We’re right in the middle of World Bone and Joint Week (12–20 October). This year, World Osteoporosis Day falls (!) on 20 October.
Yeah, we’re talking skeletons (even though Halloween is still two weeks away).
Being a skeleton is hard, ungrateful work. Out of sight, out of mind, as the saying goes. If you have a skeleton in the closet, you certainly don’t talk about it. If something is boring, it is as dry as bones. A trouble-starter is a bone of contention, and afterwards your spouse has a bone to pick with you. Bones deserve more love, don’t you think?
The Bare Bones
- The adult human skeleton has ~206 bones. New-borns have 270–300 bones and spend the next two decades fusing them into something more manageable. Growth is basically a very slow corporate merger.
- Some bone facts are weird. Like, your funny bone isn’t a bone at all, but it is located at the end of the humerus. Doesn’t that crack you up?
- We associate skeletons with dead people, but here’s something most people never think about: bones are actually alive. They have blood vessels, nerves, a marrow factory inside and a demolition-and-rebuilding crew on permanent rotation. Osteoclasts chisel out old bone; osteoblasts lay down new bone (they’re having a blast).
- Roughly one tenth of your skeleton is replaced every year. A goodly chunk of your skeleton is recent work.
- Your skeleton is moonlighting as a bank, a factory and scaffolding all at once. It stores minerals and releases them on demand when your body needs some.
- Inside the bones, the marrow makes blood cells – red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets.
- When compressed, bone is stronger than concrete. A healthy femur can bear several times your body weight.
Let’s have a look at some of the more common bone conditions out there and what we can do to address these challenges in a holistic way. As a general rule, most conditions affecting the bones are linked to acidity in the body. This is because the bones supply the minerals (like calcium and magnesium) that are needed to balance excess acidity. When you grasp this, it is easy to know what to do to address the pathology.
Osteoarthritis (OA)
OA most commonly affects weight-bearing and high-use joints, including knees (most frequently affected), hips, hands, spine (especially the neck and lower spine) and feet.
OA is more than worn-out cartilage. It’s the whole joint throwing a slow, decades-long tantrum. Cartilage thins, bone edges thicken and the joint lining grumbles, while ligaments stretch and the surrounding muscles go on strike.
The usual suspects are age, genes, being female, an old injury that never quite forgave you, excess weight and years of heavy repetitive work (or sport).
Causes
Two myths deserve the boot.
First, that exercise wears the joint out. The opposite is true. Movement is the treatment, not the problem. Use it or lose it. Yes, excessive movement under excessive pressure will wear the joints out (yes, marathon runners and rugby players, that includes you).
The second myth is that it’s all mechanical. In fact, inflammation is very much part of the mix.
Of the listed causes, long-term excess weight is probably the most important. It is rare to find osteoarthritis in a person of normal body weight. However, if weight is the fuel, inflammation is the spark that ignites the fire. Metabolic disease (with increased acidity) is closely linked to obesity. As such, knowing how much of OA development is due to weight and how much is due to inflammation is impossible to determine. The fact that ~50% of Type 2 diabetics also suffer from one type of arthritis or another is significant in this regard.
Management
Allopathic medicine offers a list of prescription medicines (each with potentially life-threatening side effects) and surgery. Holistic medicine has much to offer, much cheaper and with much less risk to life and limb.
Exercise: The single best intervention we have is modest, non-weight-bearing aerobic exercise.
Weight loss: Following a ketogenic, whole-food, raw-food, paleo or carnivore diet can help reduce body mass without losing muscle mass (unlike GLP-1 agonists). Your height in centimetres minus 100 gives your target weight in kilograms (more or less). Pre-menopausal women can aim about 5 kg lower.
Fasting: Beyond a diet low in carbohydrates, water-fasting habits speed up safe weight loss. Among these, intermittent fasting (IF), typically for 16 hours per day, and One Meal A Day (OMAD) are the easiest to implement. Fasting also reduces markers of inflammation and thus is helpful on both mechanical and metabolic fronts.
Supplements
Popular joint supplements include glucosamine, collagen, chondroitin, MSM (methylsulfonyl methane) and hyaluronic acid. These are aimed at rebuilding cartilage. Clinical evidence is rather thin, however. And if you want to build cartilage, it is far cheaper to buy gelatine (bovine or fish). In head-to-head comparisons, gelatine and collagen performed equally well.
