eileen

WELL, WELL, WELL

CONNIE HOWARD / well@vueweekly.com
Get some sun and enjoy some fats, already!
We’re hopeful, rightly so, that new drug Reclast will make good on its promise to strengthen the brittle bones of our parents and help keep them mobile. It appears it does in fact do this, but as it has also been known to interfere with heart rhythms, it would seem worthwhile to have a look at where the brittle bones are coming from in the first place, given our milk-drinking, cheese-eating, calcium-rich culture.

Those who suffer bone fractures with a simple fall are almost always vitamin D deficient, vitamin D playing a role in calcium and phosphorus metabolism, and consequently in bone and muscle strength. The secret to preventing that first brittle-bone fracture lies in planning well ahead of any sign of bone loss.

To get enough vitamin D if you live in Canada involves both getting unfiltered (no sunscreen) sunlight during the summer months, and either a good supplement in the winter, or 10 tall glasses of milk (10!) every day—vitamin D fortified, of course, and not skim, as vitamin D is fat soluble—which leaves only sunlight or fish oil supplements in my mind (and a good reason for a winter vacation). The thing about vitamin D is that without enough of it, our bodies can’t use the calcium we’re so careful to make sure we get.

Keeping our kidneys and livers in good shape is another essential prevention, as they play key roles in our ability to use circulating vitamin D. But as just being here—swimming in stress, drugs, heavy metals, physical inactivity and low-fat high-carb diets—stresses our livers as much as drinking too much does, achieving that can be a challenge.

Boston researchers have just confirmed again that the simple carbs we all started eating like mad with all the off-the-mark warnings about fat and cholesterol (the cereals and low-fat crackers and chips and popcorn) are giving us fatty liver disease, which is sadly now showing up in ever-younger children.
Our livers communicate stress and the need for extra help with signals such as impaired digestion, nausea after rich meals, light-headedness, skin ailments and even joint pain, and given how common all those are, I’d say paying them some attention will go a long way in preventing hip fractures down the road.

B-vitamins will help keep our livers happier, as will trace minerals, vitamin C, zinc and omega-3 fats—whole foods then, rather than processed ones, and more fish oils, fewer soy, corn, sunflower and safflower oils.

And given that the health of our kidneys is key to our ability to use vitamin D, and that kidney problems are on the rise—one in nine of us show signs of trouble—it makes sense to keep our kidneys happy by avoiding obesity, Type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure (leading causes of kidney disease).

It’s the same-old, same-old though. First we create high-blood pressure (and consequent kidney stress) with our stressful lifestyles and refined carb diets (high insulin levels elevate blood fats and constrict arteries), and with our liberal use of drugs like ibuprofen and aspirin. When diuretics are no longer enough to control blood pressure we move to medications known to cause liver damage. We create a Type 2 diabetes epidemic with our inactivity and diets of refined everything and weird fats, then we treat it with the liver-killing Rezulin (now removed from the market), and then with the heart-failure-inducing, bone-thinning, obesity-causing Avandia (poor GlaxoSmithKlein). Then we haul out the bone-strengthening Reclast, when all we really had to do to keep our bones happy in the first place was to keep our pancreases and livers and kidneys happy—pass on the sunscreen, enjoy some fat in our milk and cheese and yogurt, reduce our stress levels, eat real food instead of boxed and put some pressure on those in power to regulate industry bent on polluting our bodies. V

SOURCE: http://www.vueweekly.com/articles/default.aspx?i=7295

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under-exposure to uv rays is as dangerous as over-exposure...This is "D" life! (eileen)

Shantilly

toooooo shayyyyyyyy!!!!!! great article eileen. how many of us have been thru that cycle???