have been associated with fractures. Take 2-10 g a day—a smaller amount for prevention and a
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< higher amount if you have osteoporosis. Do not take vitamin K if you are on anticoagulant medications. Ipriflavone has been shown to help bone strength when combined with calcium and vitamin D. Take 600 mg a day with food. Take 250-350 mg of magnesium twice a day as it is required for proper calcium metabolism. Fish oils can also improve calcium absorption and deposition into bones when taken at 4 g a day. |
Bottom Line Health
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| Arecent study has found that a new, injectable drug to treat osteoporosis—denosu-mab—boosts bone mineral density and decreases the rate of bone loss in postmenopausal women.
THE STUDY
This study looked at 412 postmenopausal women who had low bone mineral density. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four groups—one group received denosumab every three months; the second group got denosumab every six months; another group took open-label oral alendronate (Fosamax) once a week; and the final group received a placebo. |
| Over the last 10 years, it's been firmly established that depression significantly raises the risk for heart attack and stroke, as well as accelerating bone loss and perhaps impairing immune function. Even if depression didn't cause terrible emotional suffering, it would be important to treat it for these medical reasons.
There's also evidence that certain physical conditions and medical treatments can cause depression. |
| Previous research had suggested that calcium and/or vitamin D supplements might slow bone loss and reduce the risk of falls in older women, but the evidence of any reduction in fracture risk has been scanty.
THE FIRST STUDY
The current study involved more than 36,000 postmenopausal women, ages 50 to 79, all of whom received daily either 1,000 milligrams (mg) of elemental calcium as calcium carbonate plus 400 international units (IU) of vitamin D-3 or a placebo. Calcium is a major component of bone, and vitamin D helps the body properly absorb calcium through the intestines. |
Thomson Healthcare, Inc.
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| Another 5-year study in a similar number of postmenopausal women found that 1 g/day of calcium citrate taken for 5 years led to significant positive effects on bone density, including a sustained reduction in bone loss and turnover and cumulative benefits to the proximal femur. The effect on fracture risk was less certain, since fractures still occurred in both groups. This may have been the result of decreasing compliance over the 5-year regimen, possibly due in part to a higher incidence of diarrhea reported among supplement users vs those receiving placebo (18% vs 11%, p=.0002). |
| Reid IR, Ames RW, Evans MC et al: Effect of calcium supplementation on bone loss in postmenopausal women. N Engl J Med; 328(7):460-464. 1993
Riley BB: Incompatibilities in intravenous solutions. J Hosp Pharm; 28:228-240. 1970
Ringe JD, Dorst A, Kipshoven C et al: Avoidance of vertebral fractures in men with idiopathic osteoporosis by a three year therapy with calcium and low-dose intermittent monofluorophosphate. Osteoporos Int; 8(l):47-52. 1998
Roberts JM, D'Abarno J: Effects of calcium supplementation on pregnancy-induced hypertension (letter). JAMA; 276(17): 1386-1387. |
| Treatment with Soy protein decreased bone loss from the lumbar spine in postmenopausal women in a randomized, double-blind trial (Alekel et al, 2000). Limited increases in bone density and mineralization occurred in 66 hypercholes-terolemic, postmenopausal women who were given 40 g/day of moderate to high isoflavone containing Soy protein in a 6-month, double-blind, parallel-group study (Potter et al, 1998).
Six months of treatment with 40 g of Soy protein/day (containing 90 mg of isoflavone) produced increased lumbar spine mineral content and density. |
Bill Sardi
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| Canadian Journal Urology 12: 9-15, 2005S]
As men with prostate cancer live longer, the prevalence of bone loss increases. Many men with prostate cancer who are prescribed hormone therapy are not provided with any preventive measures to help maintain bone health. Exercise, exposure to the sun (vitamin D production), avoidance of excessive alcohol, and cessation of smoking helps to maintain bone integrity. [Cancer 103: 2042-52, 2005]
There has been a long-held belief that osteoporosis is prevented in men by testosterone and in women with estrogen. |
Thomson Healthcare, Inc.
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| Chen YM, Ho SC, Lam SSH et al: Soy isoflavones have a favorable effect on bone loss in Chinese postmenopausal women with lower bone rfiass: a double-blind, randomized, controlled trial. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 88(10):4740-4747. 2003.
