Cut fracture risk by 70%....

Today's Post:  Tuesday, 1-21-2014

Men over 75, women past menopause, and people who take acid reflux drugs are at risk for osteoporosis and dangerous and painful bone fractures. 

Older people who get hip fractures often become immobile and no longer able to live independently.  Worse, their risk of death within 3 years goes WAY up.  The people who get bad osteoporosis have bones all over their body break and hurt.  So avoiding these horrible outcomes is really, really important!

A.  We already know that superslow strength training for all of your body but particularly for your legs will prevent this or come very close. 

Superslow strength training was in fact developed originally about 60 years ago to see if people over 65 with osteopenia might have it reversed by such exercise.  (Osteopenia is low bone density and is often the early stage of osteoporosis a major cause of bone fractures in older people.) It was and superslow strength training was found to work to do that.

Doing superslow strength training well at least twice a week with two days rest between sessions also has massive other health benefits including keeping you mobile as you get older, looking better, and avoiding or permanently losing excess fat.  You also become a LOT stronger.

B.  But there are also some other important things to do or not do to avoid bone fractures and osteoporosis.

Here’s a fast list.  (The big new way to cut fractures by 70 % too is after this list.)

1.  People have stronger bones if they take 4oo mg a day of magnesium and 3,000 iu a day of vitamin D3.  If they take acid reflux drugs, it works better if they take 800 mg a day of magnesium and 5,000 iu a day of vitamin D3.  Just the magnesium was shown to cut fractures caused by acid reflux drugs by 75%.  (I take the drugs and the magnesium and vitamin D3 and got tested.  I do take enough to prevent this fracture cause according to the two tests.)

2.  Drinking soft drinks both regular and diet feeds you a regular intake of phosphoric acid.  It’s part of what gives them the slightly sparkly and tingly mouthfeel.  But there is a reason to NOT drink them every day or ever!  Every single time you drink one the phosphoric acid removes tooth enamel and bone strength by causing their calcium to be dissolved and removed from your teeth and all your bones.

If you stop drinking soft drinks, you also save money, become less fat, and become far less likely to get or keep type 2 diabetes.

But the big message here is if you do not want osteoporosis or bone fractures, drink ice water, water that has been carbonated only, and for caffeine green tea, tea, and coffee and never drink any soft drinks.

3.  The minerals zinc and boron also help keep your bones strong.  Don’t take more than 45 mg a day total of zinc and be sure you get 2 or 3 mg of copper to balance it unless your body won’t process it.  3 mg a day of boron also helps keep you alert and prevent sex linked cancers surprisingly well besides helping keep your bones strong.

4.  Surprisingly calcium supplementation by itself does little unless the things above are in place.  And unless you take 4  precautions, taking calcium supplements will make your blood vessels calcify instead of your bones.  This boosts heart attack risks.

a)  Eat dairy foods, nuts, beans and lentils, and green vegetables high in calcium.  Calcium from your food enters the blood stream slowly and is most available to your bones.  For many people this is better than the supplements.

b) Limit your supplement to 15o to 250 mg of calcium once or perhaps twice a day;

c) Take calcium supplements ONLY after meals so it enters your blood slowly; and do that only once or twice a day not more.

d) Only take calcium if you also take vitamin K2.  5,000 mcg a day is best.  It’s been found that this supplement sends blood calcium to your bones and NOT your blood vessels.  It’s a good idea to help have strong bones and flexible blood vessels regardless of the other bone strengthening things you do.  K2 is one of the most valuable but little known supplements.

5.  Consider NOT taking the drugs for thinning bones.  The drugs cause acid reflux and the drugs for that tend to cause the problem.  But worst of all, the drugs for thinning bones make your bones harder but NOT less likely to fracture because it tends to stop the normal process of producing fracture free strong bones and promotes dense but brittle bones that fracture MORE easily instead.

C.  The big news is that a study found that people prone to fractures tend to be deficient in vitamin B12.  When such people were given 1,000 mcg or more of the natural and more expensive methyl form of vitamin B12 in sublingual supplements that bypass digestive issues to go directly into your blood, they had 70% fewer fractures than the similar group that did not do so.

THAT is a huge difference!

Also note that people who take acid reflux drugs or the Metformin drug that is in many ways the best drug for high blood sugar and type 2 diabetes have their vitamin B12 depleted.  Vegan vegetarians are often deficient in vitamin B12 if they don’t supplement with this form of it.  And, most people over 75 or who take acid reflux drugs have too little stomach acid to digest B12 from food or a B12 supplement they swallow.

So, the first set of things helps you get and keep strong bones that are less likely to fracture.

And the vitamin B12 dramatically adds to your fracture protection after that!