Eat your greens, for your bones sake
Reported December 01, 2009
A combination of calcium and vitamin D may be just what the doctor ordered for osteoporosis patients, but a new study has found they could be exponentially more effective by adding common greens supplements.
The University of Toronto tissue culture study found that when compared to calcium supplements alone, some commercially available but highly concentrated nutritional supplements proved three to four times more effective at stimulating osteoblasts, or cells that build and repair the internal micro-architecture of bones.
In the study, which will have “implications in the management of osteoporosis,” says Leticia Rao, an associate professor of medicine and director of the Calcium Research Laboratory, researchers extracted minerals, water soluble vitamins, calcium and antioxidants from polyphenols (compounds that give fruits and vegetables their colour) from two commercial greens supplements, and compared their impact on osteoblasts to that of calcium alone.
The results surprised Rao: although other studies have examined polyphenols, her findings showed that the extract stimulated osteoblast activity by 20 times; calcium alone boosted bone nodule growth sixfold. In normally functioning bones, calcium enters cells via osteoblast receptors, ushered along by vitamin D and K, which help proteins bind calcium and deposit it into the bone matrix. However, with osteoporosis, which affects one in four Canadian women over the age of 50 according to Osteoporosis Canada, osteoblast activity slows and can’t keep pace with the increased activity of other cells called osteoclasts, which tear bones down as part of the body’s natural regeneration.
“Although calcium is positively associated with increased bone mineral density, there is also evidence to show that calcium alone is not sufficient,” says Rao. “Several antioxidants, a number of which are obtained primarily through foods such as fruits and vegetables and nutritional supplements, have been shown in both in vitro and clinical studies that they can counteract oxidative stress and prevent the risk of osteoporosis. In other words, it requires other nutritional components in increasing bone formation.”
Those components, which Rao from a combination of Bone Builder and Greens + products from British Columbia-based company Genuine Health for her study, included three absorbable calcium sources, vitamins D, C and B, the antioxidant lycopene, magnesium, selenium, zinc, copper, manganese and the amino acid, L-lysine.
The study replicates the spirit of another trial Rao recently conducted in which participants took either regular tomato juice or juice laced with additional lycopene, a powerful antioxidant found in red food like tomatoes. After four months, those drinking the laced tomato juice decreased their bone turnover and oxidative stress markers, and increased antioxidant status.
She says those over 50 who are at risk of osteoporosis should do load-bearing exercises such as weights, take 800 IU(international units) of vitamin D – which helps bones absorb calcium – along with 1500 milligrams of calcium in three 500 mg doses throughout the day and an antioxidant-rich nutritional supplement. “It’s really about somehow increasing your intake of polyphenols, absorbable calcium and vitamin D,” she says.
Equally important is increasing calcium intake from food sources such as oily fish, lentils and broccoli, while reducing acid-forming foods like soft drinks, red meat, saturated fats, salts and sugars from your diet, says renowned health researcher and Genuine Health founder Sam Graci, who has worked with the William J. Clinton Foundation to ban soda and fast food from American elementary schools.
“What we’ve found is that the more acidic the diet, the more bone loss you will suffer. Soft drinks and sugar are the worst for that,” he says. “And it’s not just that we eat too much meat, it’s that we eat too few vegetables, so I always advise people to colour your plate’ with two-thirds vegetables and salads, and one-third protein. Meat isn’t the bad guy, but you have to temper and balance that acidity of it with the alkalinity of a plant-based diet.
“Aside from that, the biggest issue we face is that we’re seeing a significant departure in bone growth in young people, many of whom have a sedentary lifestyle. Bones only build when they’re stressed, and they only grow to the age of 24, so if we don’t have that in place, they’ll surely but slowly crumble over time.”
Rao agrees that early attention to the issue is crucial. “The Canada Food Guide requires seven servings of fruits and vegetables but most of us don’t eat the right amounts, right from the start. Osteoporosis doesn’t just come with old age,” she adds, “it starts at childhood.”
Source : The National Post