Osteoporosis

The prime cause for the development of Osteoporosis is a diet too rich in protein, from all sources, and the use of milk in our diets. And about milk, humans are the only mammels on Earth that drink the milk of another species. And humans are the only mammals on Earth that continue to drink milk after weaning. I fine it continually amazing the a species with the largest capacity to think and the ability to reason cannot recognize this simple, obvious fact. Let me explain Osteoporosis.

Osteoporosis is a health condition that effects the bones of the body. It is the result of a mechanism is forces the removal of calcium from the bones, leaving them in a weakened state. There is mounting evidence that calcium supplementation and the drinking of milk are simply not producing good results or curing this mysterious disease. It has been observed that normal calcium levels can be found in the blood while at the same time, the patient is rapidly undergoing osteoporosis.

It is no wonder that the average consumer is confused when most doctors and dieticians are completely missing the big picture of calcium and its relationship to osteoporosis. This disease, like any other, is simply the body's effort to respond to whatever stimuli it is being given. The loss of calcium is not a cause, but rather an effect; the inevitable result when the body is forced to compensate.

We are inclined to think of calcium only in the terms of bones and teeth, but it is vital in many body functions such as nerve response, muscle control, blood coagulation, and regulation of heart rhythm and blood pressure.

The blood must maintain an exact calcium level to make certain that all of these functions can progress normally. If this level drops and if no usable calcium is available from the diet, then the body will borrow calcium from the bones.

Osteoporosis is one of the most common and yet poorly understood of the debilitating diseases, and effects millions of people worldwide to some degree. In the declining health state of the world population, recent studies are showing the condition evident in women as young as 25 years of age.

It certainly is not hard to get calcium into the stomach and into the blood circulation, but getting it from there to the individual cell is a more difficult matter. Calcium absorption requires a very specialized process in the stomach and a very narrow pH range. Most of all, it requires a usable form of calcium, or one that the body recognizes as potentially usable.

There are two kinds of calcium, organic and inorganic. Organic refers to that which exists in a living entity. The calcium found in vegetables is organic. Inorganic calcium is derived from minerals and is held together by what chemists term ionic bonds. These are extremely hard, strong bonds which the body cannot break apart and, therefore, this form of calcium is unusable. Dolomite is of the ionic bonded form of calcium and simply cannot efficiently be used by the body regardless of how desperately the calcium is needed.

Because plants have the ability to take hard, ionic materials and change them into a form that we can use, all organic minerals originate in the plant kingdom. Plants break apart these hard minerals and rearrange their bonding into something called covalent bonds. These are gentle, loosely held bonds that the body can break apart and combine as needed and this is the reason we need fruits and vegetables in our diets. They supply us with calcium as well as all other vital minerals which the body needs for maintenance and repair or just to add to the storehouse of minerals, the alkaline reserve. Surprisingly, fruits and vegetables also supply us with every complete protein that we need for all bodily functions.

Despite what television ads tell us, pasteurized cow's milk cannot supply usable calcium. The calcium in milk is altered in the pasteurization process, as heating turns it into a hard, mineral calcium more like the ionic bonding in dolomite and unlike the covalent bonding in fresh fruits and vegetables. This type of calcium, unfortunately, gets into the blood stream, but the body cannot use it, and also has the added chore of neutralizing it in some way. Some of it is stored along the inside of the blood vessels where it contributes to the formation of atherosclerosis or hardening of the arteries.

Some of the unusable calcium is deposited in the joints where it appears as arthritis. It seems unreasonable that the body would deposit calcium on the outside of bones as arthritis while at the same time the interior of the bones show a definite loss of calcium as osteoporosis. We need to remember that the body is responding very intelligently to the stimuli that it has received. It recognizes that some calcium simply is not any good and must be dumped somewhere. So you can see that milk not only does not prevent osteoporosis, it can actually contribute to its development.

The real culprit in the osteoporosis puzzle is protein. A diet high in protein is a major cause of osteoporosis. The digestion of animal protein leaves toxic acids in the body. These must be neutralized and this requires minerals. When the body's alkaline reserve is depleted, it must turn to the next source for these vital minerals, the bones. The less alkaline reserve the patient has, the less protein he can tolerate. Recent research has shown that any amount of protein which adds to a total protein intake of 47 grams will result in osteoporosis. If the mineral reserve is low, the patient cannot tolerate even this amount.

Many people consume too much protein and, as a result, deplete the body of calcium at an alarming rate. As the amount of meat and grains eaten increases, the amount of calcium loss in the urine also increases. The more protein one consumes, the more calcium you lose regardless of the amount of calcium supplementation used or the amount of fruits and vegetables consumed. (I define meat as anything that ever had a face, including chicken, shrimp, squid, fish, beef, mutton, etc., and shellfish)

It becomes obvious then why everyone should eat mainly fruits and vegetables in their regular daily diets. Our body's require small amounts of protein for cell division and repair. But a large amount of protein is detrimental to health.

Even though chelated calcium, calcium oratate, or calcium lactate may be better than some other forms of calcium in reducing calcium deficiency symptoms, osteoporosis continues.

A proper diet can heal so many things and osteoporosis is one of them. An improper diet can put us prematurely in the grave. What will your choice be?

  

Send mail to Dr. Glendon with questions or comments about this web site.
Last modified: May 11, 2001, Friday.