Spinal problems associated with suspected osteoporosis

Dear Gary
I am 71 years of age, female, use to be very activate. 13 years ago I put the 5th Lumbar vertebrae out by 1 cm. Since then it is now out about 1.5 cm

The last 2 years have been tough going with my legs stiffening after walking only 50 to 100cm. I have seen a surgeon in xxxx, and I have been waiting 4 months to have a MRI Scan. It has been frustration times as to know what is going to happen, as I feel that the quality of life has gone a lot.. My doctor put me on Calcium Carbonate tablets which over time I started to feel sick and then I started to vomit, I refused to take any more which made me feel better.

Would a Calcium tablet with Vitamin D help. With what information I have given you would those Vit.D and Calcium tablets help?
"V"
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Gary Moller comments:
Sadly, the state of the health system is such that there is rationing and with that we have age discrimination that will only worsen as the ageing Baby-Boomer Tsunami swamps our health services.

It is obvious that this has been dragging on for years since you first noticed not all was well. You deserve much better service from the health services and I urge you not to settle for any more delays. Go back to your doctor and insist on more urgency. Can you afford private specialist care? Write to your Member of Parliament and to your elected Hospital Board representative and visit them. Be assertive. If that fails to get action, then be loud! Write to the papers and even make a placard and have a vigil outside the hospital entrance. Tell the papers, radio and TV. Your health and quality of life are everything and a proper diagnosis is the first step in the medical process. The longer the delay with these kinds of health issues, the more difficult they are to treat. Act your age - get assertive and be stroppy if that is what it is going to take to get the wheels in motion!

In the meantime you can look at dietary measures to ensure that any suspected osteoporosis does not progress. I am not keen on high dose pharmacy grade calcium products that some doctors insist on dishing out. There is increasing evidence that calcium drives dementia and cardiovascular disease.  It is much better to go for milder and more natural remedies. But you need to be very thorough because what you have described that may be going on with your spine is not nice. Do not compromise by settling with half measures. Here is what I recommend you do from today in terms of diet and supplementation to build and maintain strong bones:

• Have a daily cup or two of nutrient rich beef or lamb bone broth.
• Eat lots of vitamin C rich foods such as Kiwi Fruit and Tamarillos which are currently in season.
• Eat a delicious liver dish twice weekly
• Ensure there is a a little high quality protein in every meal
• Consider starting the day with a nutrient packed Super Smoothie with a fresh raw egg in it as your breakfast
• Eat vegetables like cabbage, broccoli, onions and garlic
• Have about 1,000 mg of natural vitamin C daily more than you get in food
• I strongly recommend daily glucosamine and chondroitin for helping build strong collagen and to help bone healing

If you want more detailed advice, including access to some of the new and exciting practitioner products for reversing osteoporosis, contact me via my website contact links, thanks.

Some daily exercise is very important to stimulate the bone cells that lay down healthy new bone. You could inquire with your nearest ACC office about Tai Chi classes being run in your town. These may be suitable for you. However; as a first step, please have a chat with your General Practitioner about the possibility of getting a referral to an experienced physiotherapist who can assess your current abilities and help you develop an exercise routine that is safe and effective for you.

For information about osteoporosis, get online and search for "Gary Moller osteoporosis) and visit the website of osteoporosis expert, Gillian Sanson, who I believe was raised in South Canterbury (A piece of trivial information).

Please let us know how things go and if there is anything else we can do to help.

Calcium, Vitamin D supplements for the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis

"Health claims for calcium and a reduced risk of osteoporosis will now be allowed a broader scope with fewer restrictions. FDA recently announced in a Federal Register notice that it is amending its labeling regulation on the calcium and osteoporosis health claim to include vitamin D so that, in addition to the claim for calcium and osteoporosis, a claim can be made for the relationship between calcium and vitamin D and a reduced risk of osteoporosis. The agency also eliminated several caveats formerly required to appear with the claim, including the requirement of a statement that a total dietary intake greater than 200 percent of the recommended daily intake (2,000 mg of calcium) has no further benefit to bone health.

Furthermore, the updated labeling regulation will make optional the reference to the need for physical activity. This final rule is effective Jan. 1, 2010"

Source: Douglas S. Kalman PhD, RD, CCRC, FACN
Director, Nutrition & Applied Clinical Research
Miami Research Associates
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Gary comments:

While it is great to see the FDA recognising the health benefits of nutrients like calcium and vitamin D, I still think they are a wee bit off track.  For a start, I wonder if there are true health benefits from taking massive clumps of synthetic vitamin D and potentised calcium like calcium

 gluconate?