Mega D3: We usually recommend one capsule per week, but in OA it may be advisable to use one capsule twice a week. Vitamin D is needed for calcium and magnesium absorption. It also has a strong anti-inflammatory effect.
MgO: Magnesium is the Clark Kent of OA treatment. While doctors keep recommending artery-clogging inorganic calcium for all sorts of bone conditions, magnesium is the mineral that cools down inflammation via several pathways. We recommend two capsules of our MgO daily in OA.
Curcumin: This extract from turmeric root has thousands of studies under its belt. It has wide-ranging anti-inflammatory properties. Our potent liposomal curcumin only requires one or two capsules daily to help combat inflammation. It is safe and helps reduce reliance on pain killers.
Papaya Seed Extract: One of the most impressive bone-healing herbs, yet no one has heard of it. Not only does it help the kidneys get rid of excess acidity, but it also boosts osteoblast activity – you know, those cells that make bones grow.
We recommend a dose of 1–2 capsules (500–1,000 mg) daily to help relieve pain and remodel joints. It may take some time, though; be patient.
Omega-3 fatty acids: Fish Oil and Algae Oil may have benefits in reducing pain and swelling at the joint. We recommend 2,000–4,000 mg daily.
DMSO 25%: Applied topically to the affected joints twice or more daily. This helps relieve pain, thus reducing the need for painkillers.
Osteoporosis
Think of the skeleton as a bank account. Until about 30, deposits exceed withdrawals, and the account grows. After that, the tide turns – and at menopause the withdrawals speed up dramatically. The result is that osteoporosis (bone density loss) affects around 20% of American women over 50.
Causes
Age, steroid medication, alcohol, smoking, immobility, low magnesium and vitamin D, a family history of fractures and a slender build all help empty the account faster. Oh yes, we forgot to mention sugar! Burning sugar for energy results in twice the amount of waste compared to burning an equivalent amount of fat. This acid waste requires calcium and magnesium to neutralise. The skeleton provides the needed minerals, leading to bone density loss.
More women than men are affected by osteoporosis due to the bone-saving properties of testosterone, as well as the loss of female hormones after menopause. Globally, about one in three women and one in five men over 50 will have an osteoporotic fracture.
Increasing acidity is the problem. Alkalinity is the solution.
The cruel part is the silence. Nothing hurts until something breaks – typically a wrist, a vertebra or a hip. Losing height and developing a stoop are not simply ageing; they may be fractures you didn’t notice. Hip fracture is the one that changes lives. A substantial proportion of people die within a year of a hip fracture, and many never return to independent living.
Screening
DXA scans are routinely recommended in post-menopausal women. However, results from these scans often do not correlate to the actual strength of the bones. There is no evidence that regular DXA scans reduce fracture risk in the elderly, except for hip fractures.
Management
Never fear when Big Pharma is near (?). Drugs like bisphosphonates are often prescribed for osteoporosis and osteopenia (early bone loss). They harden the bone, but simply increasing bone density often creates brittle bones that fracture under stress. They may also have terrible side effects in some people, of which jawbone disintegration is one of the more distressing. Consider these only if lifestyle, diet and supplement interventions have failed. Remember, osteoporosis takes decades to develop. You have some time in hand.
Supplements
Anytime a large drug market exists, the medical industry will dismiss any approach which does not result in it being able to sell large amounts of lucrative medical drugs and services. Other than calcium, supplements are not being pushed for osteoporosis. That should make you wonder, “Why calcium?”
The typical advice to supplement with calcium has no basis in science. Long-term, population-wide studies confirm that calcium supplementation does not prevent bone loss and actually increases the risk for kidney stones and/or arterial plaque. Despite this evidence, doctors keep recommending calcium.
Truth be told, all the supplements and lifestyle interventions listed under OA are also valid approaches to osteoporosis, since they all reduce acidity and increase alkalinity. In particular, the combination of “high-dose” vitamin D (at least 40,000 IU/week), MgO and Papaya Seed Extract has helped many women’s bone density return to normal.
