Patients Are Never Too Young or Too Old to
Improve Bone Health
Metagenics [ This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ]

January 23,2006

Thirty years ago, little was known about osteoporosis and other bone diseases, and was largely thought by many in the medical community to be an unavoidable part of old age.1 Today, government health officials and health agencies, as well as premier health institutions, report that osteoporosis is largely a preventable disease that does not need to be a natural consequence of aging.

Unfortunately, your patients are probably not aware of the control they have over the destiny of their bones. Each year an estimated 7.2 million people in the U.S. are impacted by poor bone health—including emergency room visits, fractures, hospitalizations, and nursing home admissions.4,5 According to a 2004 report from the Surgeon General, 1 in 2 Americans aged 50 years or older will be at risk for fractures from osteoporosis or low bone mass by the year 2020.

For more information on osteoporosis and the magnitude of this growing health concern, see “Don’t Let Your Patients Become a Statistic” below.

Breaking the Silence

Bones may begin to weaken early in life without proper nutrition and the right kind of physical activity. Your patients may already have weak bones and not even be aware of it, or they may be making choices that unknowingly can lead to weak bones later in life.1 The absence of symptoms or "silence" of weakening bones is your patients' greatest adversary.

And while patients may be proactive about some aspects of their health, it appears that bone health is still not a primary concern. You can help break the silence and change old beliefs about "predestined" osteoporosis. Let your patients know that it's never too early or too late to prevent bone loss. Offer them endorsed lifestyle and nutritional approaches for healthy bones—to help your patients remain active and independent well into their golden years.

A Case for More Than Just Calcium

The Surgeon General recommends adequate calcium and vitamin D intake at every age.1 Most published studies show that low calcium intake is associated with low bone mass, rapid bone loss, and high fracture rates. Adequate daily calcium intake helps ensure that calcium deficiency is not contributing to bone resorption and the development of osteoporosis.6,7 It is also recognized that while dietary calcium is an optimal source, most Americans do not get enough calcium in their daily diets.7,8 In fact, many women consume less than half the recommended amount.

Calcium supplements can help fill this gap.7,8 Several different calcium compounds are used in supplements, such as calcium carbonate, calcium phosphate, calcium gluconate, and calcium citrate.6,9 Other sources of calcium include bone meal ("ashed" or heat-treated bone), ashed ossein-hydroxyapatite compound (OHC), and microcrystalline hydroxyapatite concentrate (MCHC).

MCHC is an all-natural, bovine-derived whole bone supplement that provides a full spectrum of highly absorbable macro-minerals (calcium, phosphorus) and trace minerals (boron, zinc, copper, magnesium) found naturally in bone. It also provides other factors that comprise healthy bone, such as type I collagen, bone amino acids, protein, organic factors, and growth factors.10 True MCHC is cold-processed to help preserve the raw bone constituent profile and delicate organic factors that heat processing and solvents (such as those used in OHC) can destroy.

While the effect of calcium supplementation—particularly in older women with low calcium intake—is not in debate, the efficiency of various forms has been the topic of multiple research studies.6,11 Many of these studies have indicated the superiority of MCHC over traditional calcium supplements. MCHC appears to provide calcium in an extremely bioavailable form, as demonstrated in a number of research studies on calcium balance and absorption, and it has been recommended for both the treatment and prevention of osteoporosis. In addition to its bioavailability, MCHC is well-tolerated with an excellent safety profile.

The National Osteoporosis Foundation (NOF) and the Mayo Clinic recommend choosing calcium supplements with proven reliability and that have labels that state a guarantee of purity.7,12 The NOF also recommends avoiding calcium from unrefined oyster shell, bone meal, or dolomite without purity or manufacturing guarantees, as they historically contain higher lead levels or other toxic metals such as mercury and arsenic.7 Further considerations for purity in bone extracts include verifying the bone source (e.g., bovine bone extracts from sources with an active bovine spongiform encephalopathy surveillance program).

 Shedding Light on Vitamin D

Vitamin D is necessary for the absorption of calcium to form and maintain healthy bones, and supplementation is recommended to facilitate absorption when treating osteoporotic patients, whom research has shown to have depressed absorption of calcium.9,13 Vitamin D is manufactured in the skin following direct exposure to sunlight. Seasons, latitude, sunscreen, window glass, clothing, air pollution, and darker skin pigmentation can affect this process in addition to the diminished ability as people age.12,14 Although there are food sources of vitamin D, it is difficult to meet the minimum daily recommended intake and supplements are therefore recommended. According to data based on the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III), over 70 percent of women ages 51-70 and nearly 90 percent of women over 70 are not getting the recommended adequate intake of vitamin D

Up to 40% of Americans, 32% of doctors, 42% of African American women of childbearing age, and 80% of nursing home patients may be deficient in the most prominent form of vitamin D in the body (25-hydroxyvitamin D), which is often overlooked in testing. While the current recommendations for daily intake of vitamin D are between 400 and 800 IU (based on age), more health organizations and health experts are questioning whether the daily minimums should be raised to 1,000 to 1,200 IU—as many healthcare providers are currently prescribing.16-18 Additionally, a new study suggests that vitamin D sufficiency may even be more important than high calcium intake in regards to bone disease prevention, and research also shows that osteoporosis patients with higher vitamin D serum levels have increased muscle strength and a lower number of falls.

[Note: A deficiency in vitamin D has been linked not only to bone conditions but also to obesity and an increased risk to cardiovascular disease and common cancers.