Osteoporosis



Osteoporosis is a disease in which bones become fragile and more likely to break. Osteoporosis is a debilitating disease that can be prevented and treated and is the disease American women are most likely to develop as they age. Half of all women between the ages of forty-five and seventy-five show signs of some degree of osteoporosis. Over a third of that group, also suffer from serious bone deterioration.

Causes

Evidence indicates that osteoporosis often begins early in life and is not strictly a postmenopausal problem. Many women mistakenly believe that osteoporosis is something they need be concerned about only after menopause. But bone building activity decreases, due to a drop in progesterone, that begins when a woman is in her 30’s. Bone loss accelerates after menopause, as a result of the drop in estrogen levels.

According to "Holistic Health Tools", an easy way to understand the process of bone building and bone loss is to think of the bones as part of a Pacman™ game. Tiny cells travel the body seeking areas of old bone. When they find those old bones they dissolve them—like Pacman™—they eat up the old, weak bones. These Pacman™-like cells are called osteoclasts. When they eat up the old bone, they leave a little space—a lacuna. Now cells called osteoblasts come to build new, thick bone in that empty space. The new bone can be stronger than the old bone! The osteoblasts only build new bone where our Pacman™ or osteoclasts have eaten out the old bone. So the bones in our body are always being made, unmade and made again. The length of time it takes to make bones differs from 4 or 5 years to 15 years. Progesterone stimulates the osteoblasts to make new bone. Estrogen slows Pacman™—the osteoclasts. So, contrary to what most women believe, estrogen is not the hormone associated with making new bones. That’s progesterone’s role.

Symptoms

Osteoporosis is often referred to as a silent disease. Bone loss occurs without symptoms and you may lose bone mass over many years but not know the problem. Often a woman learns she has osteoporosis when she fractures a hip, wrist or her spine with a simple fall.

Symptoms that occur late in the disease are:

- Loss of height as a result of weakened spine. A person may find that his/her clothes are no longer fitting and their pants looking longer. Patients may loose as much as 6 inches in height.
- Cramps in the legs at night
- Bone pain and tenderness
- Neck pain, discomfort in the neck other than from injury or trauma
- Persistent pain in the spine or muscles of the lower back
- Abdominal pain
- Tooth loss
- Rib pain
- Broken bones
- Spinal deformities become evident like stooped posture, an outward curve at the top of the spine as a result of developing a vertebral collapse on the back.
- Fatigue
- Periodontal disease
- Brittle fingernails

Prevention - Treatment

Osteoporosis is treatable and reversable. Treatment options include:

-Bone Mass Density (BMD) test

The first step in treatment is to catch the disease early. The only reliable way to determine loss of bone mass is to have a BMD test. A BMD test is a special type of test that is accurate, painless and noninvasive. There are many risk factors that may increase your chance of developing osteoporosis. Consult with your health care provider to determine when a bone density test is appropriate for you.

-Natural Progesterone Balancing Cream

Harvard-trained Dr. John R. Lee, author of the best-selling women’s health book What Your Doctor May NOT Tell You About Menopause, studied 100 of his women patients that were in various stages of osteoporosis. The women in his study ranged in age from 38 to 83 with 62.5 being the average age. By adding supplementation with natural progesterone to a natural osteoporosis treatment program, Dr. Lee found that bone density was increased every year by 3%-5% until it stabilized at the bone density levels expected for a 35-year old woman!

All 100 women in the study using the natural progesterone and osteoporosis treatment reversed their bone loss and grew new bone cells. A natural osteoporosis treatment program includes making lifestyle changes such as:

  • Adding weight-bearing exercise

    Weight-bearing exercises include weight-lifting, jogging, hiking, stair-climbing, step aerobics, dancing, racquet sports, and other activities that require your muscles to work against gravity. Check with your healthcare provider before beginning a new exercise routine.

  • Eating a proper diet

    • Emphasize leafy green vegetables in the diet, foods high in Vitamin D, and foods high in flavonoids.

    Limit red meat and soft drinks to 3 or fewer per week.

    Limit alcohol use -- none, or no more than 1 drink every 2 weeks.

  • Using nutritional supplements where necessary

    • Calcium citrate, 600 mg daily with meals
    Magnesium (citrate, glycinate, oxide or malate), 600-900 mg daily with meals
    Folic acid, 200 mcg daily
    Vitamin C, 1,000 mg twice daily
    Vitamin B6, 50-100 mg daily between meals
    Zinc, 15 mg daily with meals
    Beta carotene, 15,000 iu daily
    Trace Minerals, including 1-3 mg of boron and manganese.

  • Medications

    • -Actonel
    -Boniva
    -Evista
    -Forteo
    -Fosamax
    -HRT
    -Miacalcin
    -Reclast

    Please ask your healthcare provider for a list of side effects and dangers associated with these drugs.

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