Sure, these chemicals might pump calcium galore into the bones; but this is not the form of calcium naturally found in the body and does it drive calcium into tissues like artery walls?  I think it is safer to dribble in small amounts of calcium in the form found in the body and to give all of the fat soluble vitamins, proteins and fatty acids that the body uses for constructing healthy tissue, including bones.

It was interesting cycling around Samoa a week ago and to note that there were few signs of osteoporosis and arthritis among the propulation outside of the only real town - Apia.  The diet of the typical Samoan in the countryside is not particularly high in calcium and defintely not 2,000mg per day.  Healthy Samoans have impressive bones that do not fracture easily.  For example; easily the highest bone percent yet measured on the Salter 9106 scales is my Samoan Brother In Law.

Here's my Osteoporosis prevention advice as influenced by the Samoan lifestyle:

• Exercise outdoors daily, including walking and gardening.  How about a brisk walk and then find a Tai Chi class that is taken outdoors?
• Get out in the sun daily, exposing the legs and torso (no sunburn)
• On days of no sun - take 2,000iu natural vitamin D supplement but not more
• Get Vitamin K from natural sources, including taro leaves cooked in coconut oil
• Get other fat soluble vitamins from cod liver oil, fish head soup, shell fish, wheat germ oil
• Get essential fatty acids from flax oil, olive oil, evening primrose oil, fish oil, coconut oil, free range eggs, New Zealand butter and raw organic full-fat milk (Fat soluble vitamins and other natural anti-oxidants in the diet prevent these fats from oxidising and harming the body)
• Get loads of minerals from beef and chicken broths, all kinds of green leafy vegetables, whole grains and nuts
• Eat a variety of fruits and vegetables daily - never the same one in a row.  Get adventurous with your fruit and veges!
• Go to a remote Pacific island yearly during mid-winter, chill out, eat only the local foods and explore the reefs by snorkel and goggles.

Why is Chromium needed when the Hair Tissue Analysis results show high chromium?

Please refer to the image left of a typical slow metaboliser profile of a person who is complaining of constant tiredness.  What you see is elevated Calcium, depressed magnesium, sodium and potassium. Iron and manganese are also low relative to calcium.  These are the signs of a person who is suffering from fatigue related ailments, including poor, unrefreshing sleep and lack of energy throughout the day.

The inconvenient truth about calcium and osteoporosis

Statement:
Osteoporosis is caused by a lack of calcium in the diet.

Of course that's right?  It must be because that's what the experts have been telling us for the last 30 years.  Or is it?


Question:
Name one country that has one of the highest rates of osteoporosis on the planet?
Answer:
New Zealand

Question:

Physical labour, no sunscreen and a wonderful
wholefoods diet = Strong Samoan bones.

Name one country that has one of the highest dietary intakes of calcium?
Answer:
New Zealand - the land of the cow. A land that is awash with calcium but not much else in the way of nutrient minerals.

Question:
If flour is the main ingredient in your cake recipe, will you get a better cake by adding more flour?
Answer:
No - you will get a mess of a cake that nobody will eat.

Question:
If sand is the main ingredient of concrete, will adding more sand give you stronger concrete?
Answer:
No - you will get a crumbling structure and probably be prosecuted.

Question: 

My Samoan Brother-in-law, Ioasa, flexing his guns during
a break while cycling around Savaii and Upolo.

If calcium is the main ingredient of bone, will adding more calcium make for stronger bones?
Answer:
No - you will get weaker bones and other problems such as fatigue, low thyroid, fibromyalgia, arthritis, insomnia, dry skin, heart attack, dementia and stroke - to name a few.

Question:
Which race, it is said, has the highest bone density on the planet?
Answer:
The Polynesian - the Samoans and Tongans to be specific.

Question:

My favourite Samoan dish - Lu'au - taro leaves
soaked and baked in coconut oil - fatty acids galore!

Can you identify the calcium in the traditional Polynesian diet?
Answer:
Hmmm .... Where is the calcium? I can find lots and lots of the "dreadful" saturated fats (coconut oil), lots of phosphorus and protein (reef fish and other creatures) and lots of minerals from vegetables grown in rich volcanic soil - plus seaweed.  Is the calcium in the coconut?

