How To Avoid Osteoporosis Naturally

As we age – especially after 30 – there is a normal, progressive bone weakening. It becomes more intense for women especially after menopause. If we do nothing about it – there is a risk of osteoporosis development. “Those with osteoporosis are at increased risk of height loss, fractures of the hips, wrists, and vertebrae, and chronic pain” .The correct way to combat this natural bone loss is to add to your daily diet certain proven nutrients, and an exercise routine that has been proven to help. What follows are excerpts from an important summary that has been proven to combat osteoporosis. Included is something of equal importance – what has been proven to be harmful and what must be avoided. Check out Dr. Mercola’s complete post with the link below.

Many are under the mistaken impression that a prescription drug combined with megadose calcium supplements is the answer to strong and healthy bones. But bisphosphonate drugs like Fosamax, Actonel, or Boniva are associated with serious side effects—including an increased risk of bone fracture!

A diet full of processed foods will produce biochemical and metabolic conditions in your body that will decrease your bone density, so avoiding processed foods is definitely the first step in the right direction. Certain nutrients, including omega-3 fat, calcium, vitamin D, K2, and magnesium, are also critical for strong bones—as is exercise, especially weight-bearing exercises.

Maintaining strong healthy bones really is within your power. Brittle bones aren’t necessarily a fate that has to befall you just because you’re getting older. Proper diet, regular sun exposure, and weight bearing exercise can both prevent and treat weakening bones. Whole Body Vibrational Training using a Power Plate is an excellent choice especially for the elderly, but will naturally work for all ages. To sum up some of the most important points discussed above, the following guidelines can help you maintain, or increase your bone strength safely and naturally, without the use of drugs that might cause you even further harm:

Avoid processed foods and soda, which can increase bone damage by depleting your bones of calcium. By ditching processed foods, you’re also automatically eliminating a major source of refined sugars and processed fructose, which drive insulin resistance. It will also provide you with a more appropriate potassium to sodium ratio, which is important for maintaining bone mass.

Increase your consumption of raw, fresh vegetables, ideally organic. If you find it difficult to eat the recommended amount of vegetables you need daily, you can try vegetable juicing.

Optimize your vitamin D levels, ideally from appropriate sun exposure or a safe tanning bed. Vitamin D builds your bone density by helping your body absorb calcium. If you use an oral supplement, make sure you’re using vitamin D3 (not D2), and that you’re also increasing your vitamin K2 intake.

Consider making your own fermented vegetables using a special vitamin K2-producing starter culture, or supplementing with vitamin K2 if you’re not getting enough from food alone. Vitamin K2 serves as the biological “glue” that helps plug the calcium into your bone matrix. Also remember to balance your calcium and magnesium (1:1 ratio).

Maintain a healthy balance between omega-6 and omega-3 fats in your diet by taking a high-quality animal-based omega-3 supplement like krill oil, an reducing your consumption of processed omega-6, found in processed foods and vegetable oils.

Get regular exercise. Ideally, your fitness program should be comprehensive, providing the necessary weight-bearing activities for bone health while also improving your cardiovascular fitness and fat-burning capabilities with high-intensity exercises.

Two additional nutrients that play an important role are sodium and potassium—you want the optimal ratio between these two in order to maintain your bone mass. If you eat a diet loaded with processed foods, there’s a good chance your potassium to sodium ratio is far from optimal, as processed foods are notoriously low in potassium while being high in sodium. Consider this: our ancient ancestors got about 11,000 mg of potassium a day, and about 700 mg of sodium. This equates to a potassium-over-sodium factor of nearly 16. Compare that to today’s modern diet where daily potassium consumption averages about 2,500 mg (the RDA is 4,700 mg/day), along with 4,000 mg of sodium.

An imbalanced sodium to potassium ratio can contribute to a number of diseases, including osteoporosis. To ensure you get these two important nutrients in more appropriate ratios, simply replace processed foods with whole, unprocessed foods, ideally organically grown to ensure optimal nutrient content. This type of diet will naturally provide much larger amounts of potassium in relation to sodium, which is optimal for your bone health, and your overall health. If you find it difficult to eat the recommended amount of vegetables, give vegetable juicing a try. I would not recommend taking a potassium supplement; rather it is best to get it in your foods, primarily vegetables

Lack of balance between these four nutrients (calcium, vitamins D and K2, and magnesium) is why calcium supplements have become associated with increased risk of heart attack and stroke. One of the best ways to ensure you’re getting enough of all of them is to get regular sun exposure to optimize your vitamin D levels, and to eat a diet rich in fresh, raw whole foods, which will also maximize a wide variety of other natural minerals. This way, your body will have the raw materials it needs to do what it was designed to do. Below are some suggestions for foods that provide these bone-building nutrients (with the exception of vitamin D):

Calcium: raw milk from pasture-raised cows, leafy green vegetables, the pith of citrus fruits, carob, and sesame seeds.Homemade bone broth is another excellent source. Simply simmer leftover bones over low heat for an entire day to extract the calcium from the bones. Make sure to add a few tablespoons of vinegar. You can use this broth for soups, stews, or drink it straight. The “skin” that forms on the top is the best part as it also contains other valuable nutrients, such as sulfur, along with healthful fats.

Magnesium: Industrial agriculture has massively depleted most soils of beneficial minerals like magnesium, so this is one instance where a supplement may be warranted, especially since most people are deficient. It is the only mineral that I personally supplement with. That said, if you find biologically-grown organic foods (grown on soil treated with mineral fertilizers), you may still be able to get a lot of your magnesium from your food.

Chlorophyll has a magnesium atom in its center, allowing the plant to utilize the energy from the sun. Seaweed and green leafy vegetables like spinach and Swiss chard can be excellent sources of magnesium, as are some beans, nuts, and seeds, like pumpkin, sunflower, and sesame seeds, and raw organic cacao. Avocados also contain magnesium. If you opt for a supplement, I recommend using magnesium threonate. It’s a newer type of magnesium supplement with superior ability to penetrate the mitochondrial membrane.

Vitamin K2: Grass-fed organic animal products (i.e. eggs, butter, and dairy), goose liver pâté, certain cheeses such as Brie and Gouda (which provide about 75 mcg of K2 per ounce), and certain fermented foods. You can obtain most or all the K2 you’ll need (about 200 micrograms) by eating 15 grams of natto daily, which is half an ounce. If you don’t like natto, you can also get plenty of vitamin K2 from your fermented vegetables, provided you ferment your own using the proper starter culture. Please note that while vitamin K2 is produced by bacteria, not every strain of bacteria makes K2. For example, certain types of cheeses, such as those mentioned above, are very high in K2, and others are not. It really depends on the specific bacteria.
Trace minerals: Himalayan Crystal Salt, which contains all 84 elements found in your body, or other natural, unprocessed salt (NOT regular table salt!).

Article Summary
- Certain nutrients, including omega-3 fat, calcium, vitamin D, K2, and magnesium, are critical for strong bones. Your sodium to potassium ratio also plays an important role in maintaining your bone mass
- Exercise, especially weight-bearing exercises and Whole Body Vibrational Training using a Power Plate, also helps your body naturally rebuild strong bones
- In one recent study, women who leaped like fleas at least 10 times in a row, twice per day for four months, significantly increased their hipbone density
- Postmenopausal women who used a vibration platform for five minutes, three times a week for six months, increased their lumbar spine bone density by two percent while the control group lost 0.5 percent