Natural Solutions for Osteoporosis

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Let’s straighten out a few things about bones…

Bone are alive and they have a part in your body physiology just like the rest of your organs!  Your diet impacts them, your childhood impacts them, your hormones impact them! We don’t usually talk about them unless one is broken or you get a bone loss diagnosis like osteoporosis.  However, if you get a diagnosis like osteoporosis, you must consider WHY.

There are two main cells keeping your bones in balance: osteoblasts (who are building) and osteoclasts (who are degrading).  When they’re in balance, all is good.  When you are degrading more than building, you see loss of bone density. You have the most bone density that you’ll have for your entire life around the age of 35…a little longer for men and a little shorter for some women.  You’ve accumulated 80% of your bone mass by the age of 18!  When you consider that up to 30% on people who have a hip fracture will die within 1 year, this is a topic you should care about ESPECIALLY SINCE YOU CAN DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!

I’d say there are 4 main things to consider when preventing or treating osteoporosis or bone density issues in general:

  1. Hormones: Women’s loss of estrogen in later years contributes to bone loss and the loss of testosterone in men does the same thing.  Always aim to optimize hormones, even thyroid, which also impacts bone density.  Even high stress hormones like cortisol fuel bone degradation.
  2. Inflammation: In the presence of inflammation, you see a lot more activity from the cells breaking down bone (osteoclasts).
  3. Nutritional intake: If you don’t have adequate amounts of vitamins, minerals and collagen, you can’t expect the outcome of the final bone product to be any good.
  4. Exercise: The single best thing someone can do for their bones is do weight-bearing exercise, even fast walking is helpful.  The stress of gravity and impact actual signal to build bone.

The solution, therefore, isn’t really a supplement per se, but an entire lifestyle that supports health for any condition!  Supplementing with nutrients necessary for bone health can support areas of need and help intervene on cases of poor DEXA scans, but they won’t be a magic bullet without the lifestyle components, too.

When considering supplementation, the following nutrients are your best bet:

  • Vitamin D3: make sure your Vitamin D levels are between 40-70 because the conventional ranges don’t reflect what’s optimal. 
  • Vitamin K2: To compliment your vitamin D, you’re going to want some Vitamin K, too.  This was discovered to be crucial in Weston A. Price’s work when studying tooth health around the world.
  • Minerals:  like Calcium, magnesium, and zinc.  Minerals are required for bone formation, and our diet and soil is depleted of these important compounds. 
  • Collagen: Bones are brittle if they can’t adapt, which makes them prone to breaking.  Collagen in bone keeps it flexible, and with more ability to respond to stresses on the bone structure.

Having said that, fat soluble vitamins and minerals are most abundant in animal products and when considering collagen, it’s not different.  Therefore, if you favor a plant-only type of diet, supplementation may be absolutely necessary to keep your teeth and bones strong over a lifetime!

Some of the worst offenders to bone density are:

  • PPIs: heartburn medication has a severe impact on bone density and considering there are natural ways to address this successfully, try and avoid proton pump inhibitors
  • Alcohol
  • Stress
  • Lack of movement
  • Soda
  • Glyphosate

You don’t have to accept the diagnosis without any control of the outcome.  The lifestyle part of osteoporosis is extremely important and there’s no pill that can mimic those results!

Urinary Tract Infections: Natural Solutions

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Urinary tract infections are not something we sit around the dinner table discussing, but google searching on the internet, that’s another story. Believe it or not, this topic is one of the most highly searched health terms. That means, you are not alone, and let’s hope there’s valuable information out there. When I asked my audience on media the other day what conditions they wanted information for, this was what they decided! I had NO CLUE that so many people were interested in UTI solutions, but considering that if many people get them, especially women, elderly, and men with BPH, I shouldn’t be surprised. The other thing to take note of is that if you get them, they often reoccur, which means antibiotics over and over again if you go a traditional treatment route and are unable to prevent them.

Let’s get down to business.

What causes Urinary Tract Infections?

The short answer? E. coli getting into the urinary tract, penetrating the cell lining and taking up shop. This is just another case of infection due to bacterial overgrowth.

How do you treat or prevent Urinary Tract Infections?

This is where visiting a doctor who can diagnose the infection and evaluate the severity is important. If there is a severe active infection, you may want to consider antibiotics as the treatment option that is needed because no one wants it to progress into a kidney infection! However, if it is somewhat early and benign, you may be able to get away with an antimicrobial combo like Uva Ursi and Berberine to get the job done.