Taking a teaspoon of baking powder / sodium bicarbonate in a glass of water every morning is another routine that helps reduce bone density loss.
Vitamin K2: There is mounting evidence that Vitamin K2 supplementation makes a meaningful contribution to bone mineral density by activating osteocalcin, the enzyme that deposits calcium into bones. A dose of 150–180 mcg daily (for the MK-7 version of vitamin K2) seems to be effective.
Also: get the bath mats, cables and dim lighting sorted. Falling is optional.
Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA)
RA happens when the immune system audits the wrong department.
RA is an autoimmune condition. The body attacks its own joint lining. In terms of clinical presentation, it tends to be symmetrical (unlike OA). It favours the smaller joints of hands and feet. The typical history includes morning stiffness lasting more than an hour and a fatigue that sleep doesn’t fix.
Causes
Exact causes are still unknown, but smoking is a major avoidable risk factor. Certain infections and gum disease increase the risk, too. Women are much more likely to get RA than men, and it often runs in families. Sugar, stress and alcohol consumption make matters worse.
RA can also affect the eyes, lungs and blood vessels, which is why it’s a whole-body disease, not a knuckle problem.
Management
It is tempting to grab for painkillers when RA pains first strike, but these do more harm than good over the medium to long term. Nowadays, the tendency is to strike hard with steroids and methotrexate (a chemotherapeutic agent). Newer targeted drugs are becoming popular. However, all of these have bad, potentially fatal, side effects.
Heat, red light therapy and far infrared therapy all help to reduce inflammation and pain. A simple intervention is to heat a bean bag in the microwave for a minute or so and then to put it on the affected joint in the morning until the stiffness lets go.
Supplements
The same holistic interventions as with OA can be used in RA, even though these are different diseases. Acidity plays a major role in maintaining an over-the-top immune response. Removing acidity reduces that impetus. Daily baking soda is very helpful in this regard (even if not curative).
Getting more oxygen into the body helps a lot to cool off auto-immune reactions. Daily exercise or breathing exercises help increase oxygen levels in the blood. CDS 500 ppm, taken orally, will release a lot of oxygen in the body, too. Anecdotes indicate that soaking affected extremities in CDS 500 ppm for a minute a day will also help relieve symptoms dramatically.
DMSO 25% can be rubbed into the affected joints several times a day. It relieves pain and reduces inflammation.
Studies show that taking curcumin helps reduce pain and inflammation, too. Taking one of our Liposomal Curcumin capsules twice daily should reduce the need for painkillers.
Gout
Known as “the disease of kings”, gout has become more egalitarian in recent decades, affecting 1 in 20 Americans, most of them men. Gout most commonly attacks the big toe, but many other joints may be involved. There is no symmetry in the joints involved. The pain of an acute gout attack is particularly severe and unmistakeable.
Causes
Men are twice as likely as women to suffer from gout. Age and genetics make matters worse. High blood uric acid levels are often blamed, but less than a quarter of those living with high uric acid levels ever present with gout (so there’s more to gout than uric acid). Gout crystals are mostly composed of uric acid, but we need to look elsewhere to find out why these crystals form in the joints.
It is helpful to understand gout as a kidney disease. When the kidneys fail to excrete enough acid, blood acidity rises. Maintaining stable blood pH levels is critical for life. Typically, there are three ways of getting rid of excess acidity: kidneys, lungs and skin (sweat).
If the kidneys are compromised, the lungs are compressed by daily sitting and there is little sweating taking place (air cons and no exercise), the body faces a dilemma. As a result, the body finds another avenue to get rid of acid: It dumps uric acid in pockets outside the bloodstream. The fluid-filled pockets around the joints (“CV joints” in car language) are an ideal place for this purpose. If these conditions persist for a long time, the excess acids crystallise, leading to gout formation. Those needle-sharp crystals are the cause of gout pain.
So: Smoking, alcohol, sugar (especially soft drinks) and certain medications (e.g., aspirin, diuretics and some antibiotics) may either increase acid production or hinder acid excretion via the kidneys. Red wine and red meat are traditionally blamed, but sugar is almost always also involved.
Management
Flares are treated with anti-inflammatories, colchicine or steroids. The long game is lowering urate, usually with allopurinol or febuxostat.
