“A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.“~Proverbs 17:22
It saddens me to see older women diagnosed with “osteopenia” or “osteoporosis” listening to their doctors and taking supplemental calcium and even problematic drugs called bisphosphonates. These are irrational, dogmatic, harmful approaches to the problem of degrading bone as we age. In my time practicing nephrology and internal medicine, I saw numerous patients suffering from vascular disease while taking the recommended doses of calcium. X-rays revealed perfect outlines of calcified blood vessels and calcified heart valves.
Pictured here is a calcified breast artery, often seen in women who are being treated for hypertension. The primary drug used in high blood pressure, a thiazide diuretic, causes the body to retain calcium and lose magnesium and potassium. We incidentally note these types of calcifications in the large arteries of the entire body, not just the breasts. I believe these problems are avoidable.
(EXITO & SALUD GLOBAL/YouTube)
The matrix of bone will incorporate calcium and nutrients where they belong as long as the proper hormones and nutrients are present. Needless to say gravitational force in the form of weight bearing exercise is essential and should be the foundation to a healthy skeleton. Don’t be afraid to exercise with some weight in a backpack if you have no disk disease or low back pain.
You still have to look at what you can do nutritionally, and in interpersonal relationships to help your body heal itself. Supplements are no replacement for good nutrition. After all, scientists are constantly discovering new things about food and its interaction with the body that we don’t know.
Sodium ascorbate (YelenaYemchuk/iStock)
The first thing to do is either google or look in your reference books to find foods right in Vitamin C, Vitamin K2, magnesium and minor minerals such as boron and silica. Silica is also important for bones. Remember too, that depression has many causes. Sometimes the cause can be nutritional deficiencies and sometimes depression can result from entrapment in unhealthy family dynamics. Controversially, I would also say that depression can also have spiritual origins.
But if time feels of the essence, then supplementation is one route which could be taken. While the medical profession supplements with calcium and fosomax, in my opinion, a more constructive supplementation regimen could include Vitamin C, Vitamin K2, vitamin D3( in winter months, sun in summer) and boron, silica and magnesium. These are all far more important to preventing fracture and keeping bone healthy than calcium.
Calcium will ultimately land in the muscles of the heart, the heart valves and the blood vessels, leading to cardiovascular disease. However if you are getting enough vit C, D3 and K2, your body will direct the calcium you ingest from your food, to where it belongs, not in your heart and blood vessels.