In the case of prevention, my preference in practice is the use of cranberry extract that contains at least 36mg PAC (proanthocyanidins). These plant compounds found in cranberries have the ability to attach to E. coli and PREVENT them from attaching to the lining in the urinary tract. Having said that, that’s why we use this in folks who have the tendency to get them over and over. You know you want prevention for these patients, and cranberry extract supplements tend to be a great solution! Studies show that if you combine a cranberry extract with 36mg PACs with a broad spectrum probiotic, that it has even slightly better prevention rates (which were already great!) I’m pretty transparent about the supplement industry and what is pretty standard across the board and what you need to be intentional about in terms of quality, and this is one that is notorious for not having many PACs when tested. Be sure to ask your doc for a good cranberry extract!

In addition to antimicrobials for treatment or cranberry extracts for prevention, whether they be prescriptive or natural, you want to make sure to do implement the follow lifestyle habits:

  • drink plenty of water because hydration will help drive urination, flushing out the urinary tract
  • urinate after intercourse
  • wipe front to back, ladies. You don’t want anything bacterial from the back entering the front.
  • steer clear of too much sugar and simple carbs in your diet, because that tends to be a fuel source that bacteria thrive on!
  • take a probiotic or eat fermented foods to help keep your internal environment balanced

Implement these simple solutions, and you could avoid a trip to the doc, another round of antibiotics, and all of the time you waste not being able to pee, having burning during urination, or pain in the back and pelvis!

Hair Loss: What Ladies Need to Consider

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Did you know that 30% of women report substantial hair loss by the time they are 30?  By the time they are 50, the stat jumps to half.  Half of women have a complaint that is somewhat of a vanity concern, but it could very well be a real health condition , as well.  I want to visit a few reasons why women may be dealing with hair loss, what you may do to address the root cause, and what you may want to do in the meantime to keep those strands on your head.  Before we start, I just want to say, you would still be beautiful if you were bald.  Ok.  I’m ready.

Causes of hairloss in women:

  • high androgens (male dominant hormones)-do you also have acne? deflated breast tissue? increased body odor?
  • low iron-are you also fatigued?
  • thyroid conditions-do you have TSH levels above 2.5?  Have you every had antibodies tested? Are you also constipated? Dry? Weight gain?
  • insulin resistance- Do you have belly fat? PCOS? diabetes?
  • stress-induced-Do you find yourself with lots of anxiety?  Putting too much on your plate? Emotional frequently?
  • autoimmunity- Have you ever had your ANA levels tested?

Tests you can run to decide if any of these things are your issue:

  • ferritin levels- this assesses your iron stores
  • TSH, T3, T4, reverse T3, both antibodies- these will look at thyroid function and rule out autoimmunity
  • cortisol panels- this can peek into your ability to handle your stress
  • glucose levels or A1C- these are pictures of how your blood sugar is doing
  • hormone panels- this can tell you if you are dominant in testosterone

Depending on what the root cause is, there will be some things that are important you could start regardless of knowing a definitive diagnosis:

  • increase fiber- this important for the removal of excess hormones like testosterone so they can be removed by the body and not reabsorbed
  • decrease sugar intake- this does nothing good for your blood sugar
  • start some type of exercise- weight loss can be important because it’s often associated with PCOS, diabetes, and hormone imbalance
  • eliminate dairy- dairy and even eggs can drive inflammation, which can pump up androgens like testosterone
  • consider supplement support or eating liver to cover your bases of minerals and iron

Let’s say you are in the process of identifying and treating the root cause, but don’t want to be bald and beautiful while you’re patiently waiting, here is a list of some things you can consider:

  • topical therapies that stimulate oxygen and blood flow to the scalp
  • get a massage and have them do some work on your head
  • use products that don’t have chemicals
  • drink red clover tea, spearmint tea, and decrease caffeine- these could have positive influence on hormone imbalance if androgens are the cause

Just like anything, the best solution is based on a good diagnosis.  If you have positive results with some topical stuff, keep searching for the root cause, because the hair loss is likely just one symptom of a bigger problem. To some extent, it’s somewhat normal to have some fluctuations in things like hair and skin as you age.  Don’t neglect your lifestyle, because that is often the last thing people look to but has the largest impact.  Hope this helps!