Osteoporosis – literally, porous bone – is a chronic medical condition where your body loses bone faster than it can make new bone tissue. With enough bone deterioration, someone suffering with osteoporosis can get a fracture from even a low trauma event.
This means that while a normal bone will break from an intense fall or car accident, someone with osteoporosis may break a bone by walking or getting up from a chair (my grandmother broke her hip while reaching into the closet for the dress she was planning to wear).
Normally, broken bones are not life-threatening, but bone fractures as a result of osteoporosis can result in death within one year in 20% of the cases. (JAMA-http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090203162322.htm)
Peak bone mass density is normally reached between the ages of 25 and 35. As usual, the best treatment is prevention, so maintaining good exercise and eating habits before you reach 20 is the best way to make sure you delay the onset of osteoporosis as long as possible. And since teenagers are the ones who are not yet 20, that doesn’t always happen….
The alternative is to get yourself healthy as soon as possible. “Now” is always a good time to develop healthy habits.
What Speeds Up Osteoporosis?
- Smoking cigarettes
- Excessive alcohol consumption
- Excessive sugar consumption
- Over-acid condition (low pH)
- Lack of weight-bearing exercise
- Low nutrition diet
- Low progesterone levels
No matter what you may have heard, you can’t really reverse bone deterioration with calcium supplements. You may be able to slow it down a bit, but you can’t correct it that way.
You also can’t reverse osteoporosis by using HRT (estrogen therapy). Again, though, this might slow it down.
Pharmaceuticals like Fosomax® are dangerous ( http://rxrecall.com/news/anti-osteoporosis-drugs-dangerous/ ) and the bone tissue these drugs do build is low-quality and brittle.
All is not lost, however.
Bones are usually beginning to thin by the time you reach the age of 30 or 35. Interestingly, that’s about the same age that progesterone production starts to slow.
Thank goodness someone noticed that and decided to test it. Progesterone (not the drug Progestin) applied topically stimulates healthy bone growth and has been shown to actually reverse bone loss.
So the next step is to find a really good progesterone cream.
There are several great ones on the market if you know where to look, and there are also a ton of mediocre brands.
The one I recommend is Nat-Pro. Organic ingredients, and a high enough dose of USP progesterone to be therapeutic. I also like that they use Macadamia nut oil as a carrier. It is very much like the oils your skin naturally produces, so it absorbs very easily into your skin.
Check it out at ProgesteroneWellness.com – lots of good info on their site.
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We just found out that my mom has osteoporosis, which the doctor said is pretty common. It is good to know that there are things that can be done to slow osteoporosis. I like your section about preventing this by regular exercise and a healthy diet. Thanks for sharing!
Glad to be of help!
I know that I am at risk for osteoporosis, but I wasn’t sure how to prevent that. I like how you point out that excessive sugar consumption can help speed up osteoporosis. If I cut out a lot of the sugar that I eat, I bet I could create a healthier lifestyle that helps me avoid being at risk. Thanks for your tips!