Chiechi Lm, Secreto G, D'Amore et al: Efficacy of a Soy rich diet in preventing postmenopausal osteoporosis: the Menfis randomized trial. Maturitas 42(4):295-300. 2002.
Choi YH, Zhang L, Lee WH, et al: Genistein-induced G2/M arrest is associated with the inhibition of cyclin B1 and the induction of p21 in human breast carcinoma cells. Int J Oncol 13(2):391-396. |
Bill Sardi
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| How will they avoid bone loss, breast cancer, and uterine cancer?
—? With millions of dollars spent on research, there is still no effective preventive measure for breast cancer, only treatment after it has been diagnosed, which consists of estrogen-blocking Tamoxifen after conventional surgical, chemo or radiation therapy. But Tamoxifen itself promotes endometrial cancer and can, with long-term use, promote breast cancer so it cannot be taken for more than five years. For women with a relatively low risk for breast cancer (1. |
Tori Hudson, N.D.
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 These results suggest that red clover isoflavones may be able to slow bone loss in the lumbar spine.
Red Clover Standardized Extract
28-85 mg per day of red clover isoflavones
Ipriflavone. A synthetic derivative of isoflavones, Ipriflavone was only available in Italy and a handful of other countries until recently. It is now available over the counter in natural food stores or from alrernative practitioners. Two multicenter, two-year clinical trials evaluated the efficacy and bioavailability of Ipriflavone in postmenopausal women with low bone mass. |
| Another group is women who have low bone density for whom other nonhormonal therapies cause too many side effects or do not work to slow bone loss. For women who have been on HRT and decide to stop, symptoms have about a 50 percent chance of recurring.
The panel's position on bio-identical hormones that are compounded for an individual by a special pharmacy is that any risk-benefit data pertaining to other kinds of hormones also applies to these compounded hormones. They also expressed a concern as to quality control issues with some bio-identical compounded hormone prescriptions. |
| Again, they do not diagnose osteoporosis or determine future bone loss or fracture rates. However, they can be used to determine a response to treatment. These tests of bone turnover can be done prior to beginning a treatment for osteoporosis and then again in a few months to determine if the treatment is working to slow bone turnover. Tests for biochemical markers of bone turnover can be done more frequently than a bone density test and can be done early, even within weeks after beginning the treatment. |
| Recent studies even indicate that black cohosh may decrease risk factors associated with menopause such as osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease and may even be effective in preventing bone loss.25-27
Black Cohosh
40-80 mg standardized extract twice daily
Rhodiola. Rhodiola, also called golden root, has enjoyed centuries of use in Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, and Asia. |
David W. Grotto, RD, LDN
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| Protodioscin is a plant chemical found in asparagus that has been found to reduce bone loss, improve sexual desire, enhance erection, and possess cancer cell-killing ability against a number of different forms of cancer. Fresh purple asparagus has a fruity flavor and is high in the phytochemical anthocyanin.
Home Remedies
The Greeks and Romans valued asparagus for medicinal uses like treating bee stings, heart ailments, dropsy, and toothaches. The fresh juice, taken in small doses, is said to act medicinally as a diuretic and laxative. |
| BONE HEALTH: A study of rats that were fed plums showed reduced bone loss.
CHOLESTEROL: Men who ate twelve plums daily in addition to their diet had significant lowering of LDL cholesterol.
CANCER: Plums contain ursolic acid, which interferes with cell-signaling pathways and thus may protect against some forms of cancer.
COLON CANCER: A study using rats fed varying amounts of a plum diet found a significant decrease in colon cancer risk factors.
Tips on Using Plums
SELECTION AND STORAGE:
• Plums should be plump, shiny, free of mold, and somewhat soft. |
Mark Sircus
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| The doctor promises these medicines will cure her hot flashes, slow her bone loss, and reduce her risk of a heart attack. Unfortunately we find out:
The risk of having a blood clot was close to 30% more for a woman on estrogen vs. not on estrogen.'
Dr. J. David Curb
Estrogen therapy appears to increase the risk of blood clots in the veins of postmenopausal women who have had their uterus removed. These latest results from the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) were unexpected, even to the study's lead author. |
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