Yonder Willow Wellness

Osteoporosis has become a serious problem. It used to be considered a disease that only elderly women developed, but not anymore.  It is becoming a problem for younger people, both men and women. A large part of the rise in osteoporosis is the increasing amount of acidic foods and drinks that people are taking in. As a society, we eat too much fast food and processed food and drink too many soft drinks. We don’t realize how acidic some of our food and drinks are.

Why should you care about acidity when it comes to osteoporosis? Because calcium, what makes your bones hard, is also what your body uses to balance out the pH, or acid level, in your body. If you take in a lot of acid foods then your body will pull calcium out of the bones to deal with it. Over time, that will lead to loss of bone mass and osteoporosis.

So, how do you fix the problem?  Most people already know about taking calcium to strengthen their bones. The problem with just taking calcium is that the body needs other nutrients to help use it properly. When you take large amounts of calcium without the required nutrients to help the body use it, the calcium gets flushed out of  the body through the kidneys, causing an increased risk of kidney stones. I’ll talk about the nutrients that help in a moment.

There are chemicals in some foods that prevent the body from absorbing calcium like it should. Sodium increases the amount of calcium lost through urine. Sulfate produced from burning excess protein for energy also causes calcium to be lost through the urine. The oxalate found naturally in some foods binds with calcium, preventing it from being absorbed. The phosphorous in cola and a lot of processed foods can interfere with calcium absorption. Insoluble fiber also reduces calcium absorption.  Finally, caffeine can increase urinary excretion leading to more calcium being lost.

Fortunately, there are also chemicals that aid the absorption of calcium. Vitamin D is essential for the body to absorb calcium. Vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin K, magnesium, and boron also assist the body in absorbing calcium.

As you can see, fixing bone mass problems and osteoporosis takes more than just increasing the amount of calcium that you take in. Nikken has a new calcium supplement called CalDenx that contains vitamin D, magnesium, and boron in addition to the calcium. Nikken also has another supplement, OsteoDenx, that does not contain calcium but aids in the absorption of the calcium that you get from your diet, other calcium supplements, or CalDenx.

Wayne Woodworth
Consumer of Nutritional Supplements

PS: The info about what substances inhibit and support the absorption of calcium came from an excellent article at www.emedicinehealth.com

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My “local” congressman called a few nights ago with an automated phone survey to get my input on what they are working on in Washington. One problem with the survey is that it only accepted “yes” or “no” answers, so it was pretty meaningless in my opinion. The other problem is that I really don’t care too much about what they are doing because I look after my own interests.  The two major areas in the survey were about health care and taxing the wealthy. I give my viewpoint on the taxation issue on one of my other blogs. This is about my view on health care.

First, I prefer “wellness care” to “health care” because the idea of health has become so tied to doctors, drugs, and surgery. I don’t think that they are the long-term answer. If you really want to be healthy and stay healthy, then you need to make choices on a daily basis. Are you going to take the time to get enough sleep? Are you going to eat better today? Are you going to drink enough water? Will you take the time to do something for yourself and have fun?

Health doesn’t come from a pill bottle or a syringe. Your health comes from your lifestyle. It is what you do and eat every day and have done every day from the moment you were born. Actually, it starts before you were born but that was out of your control. If you eat a lot of processed foods and fast food, drink soft drinks instead of water, get completely stressed out, and only sleep 5 hours every night then you will probably get sick and there is nothing that a chemical can do to prevent it. These things all stress the body. Doing some of these things in small amounts is OK and could be beneficial because small amounts of stress could strengthen the body. When these choices become the norm though and the body is constantly stressed, it eventually reaches a breaking point and it will let you know.

On the other hand, if you usually get a good night sleep, drink plenty of water, eat your veggies, save desserts for special occasions, get some exercise, and take time to play then you will be much more resistant to illnesses. The body gets the nutrition and water it needs to properly function. Sleep gives it the time to repair and ready itself for a new day. Exercise helps to pump the blood and keep the muscles toned. Time for play, whether that is physical play or mental play, allows the body to release stress and relax. This all helps the body to be ready for whatever comes along, deal with it, then get ready for the next thing. That includes dealing with illnesses.

I don’t think the federal government’s plan is looking at health this way.

Wayne Woodworth
Take a look at my other wellness blog to see what I am using to help stay healthy.

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