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Regaining Your Health at Any Age (Part 3 in a 3 Part Series)

My Favorite Supplements

In my last two newsletters I began a series of discussions on my personal favorite ingredients. These are the formulas that I use every day to help me feel great and perform at my best. I have already discussed curcumin, Vectomega whole food omega-3 fatty acids, iodine, and the adaptogenic herbs. In this issue I would like to address my top picks for building strong, healthy bones: strontium and silica.

My Recommendations for Bone Health

Osteoporosis affects a large percentage of the elderly, primarily women—75% of women with osteoporosis are in their mid to later years. However, men are also affected with osteoporosis. Osteoporosis is responsible for over 2 million fractures annually. The cost of osteoporosis is in the billions due to medical care, absenteeism and nursing home care after a fracture. In fact, 50% of those who are confined to a nursing home after a fracture will die from the event.

We live in a society where we treat our bodies like cars and do not do anything to maintain our health until it's necessary to seek medical intervention to repair the body. We always seem to wait too long before we decide to save our health. The ideal time to worry about osteoporosis is not when it's diagnosed but when the infant is in the womb. Bone health is similar to our banking account. The more we accumulate in the early stages, the more we will have to draw from in the later stages. Moms, while you are concerned about your bone health, be more concerned about how much calcium and supporting bone factors your teenage girls are getting.

Teenage girls are more susceptible to bone loss for a number of reasons. Teenagers have the bad habit of consuming too many sugary foods and soft drinks which also contain high levels of phosphoric acid. Sugar and phosphoric acid tend to make the body more acidic, and the body's attempt to maintain equilibrium is to supply an alkaline substance to reduce the acidity. The most abundant alkaline substance in the human body is calcium, so as we become more acid, calcium is drawn out of the bones and soft tissues to neutralize it.

Other factors that may reduce calcium levels are stress, excessive exercise, alcohol consumption and excessive exposure to the sun. The majority of calcium, 99%, is found in the bones and teeth. Only 1% of calcium is found in the soft tissue. Calcium is required to protect the soft tissue including the heart. Calcium regulates the rhythm of the heart and protects the soft tissue from such conditions such as sun burn, fever blisters, cold sores and cold and flu. With sufficient calcium to protect the soft tissue there would be no sunburn or outbreaks of fever blisters and cold sores.

I use a variety of minerals to protect bone health and soft tissue of the body. To reduce stress, the incidence of sunburn and to heal sunburn, and to reduce cold sores and fever blisters including shingles, I recommend large quantities of calcium lactate with magnesium citrate for several days. To protect bones, I recommend calcium malate, calcium citrate, magnesium, vitamin K2, extra high levels of vitamin D3 and significant levels of boron.

Few people ever get enough minerals in their diet. Because of the environment that we live in, we need significantly higher levels of minerals than was previously thought. The mineral boron significantly increases vitamin D3 levels to the biologically active form of vitamin D, and increases bone and joint health. Studies have shown that boron, when consumed from a food source such as Fructoborate at levels of 12 mgs daily, reduced osteoporosis and osteoarthritis.

Another mineral, strontium, has also been clinically studied to reduce the incidence of osteoporosis. Several studies in Europe have proven it to be significantly effective over placebo. A good level of strontium would be approximately 680 mgs daily. There is one cautionary suggestion when taking strontium. It should be taken on a daily basis with a calcium supplement but taken at different times during the day. Strontium and calcium are delivered to the cellular level via the same pathway, and when taken together, strontium will displace calcium. Ideally, strontium and calcium intake should be separated by at least two hours. For example, take strontium at breakfast and calcium at lunch and dinner.

Another mineral that is extremely beneficial for bone health is silica. In clinical studies in France, silica has been shown to increase both the absorption of calcium, and how long it is retained in bones, by 50%. Silica can also increase bone density by 15%, therefore making it an excellent addition to a protocol for osteoporosis and good bone health. Silica is also highly involved in the health of hair, skin, nails, cartilage and ligaments. There are not many good food sources for silica since we no longer eat unrefined and unprocessed grains and fruits, which are high in silica compared to the foods we consume today. For example it would take 50 bananas just to supply 0.8 mgs of silica. The best source of silica that I'm aware of is horsetail, an herb which has a high concentration of silica, with an extremely small particle size so it is virtually 100% bioavailable. Other forms of silica are not as effective. While they're safe, they are just not as easily absorbed at the cellular level. A good dose of silica is 20 mgs per day to maintain the health of the bone, hair, skin and nails. For osteoporosis, a fracture, stress fracture or severe hair, skin or nail damage, 60 mgs of silica should be used for several weeks to build a silica reserve in the body, and then reduce the dosage to 10-20 mgs of silica per day.

Of course, vitamin D3 is also very important for bone health. And as I continue with my list of favorites I will eventually cover this nutrient in more detail. But for now I want you to know how important vitamin D3 can be to boost your immune system during this critical flu season. You may go to the following link for more information on vitamin D3:

http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/newsletter/vitamin-d-and-h1n1-swine-flu.shtml

I will be back again next week to continue my series on my favorite supplements.

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