Canned coconut cream has a good range of B vitamins except B12, with one cup providing only 3 mg of calcium, 1.5 mg. of iron, 50.3 mg of magnesium, 299 mg potassium, and 1.8 mg. of zinc. Figures for fresh coconut cream are presumably higher.  So, not much calcium but generous amounts of other trace minerals.

On a related matter, there's lots and lots and lots of sunshine (vitamin D) in the traditional Polynesian lifestyle.  No hats and no sunscreen.  And often no shirts.

Question:
If its not calcium, then what is the secret for keeping bones strong?
Answer:
A diet that is actually quite low in calcium and relatively much higher in trace minerals, including magnesium, potassium, sodium, phosphorus - over 80 minerals in total - plus small amounts of quality protein and fats 3-4 times a day, whole-foods that are rich in vitamins and plenty of exposure of the body to pure sunshine!

Oh - and a little daily exercise such as a brisk walk and some upper body exercise.  Or - doing the grocery shopping without a car, hanging the washing, mowing the lawns with a hand mower, gardening or wrestling the kids.

These, when combined in balance, are the perfect recipe for making very strong bones regardless of age.

On the subject of vitamin D
Please avoid megadoses of synthetic vitamin D that many Drs are enthusiastically dishing out nowadays.  This presents the same kind of problem as having too much calcium - Too much vitamin D and you get the opposite result, including skin rashes, fibromyalgia and fatigue.  It is best to dribble in nutrients rather than swamp the body with a monthly or weekly tsunami.  In the case of vitamin D, a daily dribble of 1-2,000iu is more than enough for most adults - and less for a child.

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About this website

The advice in these articles is given freely without promise or obligation.  Its all about giving you and your family the tools and information to take control of your health and fitness.

Is there a link between calcium and diseases like osteoporosis, dementia and gall stones?

When it comes to nutrition, perhaps the biggest blunder we have made, as a society, is to allow commercial interests, principally the pharmaceutical and food industries, to tell us what is best for us.

When exploring 3rd World countries, like Samoa and Vanuatu, what really strikes me is the wonderful bone structures of the natives and almost complete freedom from arthritis despite the near complete absence of dairy. In fact, their diets appear to be lacking calcium! How can it be that these people have such strong bones?

How can it also be that New Zealand, which is awash with milk, has a so-called "osteoporosis epidemic"?

The dairy industry has milkwashed New Zealanders and just about everyone else on the planet, that we need more and more calcium in our diets, via milk, for strong bones. Big Pharma has jumped in on the act, developing the Dexa Scan to terrorise women into taking bone destroying bisphosphenate drugs, sacrificing their health in the process.

For the last ten years I have been testing the mineral status of people and the results are consistently telling me that most New Zealanders are too overloaded with calcium relative to other minerals that are found in our cells.

Please refer to the Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis charts to the left.

What these consistently show is calcium is too high relative to magnesium, potassium and most other minerals for at least half of the people tested - men and women.

Too much calcium relative to other minerals drives the development of osteoporosis and the deposition of calcium into the soft tissues of the body, including the blood vessels.

The deposition of calcium into the soft tissues is the leading cause of arteriosclerosis which leads to high blood pressure, dementia and other ailments, including gall stones, bone spurs and kidney stones.


In addition to osteoporosis, New Zealand has a serious problem with diseases of dementia - and gall bladders are being whipped out here, there and everywhere because of gall stones.

Is this hardly surprising these are on the increase, given the over supply of calcium and not much of anything else? Is it hardly a surprise, as well, that there is not a lot more publicity about this troubling coincidence?

Latest Breaking News about Osteoporosis

Whenever you are addressing a health issue: "Normal" is not necessarily "Healthy". Always find out what is "Optimal" and go for that and settle for nothing less

When interpreting Lab test results for Vitamin D:

Optimal 25-hydroxy vitamin D values are:

* 45-50 ng/ml or 115-128 nmol/l

Normal 25-hydroxy vitamin D lab values are:

* 20-56 ng/ml 50-140 nmol/l

Your vitamin D levels should NEVER be below 32 ng/ml, or the equivalent in nmol/l. Any levels below 20 ng/ml are considered serious defiency states and will increase your risk of breast and prostate cancer, osteoporosis and autoimmune diseases like MS and rheumatoid arthritis - to name a few.
(Reference: Holick MF. Calcium and Vitamin D. Diagnostics and Therapeutics. Clin Lab Med. 2000 Sep;20(3):569-90)


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