~~How to Improve Your Bone Strength
We all recognize that our ancestors did not have to wear sunscreen. They lived outside and certainly they weren't afraid of being out in the sun. In fact, they saw it as a ource energy and of life.
In fact the sun was making them stronger. In part by strengthening their bones...
A study published in the British medical journal Lancet found that in today's world, we are losing bone density faster than we should be. This is true even when the figures are adjust for our increased life expectancy today.1
The incidence of reduced bone density correlates directly with our transition from being outside most of the time to being indoors and out of the sun.
Worse yet today's mainstream health advice calls for us to run for cover from the sun and the $5 billion-a-year sunscreen industry couldn't be happier about spreading the word. While I certainly recognize that there is a legitimate concern here relative to skin cancer, there are other studies which I have recently written about which explain why this is such a big concern. I also emphasize in that article what natural techniques you should be incorporating to assure that you minimize this concern.
Today, with our mainly sedentary indoor lifestyle, and the use of often toxic chemical sunscreens when do venture outside, we don't receive enough UV radiant energy from the sun, and our therefore our bone mineral density is suffering.
There is one other component in this equation that is missing as well. You see some well-intentioned individuals in the medical community linked up with some business people in the pharmaceutical industry and began the big cholesterol scare. Once again I am not saying that cholesterol isn't a potential cardiovascular issue. What I am saying though is that in my opinion we are taking it too far when some in the medical establishment are attempting to get total cholesterol levels down to 100 mg/dl or lower.
So, what is the connection between bone health and the sun, and why is cholesterol necessary?
Well you see the link here is Vitamin D . Your skin produces vitamin D when it is exposed to the sun's rays. The body uses cholesterol in a process which is triggered by the UV radiation from the sun in order to convert the cholesterol to vitamin D. This vitamin D substance if discovered today would in all likelihood be categorized as a hormone and not a vitamin, since it performs so many functions in so many different glands tissues and organs in the body.
Scientists from the University of California Berkeley recently looked at vitamin D and bone aging using a revolutionary new piece of advanced technology.
This equipment goes way beyond the standard DEXA scan that many of you may have had performed in the past. Instead, these researchers used an innovative X-ray scan that records bone structure on a nanoscale that gives a three-dimensional view deep inside your bones. It's called "synchrotron radiation-based micro computed tomography". This piece of equipment is extremely powerful, and can pick up bone density and structural changes which were never before able to be visualized in the same way.
The researchers scanned the bones of 30 individuals. Half of these subjects had "normal" vitamin D levels. The other half were deficient. The scan revealed that people with low vitamin D showed signs of premature bone aging in a way they had never been able to visualize before. 2
They found that individuals who were low in vitamin D demonstrated tiny micro-cracks across the surface of their bone structure. "They appeared like tiny, microscopic fractures" and they indicate aging bones that are more likely to become osteoporotic (porous and brittle), and lead to increased fracture risk.
You cannot see these micro fractures with standard radiographic techniques. These test subjects could not feel these micro-cracks either. You have no idea that they are occurring.
These findings indicate that a vitamin D deficiency can increase your risk of developing these micro-cracks by more than 30%.
This is one more piece of evidence that not only is vitamin D is critical for bone strength, but also for your overall Health and Wellness.
The concern here is that the vast majority of our population is deficient in vitamin D. One study of 1,600 people found 89% were low in vitamin D.3
Your vitamin D level can be tested with a simple blood test. I recommend that many of my patients at the Center have their vitamin D level tested. A level of 30 mg/dl is considered "sufficient." That is because labs are looking at an average of what most patients demonstrate on the test. Unfortunately, most test subjects are already deficient in vitamin D. I recommend keeping your levels in the 50-60 mg/dl range or even slightly higher. The typical top end range for most labs is 100 mg/dl.
The best source of vitamin D is obviously the sun. That is providing that you have sufficient cholesterol to produce the vitamin D as well. A good rule of thumb is to get out in the sun between 10 am and 2 pm. That's when the sun is highest and rays are strongest, so you can get some good exposure over a short period of time. As little as 10 minutes in the midday sun can give you 10,000 IU of vitamin D.
You can also get vitamin D from food. This is a good strategy during the winter months. Good sources include salmon, mackerel, tuna, sardines, free range organic eggs, and cod liver oil.
If you have had your vitamin D level tested, good for you! You now have a baseline for future testing. If not, I would recommend that you have it done. Once you have your level you may need to supplement with a high quality vitamin D supplement.
I can recommend our personal brand of 1000 IU's of vitamin D. It is a highly bio-available D3 form of vitamin D. Another tidbit of information that you may not be aware of is that your body can absorb and utilize the D3 form of vitamin D better than the D2 form. I often times have patients come into my offices and tell me that their doctor prescribed vitamin D. When I look at it I have to inform them that it is D2, and that their body will not absorb and convert it as well as it can the D3 form.
Another piece of information that I just became aware of from a new study on vitamin D demonstrated that D3 is also bioactive, not just bioavailable. This means that D3 is not only absorbed better than D2, but D3 actually helps maintain your body's overall vitamin D at higher levels. This, as I have said, assists in supporting your overall optimal Health and Wellness.4 Other forms of vitamin D simply do not do this as well.
Here is something else that I want you to consider too. For every 400 IU of vitamin D3 per day you take, you can expect your blood levels to improve by only 1 mg/dl. Remember that absorption of any supplement isn't necessarily instantaneous. It may take six months to a year in order for you to get your vitamin D up to sufficiency.
You can't rely on a multi-vitamin for that. Most only give you 400 IU which won't raise you back to where you need to be for optimal Health and Wellness.
1. Lees B, Molleson T, Arnett T, Stevenson J. "Differences in proximal femur bone density over two centuries." Lancet. 1993;341(8846):673-5.
2. Busse B, Bale HA, Zimmermann EA, et al. "Vitamin D Deficiency Induces Early Signs of Aging in Human Bone, Increasing the Risk of Fracture." Science Translational Medicine. July 2013: Vol. 5, Issue 193, p. 193ra88
DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.3006286
3. Schilling S. "Epidemic vitamin d deficiency among patients in an elderly care rehabilitation facility." Dtsch Arztebl Int. 2012 Jan;109(3):33-8.
4. Yin K, Agrawal D. "Vitamin D and inflammatory diseases." J Inflamm Res. 2014;7:69-87.