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Osteoporosis is a big problem.
Today in America, 10 million men and women have been diagnosed with osteoporosis, 18 million are at risk for developing it, and another 34 million are at risk for low bone mass, or osteopenia, a precursor to osteoporosis.
That’s 62 million Americans in all!
While women are more susceptible than men, more men have osteoporosis than we realize.
Other risk factors include:
- Family history
- Age – the higher your age, the higher the likelihood of developing it
- Ethnicity – white and Asian people are at greater risk than other ethnicities
- Tobacco use
- Sedentary lifestyle
- Diet – part of what we’ll talk about today
So what can you do if you’re at risk for or concerned about developing osteoporosis?
Well, you already know the advice that most people will give you, right? Drink more milk!
Listen folks, if you learn one thing from me today, I hope it’s this: milk does not make your bones stronger.
This is a myth thanks to the dairy lobby that has really caught on. Dairy is filled with mucous and sugar. It clogs and acidifies your digestive system and your body.
After 12 years of study, Harvard researchers noted a correlation between dairy consumption and INCREASED hip fractures in women. In fact, the risk of death in women DOUBLED in women who drank 3 or more glasses of milk a day compared to those who drank less than one glass a day.
Dairy consumption is also shown to have no beneficial effect on risk of bone fracture.
Here in the US, we consume the largest amount of dairy in the world, yet we have the highest rate of osteoporosis.
I know this may be a shock to many reading this. It was a shock to me as well when I first read the research.
Growing up, we had to drink milk every night at dinner. Of course, our parents were doing what they thought was the right thing. Just like so many people today, they didn’t know the truth.
Dairy isn’t the solution to osteoporosis. It’s part of the problem.
Milk is acidic, which means it leaches calcium from your bones, making them weaker, NOT stronger. That’s why it has been estimated that the Standard American Diet (or SAD, as I call it) robs our skeletons of almost half its calcium over a period of 20 years.
Living a clean, nutrient-dense diet rich in alkaline minerals like calcium, magnesium, and potassium is what keeps our bones strong.
And there are plenty of great foods to deliver all of those minerals and more without eating any dairy. We’ll get to those in a minute.
First, let’s talk about how osteoporosis develops and how you can prevent it.
As you know if you’ve followed me for any length of time, the pH of your blood ALWAYS tightly regulates itself at 7.365. It’s just as crucial as your body temperature.
In fact, this number is so important that if it deviates by even as much as a point on the scale of 0-14, you are dead.
Now, one of the questions I get all the time from my patients is, “If the pH of my blood is constant and always tightly regulated at 7.365, why do I have to eat and drink alkaline?” It really is a fantastic question and where so many people go wrong.
Here’s the answer and it’s also the key to osteoporosis: If you’re not getting enough minerals from the foods you eat and drink to neutralize the acid in your body, it will find any alkaline mineral store that’s available.
It will grab some minerals from your mouth, which can lead to tooth decay. Unfortunately, your mouth doesn’t have a big supply, so it moves on to other sources. Next, it goes after magnesium from your muscles, which can lead to muscle pain and cramps.
Finally, your body turns to its greatest mineral bank, calcium from your bones. You can guess what that leads to… not just osteoporosis but also joint pain and osteoarthritis.
Osteoporosis is an ACID PROBLEM!
The pH of your blood is so important that your body will let itself fall apart before it allows its pH to veer off course.
So the purpose of eating alkaline foods, drinking alkaline water, and avoiding acidic foods is NOT to try and raise the pH of your blood. It’s to prevent your body from having to do the regulating on its own by depleting its own resources when food is not sufficient.
Since the biggest source of much-needed minerals is your bones, if you’re at risk for osteoporosis, it’s vitally important you GET OFF YOUR ACID.
That means taking 3 actions:
- 1) consuming less acid and minimizing the build-up of acids by avoiding things like stress
- 2) eating plenty of alkaline foods
- 3) filling in the mineral gaps left by the foods you eat
To achieve the first of those actions, you want to be mindful about the highly acidic foods you’re eating. Top acidic foods include anything with artificial sweeteners, soda, dairy, processed carbs, most meat, and all foods with sugar. You want to minimize those foods in favor of alkaline options.
Here are the top 10 alkaline foods that supply plenty of calcium:
- 1. Almond, cashew, or coconut milk – 45% of your recommended daily value (RDV) of calcium in 1 cup
- 2. White beans – 19% RDV in 1 cup
- 3. Kale – 14% RDV in 1 cup
- 4. Almonds – 14% RDV in ½ cup
- 5. Okra – 12% RDV in 1 cup
- 6. Sesame seeds – 9% RDV in 1 tbsp.
- 7. Watercress – 8% RDV in 1 cup
- 8. Bok choy – 7% RDV in 1 cup
- 9. Seaweed – 6.5% RDV in ½ cup
- 10. Green beans – 6% RDV in 1 cup
Finally, in addition to eating foods high in calcium, it’s vital to make sure you’re getting plenty of magnesium, potassium, and sodium bicarbonate so your body can efficiently put calcium to good use keeping your bones strong.
Most people do not get enough of these minerals from diet alone.
Alkamind Acid-Kicking Minerals takes care of all of that for you each and every day so that your body doesn’t have to go on a mineral hunt and pull all of that good stuff out of your bones. And all of our minerals are from quality sources unlike most other supplements.
Drink 30 minutes before going to sleep, and within 15 minutes after exercise to neutralize the lactic acid that makes you retain water and fat.
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GET OFF YOUR ACID!
Dr. Daryl
