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Medical data is for informational purposes only. You should always consult your family physician, or one of our referral physicians prior to treatment.

Supplement to

The Art of Getting Well

Treatment and Prevention of

Osteoporosis

Sources are given in references.

Authors of contributions\quotations are alphabetically

arranged; major author, if any, is underlined.

Nenita Alojado, R.N., John M. Baron, D.O., Jeffrey

Bland, Ph.D., Dr. Brattstrom, Mark Diesendorf, Ph.D., Wil-

liam Campbell Douglass, M.D., William J. Faber, D.O., Alan

R. Gaby, M.D., A. LeBlanc, Laurent, John R. Lee, M.D.,

Dr.Kilmer McCulley, P. Minaire, Murray, Rex E. Newnham,

Ph.D., D.O., N.D., Dr. F.H. Nielsen, Pizzorno, Poortmans,

Jerilynn C. Prior, M.D., Dr. Paul K. Pybus, Neil M. Resnick,

Dr. Lawrence Riggs, V. Schneider, Schoutens, L. Schultheis,

John Simoons, Ph.D., Edward Thorpe, Ph.D., Yvette Vigna,

R.N., David Watts, Ph.D., Morton Walker, D.P.M., David

Watts, Ph.D., Jonathan Wright, M.D./Responsible editor/

writer Anthony di Fabio.

Foundation for the Eradication of Rheumatoid Disease

AKA The ArthritisTrust of America

7376 Walker Road, Fairview, TN 37062

"There are three things you can count on,

if you live long enough.

They are death, taxes, and osteoporosis.”

William Campbell Douglass

, M.D.,

Since we are all going to suffer from Osteoporosis, it

might be well to learn how to prevent the condition, if

possible, and also to learn how to repair the damage.

More than likely your idea of bone is that it is a dead stick,

an item that can be seen in the carcass of dead animals and is

used to make up skeletons that hang in doctors’ offices. Not

so!

Bone is live tissue, and like all cells it has some that die

and some that are born anew — bone is a growing tissue that

sheds dead cells and grows new cells daily. Bone absorbing

cells called osteoclasts dig microscopic cavities in the inner

surface of bones. Bone-building cells called osteoblasts fill

in these cavities with new bone cells. These cells begin

rebuilding bone materials by first producing the collagen

matrix, and then calcium and phosphorus crystals are laid

down in the matrix in a process called bone mineralization.

Would you believe that somewhere between 10 and 30 percent

of our entire skeleton is remodeled in this manner each year?

There are two types of bone: cortical and trabecular.

Cortical bone is very dense and solid, as in the long, hard

bones of your arms and legs, and usually the outside layer of

bone everywhere. Trabecular bone is much more porous,

honeycombed with minute spaces. Inside of the bones, and

especially inside the spinal vertebrae is trabecular. All bones

have both a hard layer and an inner soft layer in differing

proportions.

Osteoporosis literally means "porous bone." Bone is

made up of calcium and phosphorus compounds that are laid

in a matrix of protein fibers. It gains its strength and rigidity

from calcium. The protein — mostly collagen tissue — makes

the bone flexible. Other materials that can be found in bone are

flouride, sodium, potassium, magnesium, boron, molybde-

num, cobalt, strontium and citrate. Mostly these latter

elements help hold the calcium and phosphorus compounds

together.

Osteoporosis affects first the trabecular areas, which

means those bones, like the spine, that have the greatest

percentage of trabecular cells show osteoporosis first.

During childhood and early adulthood we grow bone

faster than we lose it. By the mid-thirties, we begin to experi-

ence a slight and gradual bone loss. But, after menopause,

women lose bone mass more rapidly — six times more rapidly

than men do. Since men start usually with greater bone mass,

they can also afford to lose more than women can.

The rate of bone loss then begins to slow about 65 years

of age.

If you are fair-skinned, female, with ancestors from

Europe, Japan, or China, you have one chance in four of being

genetically predisposed to osteoporosis.

Loss of estrogen

after menopause increases the rate at

which calcium is lost from your body. If you’ve had your

ovaries removed, your chances of getting osteoporosis

increases to one out of two

. Unlike the rapid decline of

estrogen in women, men have a gradual decline of

testosterone, except for those who are chronic alcoholics, a

condition that increases the chance of osteoporosis.

One million three hundred thousand women suffer

annually from spontaneous fractures because of osteoporosis.

As men and especially women age, they become shorter,

stooped and often suffer from hip or wrist fractures. When

osteoporosis is advanced to the place where thirty to forty

percent of bone mass has been lost, the vertebrae start collaps-

ing, and in women this is called the “dowager’s hump.” As

much as five to eight inches in height is lost. Clothing no

longer fit, and the proportional features of the body are lost.

Osteoporotics suffer ceaselessly from bone fractures and

broken hips -- 1.3 million each year. Those who have hip

fractures -- about 80% in the U.S. (about 200,000 per year) -

- have Osteoporosis. About twenty percent of those die within

three months. According to Rex E. Newnham, Ph.D., D.O.,

N.D.

, "magnesium and boron levels in the diet are of utmost

importance" for prevention and healing of bone fractures

caused by Osteoporosis.

The fear of falling and breaking one’s hip keeps

osteoporotics from doing many routine errands, thus placing

needless restrictions reflecting a dwindling life style.

Most of these cases can be prevented!

Bone loss is not visible, and the problem begins in middle

age, or earlier, somewhere around thirty-five to forty-five.

There are no diagnostic tests that will warn you when you are

beginning to lose more bone than you are building up bone

tissue, until the problem has become overlarge.

According to William Campbell Douglass, M.D.

from

Georgia: “There are two types of osteoporosis and you need

to understand the difference.