Osteoporosis help possibilities not often mentioned

[Triplebalance3]

Having osteoporosis and not wanting to take pharmaceuticals I have been looking into alternatives. Here are some things I have come up with: osteogenic loading, strontium, and prunes! Any feedback or comments on these approaches?

[HeronNS]

healthunlocked.com/pmrgcauk...

[Met00]

You need to make sure your Vit D blood level is good, otherwise you won't be absorbing enough calcium. Calcium should ideally come from diet (World Health Organisation says 500mg a day, UK says 700mg, US for some reason says 1200mg!). You need Vit K2 (different from K1, hard to get enough from diet unless you like natto) - either K2-MK7 or K2-MK4, to direct the calcium to your bones. You also need magnesium (it may be possible to get enough from diet but many people supplement), boron, maybe also zinc, Vit C and silica. It's important to have a very healthy diet that gives you all the necessary nutrients, which many experts say should be high protein, low sugar, low caffeine. Strontium is controversial, but some people do well on it - it does improve t-scores because it replaces some of the calcium in the bones and it's denser than calcium, and I've read a number of accounts of people stopping fracturing as a result of being on it. You need to watch your blood pressure as it can raise that, and it's not recommended for anyone with existing heart or kidney problems. Exercise is very important, which needs to be weight-bearing (not cycling or swimming) and as high impact as is safe - running, jumping, skipping, dancing are all good if they're safe, but not suitable for everyone, especially if you've had fractures or are at high risk of fracture. Heel stomps are good (lift your heels off the ground, then drop down on them as though crushing a can) - a friend with several spinal fractures (healed) was told they're safe to do - 50 a day! I don't know anything about osteogenic loading, but exercising with weights and resistance bands, under proper supervision to make sure technique is correct and safe, is claimed to help build bones. Prunes contain a lot of bone-healthy nutrients and there's research that suggests they build bone if you eat 6 a day, though I'm not totally convinced, especially as the research was done on behalf of the California Prune company.

[Mark_ABH]

Hello! Here are some articles to get you started on the topics you mentioned. Our articles are vetted by our Medical & Scientific Advisory Board of distinguished clinicians and researchers.

Osteogenic loading: americanbonehealth.org/exer...

Strontium (not recommended): americanbonehealth.org/medi...

We don't have anything on prunes, unfortunately! Dark fruits and vegetables are full of great nutrients, though.

And here is our new article on Vitamin K2, which the other posters mention. Evidence is inconclusive on its benefits for bone health; studies are all over the place on whether it specifically helps with bone density, fracture risk, etc. americanbonehealth.org/nutr...

[Triplebalance3 in reply to Mark_ABH]

Thank you so much for your suggestions and leads to follow.

[Mark_ABH in reply to Triplebalance3]

You're welcome! I should have said the benefits of *taking supplements* of Vitamin K2 are inconclusive. The chemical itself is known to be important for synthesizing calcitonin, which is key to the process of building bone.

[HeronNS in reply to Triplebalance3]

It is sometimes unclear whether Vitamin K1 or K2 is being studied. Japanese researchers believe the association between natto intake, with its abundant Vitamin K2-7, and lower incidence of osteoporosis is quite conclusive. Anecdotally many of us believe that Vitamin K2 is one of the keys to better bone health. Supplementation is nearly always necessary in Western diet because it's no longer available through our meat and dairy (animals now being fed grain rather than grass). Provided you aren't on bloodthinners Vitamin K2 will do no harm and will almost certainly be helpful.

[Triplebalance3 in reply to HeronNS]

Thank you. My research goes on.

[HeronNS in reply to Triplebalance3]

See if you can get hold of the books I mentioned in my story, link in my first reply to this post. Also, prunes are supposed to be good because they contain boron, although other foods do also. Boron one of the many micronutrients our skeletons need. Some people also make bone broth, sorry I don't have a recipe, which is supposed to provide a lot of good bone-building things. And apparently supplements made from algae are also good thing, but I haven't tried that yet, thinking about it.