There are many ways to support kidney function via lifestyle and diet. We discussed them above, but here they are again:
Moderate, regular exercise
Ketogenic or other low-carb diet
Weight loss
Fasting (16–23 hours at a time)
Avoid alcohol & smoking
Supplements
Anti-inflammatory herbs like Cancer Bush and Curcumin can safely help manage flare-ups.
A teaspoon of baking soda in a glass of water every morning helps improve kidney function over time and reduces the acid load on the kidneys.
Mega D3: Reduces markers of inflammation and supports kidney function.
Papaya Seed Extract: Many patient anecdotes testify to the remarkable properties of papaya seed extract in the management of gout. We recommend a daily dose of 1–2 capsules (500–1,000 mg) for at least six months. This extract hastens the excretion of acid via the kidneys.
DMSO 25%: This can be sprayed onto the affected joint during a flare-up to help reduce pain.
Green Immune: Our low-dose cannabis spray can be applied on the affected joint for pain relief lasting several hours.
Back and Neck Pain
Last but not least: the world’s leading cause of lost years.
Back pain is the world’s top cause of time off work. It is also the top cause of long-term disability worldwide. Most of it is “non-specific” – which is medical-ese for “we can’t find anything wrong”.
Causes
Although medical science won’t tell you this, sitting is the chief cause of lower back ache. Staring at a computer screen all day is the most common cause of neck pain.
We sit too much. We sit to and from work, we sit at work, and we sit at home. The lower back was not made for this. Over time, the discs can no longer handle the pressure, and they give way, putting pressure on a nerve, leading to muscle spasm and debilitating pain.
Computer screens are set too low, especially if you’re working on a laptop. Get someone to take a side profile picture of you sitting at your computer to see just how bad the problem is. Most of us would give Quasimodo a go for being a hunch-back. The neck bones were meant to look up at the horizon, not down at the ground. Raise your screen until you are looking level or slightly upward. It takes some getting used to, but it will save your neck bones.
Trauma is another common cause of back pain. Back pain from trauma may manifest decades after the original insult, making it hard to make the connection.
Smoking makes matters worse. Using long-term steroid medication weakens the bones and ligaments.
Low protein intake means weaker back muscles, which worsens back pain.
Clinically, it is important to discern whether the backache is due to some other condition, such as cancer metastases.
Management
In most cases, time is the healer. Pain killers and physiotherapy help speed up the process. In days gone by, bed traction was widely used, but it has gone out of fashion (you can’t make much money off traction). Spinal surgery is often recommended but has a 10–45% failure rate, depending on a range of factors. Few back ops survive the ten-year mark. A second surgery is even less likely to succeed. In other words: Don’t just opt for surgery before trying alternatives.
Consider a standing desk or sitting on a Pilates ball instead of a chair. The latter keeps your lower back moving, meaning there is no stagnation of fluids in the inter-vertebral discs. Breaking your workday into half-hour slots and going for a quick walk between slots can also help strengthen the lower back.
Heat, red light and/or far infrared, when applied to the area, may bring great relief.
A treatment that hardly ever gets mentioned, yet is extremely safe and very often successful at solving back pain, is inversion therapy. Inversion therapy is an upgrade on the old concept of bed traction. It is well worth attempting this before going for back surgery.
Here is an explainer video.
Note: This video recommends inverting with shoes on, but doing it shoeless is often better.
Inversion tables are easy to obtain from Takealot.
Supplements
Mega D3: You need vitamin D at the right dose and in the right format to boost bone health. We recommend you take 1 x Mega D3 capsule twice weekly.
MgO: Magnesium is the missing element when it comes to strong bones. We recommend 1–2 capsules of MgO daily.
Alpha-lipoic Acid (ALA): Helps with nerve healing after being damaged. We recommend 250–750 mg daily.
Bravo!: The B-vitamins also help with nerve healing. We recommend 1–2 x Bravo! daily.
Creatine: Helps strengthen muscles after exercise. We recommend 5 g daily.
In Summary
Your bones need care, just like the rest of you. Neglect them at your peril. Hard-working bones are healthy bones. So, give your skeleton a break by getting off that chair RIGHT NOW and walking around a little.
Have you hugged your skeleton today?
To your (rock-solid) health
The Team at Integrow Health
