As seen in Living Well Magazine
Original post: February 21, 2011
Research today is confirming that calcium supplementation is far from the remedy for the epidemic proportions of North American osteoporosis. Additionally, the exorbitant calcium load from poorly formulated calcium sources may also be increasing the risk for cardiovascular disease. The typical North American diet is not necessarily deficient in calcium but rather prolific with factors that extract calcium from bones.
The solution is bone chilling!
The solution really is in chilling the bones and protecting them from the inflammatory heat that the North American lifestyle is escalating within us. This inflammatory lifestyle thwarts the balanced activity of highly specialized cells that are responsible formanaging calcium in the body – the osteoclast and the osteoblast. Osteoclasts are specialized cells that extract calcium from bone shuttling it into the body where it might be needed for important metabolic tasks. The bustling osteoblast has an opposing role, picking up free calcium and incorporating it into bone matrix to build new bone.
The state of your bone mass is a function of these two opposing activities and no matter how much calcium, magnesium and vitamin D you consume, bone mass will be limited to the balance created by these two worker cell s. A body that tends to be pro-inflammatory and leans toward acidic tendencies cannot hold onto its calcium stores. Calcium is stored in the bone mass, and although our bones serve as integral support structures, our cells depend on calcium for electrical, communication, hormone signalling and other processes that have higher priority over the bone mass. Shortages in peripherally needed calcium will result in extraction from bone.
A diet high in sodium pushes the body into the acidic pH range and forces the extraction of calcium from bone as a way to help buffer the change in pH. Diets that include an abundance of vegetation and fruit and are lower in processed or preserved foods tend to deliver higher potassium loads and are lower in sodium than processed diets. This fresh, whole food diet creates a calcium sparing effect for bone mass.
The pro-inflammatory state of the body advances with chronic disease; it also tends to increase with age and poor lifestyle to stimulate osteoclast activity (bone degradation) while inhibiting osteoblast (anabolic bone building) activity. Not only is calcium being extracted from bone to reduce bone density in this state, the entire body is then exposed to high levels of circulating free calcium levels adding to the risk of blood clots, arterial plaques and serious cardiovascular disease. Any amount of calcium that is supplemented without changing the tide created by the osteoclast and osteoblast simply adds to the risk.
Changing the Calcium Tide.
Boron: Research demonstrates that boron’s inhibits osteoclast activity to help preserve bone.
Strontium: Research shows that strontium literally initiates an anabolic phase with regards to bone by activating the bone forming osteoblast and inhibiting the bone resorbing osteoclast. This helps improve bone density.
Nature has a way of providing complex nutritional needs in a simple form.
Advanced research is showing that the precious calcium in the discarded eggshell is accompanied by many important bone minerals that must be present with calcium in order for bone to be mineralized – this includes magnesium, boron and strontium. It also contains various collagen-like peptides that are suspected inducers of osteoclast inhibition helping preserve bone.
Eggshell supplies a sort of naturally ‘activated’ calcium for bones that helps counter the bone-degrading influences of our North American lifestyles and the pro-inflammatory tendency that escalates with advancing life stage. Not only does eggshell calcium help preserve and improve bone health, it doesn’t pose the same cardiovascular risk associated with typical calcium sources.
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