Calcified Bones NOT Arteries! 

The difference between osteopenia and osteoporosis

is that in osteopenia the bone loss is not as severe as in osteoporosis. That means someone with osteopenia is more likely to fracture a bone than someone with a normal bone density but is less likely to fracture a bone than someone with osteoporosis.

Healthy Bone Turn-over

 Bone is a dynamic, living tissue which is continuously remodeled. As old bone is reabsorbed by osteoclasts, (cells that break bone down), the “old and stressed” bone is replaced with healthy new bone by osteoblasts (new bone cells).

DO WE WANT TO INHIBIT RESORPTION?!

• Bisphosphonate drugs (Fosemax, Boniva, Actonel, Reclast and more) increase the Bone Mineral Density (BMD) of the bones at the expense of our bone quality.

• Such drugs reduce the activity of osteoclast through cell death. These drugs act as an osteoclast poison. This is how the drugs slow resorption of bone. 
• In addition, they can not increase the activity of osteoblasts, (new bone cell growth). As a result, these drugs maintain “older” bone with poorer architectural quality.
• As old bone is NOT torn down and the osteoblasts continue to build new bone, the bone is more brittle, therefore the QUALITY of the bone will naturally be diminished and weaker.

Bisphosphonate-related osteonecrosis of the jaw (BRONJ) 

is a condition found in patients who have received intravenous and oral forms of bisphosphonate therapy for Osteopenia and Osteoporosis. Bisphosphonate-related osteonecrosis of the jaw (BRONJ) manifests as exposed, non-vital bone involving the maxillofacial structures. 

Did you know that it is essential to stop Fosemax and all Bisphosphonate drugs before elective bone surgery? To say this another way, what if you are taking Fosemax orally on a daily basis or worse, get a 1-2 time a year injection of one of these drugs that is impossible to remove from your body because it lasts in your system for 6-12 months AND now you need emergent orthopedic surgery on a bone or bones that were traumatically broken in a car accident, fall, etc? That surgery will be fraught with potential complications because that same bisphosphonate drug that was supposed to help prevent the broken bones is now preventing your natural bone healing process. PRETTY SCARY and very true. 

Let Nature and Life style improve Bone strength

Natural Supplements for Bone Health:

• Vitamin K2
• Strontium
• Vitamin D3
• Well-balanced Bone mineral supplement

Lifestyle - Nutrient Dense Diet and routine weight-bearing Exercise

 How to Naturally increase Bone Mineral Density (BMD)

 Vitamin K2

The two main forms of Vitamin K2 are Menaquinone-4 (MK-4) and Menaquinone-7 (MK-7)

• Vitamin K2 is very different from Vitamin K1, Phylloquinone, which is the clotting vitamin. Vitamin K2 is NOT a clotting vitamin.
• Vitamin K2 increases strength, improves the structure and boosts the mineral content of bone.

Vitamin K2 builds bone because it activates important proteins in the body!

Once activated by Vitamin K2, Osteocalcin binds calcium.  Calcium from all over the body is then transported into the bone matrix! Sounds pretty important to me!

How else is Vitamin K2 different from K1?

• Vitamin K2 is deficient in the American diet, with only tiny quantities available in goose liver, butter and egg yolks
• Vitamin K1 conversion to Vitamin K2 does NOT occur effectively in our bodies
• This conversion further slows down with age

How do we get Therapeutic levels of Vitamin K2 in our diet?

The abbreviated answer is we do not. Vitamin K2 is rich in the Japanese diet due to the addition of Natto. Natto is a traditional Japanese food made from soybeans that have been fermented with Bacillus subtilis var. natto. 

As the richest known food source for Vitamin K2, those women who eat more Natto in Japan, have far fewer fractures than their western neighbors ( i.e. we in the US). 

Limitations of Natto:

• It is not available in your local grocery stores
• We do not live in Japan
• It is characterized by a slimy, sticky and stringy texture and has a strong pungent smell like old cheese; described as, "the more smelly the better its taste".
• Yum yum...can't wait!

SO, forget Natto.... I will review Vitamin K2 supplementation below.

 Bridging the vessels and the bones

Have you ever wondered why so many aging people have calcified plaque in their arteries (atherosclerosis) and yet walk around with brittle bones that are markedly depleted of calcium (osteoporosis)?

 Vitamin K2 is the link between these two diseases

• Vitamin K2 deficiency is an epidemic in the country as is Vitamin D deficiency.
• Vitamin K2 availability decreases with aging.
• As a result, Osteocalcin is not able to bind calcium and transport it to the bone matrix. 
• This is one reason for calcium to accumulate in the arterial wall. But there is more to the story…

 So, in K2 deficiency, in addition to ineffective transport of calcium into the bone matrix, we also can not prevent or inhibit arterial calcification!

What do we end up with?

Calcified plaque in our arteries (low Matrix G1a protein activation) and brittle bones (low Osteocalcin protein activation)

We literally ossify the plaque of our arterial wall rather than our bone matrix!

Moving on to Strontium for Bone Health

The first vigorous studies were launched in Europe in the 1990’s to evaluate Strontium’s bone-building abilities.

How Strontium Works

Improves Quality and Quantity of Bone:

• Increases the replication of osteoblasts
• DNA synthesis is increased in osteoblasts
• Decrease the number of osteoclasts as well as their surface area covered
• Does not kill osteosclasts, but slows their maturation

What does a Bone Protection and Osteoporosis Reversal Program look like?

LIFESTYLE

• A diet high in fresh vegetables and lean meats is great for bone formation.
• The diet should be low in sugar, soda, caffeine and NO SMOKING. These ALL leach out important nutrients or worse, poison the bone cells (osteoblasts).
• Exercise-Power walking and using light 2 pound weights in the hands when you walk can be very helpful. Try to do this 30 minutes 3-5 times a week
• Exercise also helps us with Proprioception, which helps with balance, coordination, mobility and strength to prevent falls.

Natural Supplements for Bone Health 

• To learn more about why I recommend the specific supplements listed in each program, you can click on the individual supplements and learn more about each of them. 
• In a nutshell, a well balance bone support supplement as well as a mineral supplement PLUS K2 and Vitamin D3 are the key elements to treat Osteopenia (bone loss) while you support bone health to Prevent Osteoporosis
• I add Strontium and a very strong and Bone building specific form of K2 in Peak K2 to address and reverse Osteoporosis. 

Bone Health and Osteopenia Treatment Program

Osteoporosis Reversal Program

If you want improve or maintain the quality of your bones, please consider the Bone Health and Osteopenia Treatment Program. The discounted package is less than $1.75 daily.

If you are looking to REVERSE OSTEOPOROSIS, then the Osteoporosis Reversal Program is what you are looking for. The discounted package is less then $2.50 daily.

THE MOST exciting aspect of this blog is that I am sharing with you how to simultaneously preserve your bone health as well as your vascular health with one simple program. Nothing I write in this blog is new news, it is just not known by many to include all your medical doctors that are uninterested in Nutritional Medicine. I tell you this fact, because I am thrilled to have helped restore bone and vascular health to 1000's of patients in my career, but also to answer the question asked to me all the time, "WHY didn't my doctor tell me this?"

Remember your circulation and heart health are connected to your bone health and when properly instituted, my programs above, will preserve the integrity of both of these vital systems in your body.

Here is to your Optimum Heath and Vitality,

A

riane Cometa MD

 your holistic doc