Osteoporosis - 004

SPEAKER A The following program presents principles designed to promote good health and is not intended to take the place of personalized, professional care. The opinions and ideas expressed are those of the speakers. Viewers are encouraged to draw their own conclusions about the information presented. SPEAKER B Welcome to healthy living. I'm your host, Margot Marshall. As we get older, is it inevitable to get osteoporosis porous, fragile bones that break easily? Or can we make them stronger? Stay tuned for the answer. SPEAKER C Healthy Living is a 13 part production of three ABN, Australia television focusing on the health of the whole person body, mind and spirit. You'll learn natural lifestyle principles with practical health solutions for overall good health. SPEAKER B With me in the studio today, I have Dr. John Clark and Jenifer Skues, who is a health psychologist. Welcome, Jenifer, and welcome, John, to the programme. We're looking forward to what you can tell us about this disease, which is something we really don't want to get. And if you can tell us how that happens, that would be really good. And John, you have a story about someone who did have really bad osteoporosis and was able to turn that disease around. We're very keen to hear how she did that. SPEAKER C Yes, an osteoporosis is a serious problem. You might think, Well, I got thin bones. But one third of patients who break a hip die during the following year. It's a high death rate for breaking a hip from osteoporosis. SPEAKER B You wouldn't imagine that, would you? From a broken bone? SPEAKER C Just from a broken bone. And it's sort of like the bones are a barometer for the health of the whole body. If your bones are poor, maybe your other health is poor and you break a bone and you lay in bed, and laying in bed is not good. You start having things like heart disease, heart attacks, congestive heart failure, lung disease, blood clots. All kinds of things can happen if you're laying in bed from a broken bone. So I was out on tour in the United States. I used to tour the United States doing lectures on health, how people could recover from these diseases. And a lady came to my osteoporosis lecture who was limping. And I said, well, why are you limping? She says, well, four weeks ago I was in a bad accident and I broke my hip. And then she told me all about her bones, which was fascinating to me. When she was 25, she was working for the sheriff's department. That's like a police department. And it was a very active job. But she was having bone pain at night. So she went to her primary doctor and he checked her over and then he scanned her bones and discovered she had eggshell. Thin bones. SPEAKER B That sounds not good. Really advanced osteoporosis. SPEAKER A Your total foundation was structurally not sound. SPEAKER C She was about to fall apart, literally. SPEAKER B Why do we laugh? SPEAKER C But we laugh because we know there's a fix here. Coming up, and she was wondering why she had this bone pain while her bones were so thin that they were probably micro fracturing, just hurting. And so the doctor offered to give her some drugs that he felt would be the answer to her thin bones. And she thought, Here I am, only 25. Most older people are on drugs, but most younger people aren't, and I'm not really ready to start taking drugs, and so I'd like to go home and just take care of this myself. And so she turned down the drug, went home, but she sort of had an inkling in her mind what she should do. SPEAKER B Okay. SPEAKER C A lot of people realize there is a better way, and most people know that there's a healthier way than what they're involved in. Isn't that interesting? SPEAKER B Yeah. SPEAKER C It's almost like inherently we know that there's better ways of doing things. SPEAKER A We have insight, we just don't always act on it. SPEAKER C Yeah, why is that? SPEAKER A Part of it is, I think, the way we're conditioned habitual. We don't trust ourselves, so we don't really listen to ourselves, or we discount things even though we know what the reality is. SPEAKER C And maybe our tastes drive us to. SPEAKER B Oh, do you really think so? You think that might just play a role? Yes, I think you might be right. SPEAKER C We develop an appetite for something that may not be on the healthiest list. Well, she went home and she was a Christian. She prayed. She said, Lord, I know you've said in the Bible in Exodus 1526 that if thou will diligently, hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God and do that which is right in his sight, that he'll put none of these diseases upon you which he's brought upon the Egyptians, but that he is your God and that he will heal you. And it's interesting that the Egyptians did have osteoporosis. SPEAKER A Really? SPEAKER B Among other things. SPEAKER C And so she said, Lord, I'm going to switch to a total plant based vegetarian diet, like what you put Adam on. We're talking fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, nuts and seeds. And she promised to do that if the Lord would fulfill his promise to heal her disease. And so she said, within two weeks, the bone pain she'd had was totally gone. SPEAKER B Goodness. Just two weeks? SPEAKER A How long she had it, do you think? Did she say how long she had the bone pain? SPEAKER C She didn't really say. SPEAKER A Must have been bad, or she, oh. SPEAKER C This is serious, painful bone pain. And you might wonder, okay, is that really possible? Would the studies show that? And in fact, medical studies looking at bone structure and seeing somebody who switched from an animal protein based diet to a vegetable protein based diet can document new bone growth within six weeks. SPEAKER B Six weeks. SPEAKER C Six weeks. SPEAKER B And that's a documented thing under the microscope. Under the microscope. So that's very convincing, isn't it? SPEAKER C So her pain going away in two weeks. Is very realistic to what was actually happening. SPEAKER A Know what research shows us? That's where it's good to have that research. SPEAKER C Yes, very good to know why this is happening and what's going on. And so here she was, I'm seeing her in her fifty s, and she came to my meeting. She says now she's been in an accident and she had a broken hip. And she went to surgery for this hip. They quote unquote, pinned it, put some bolts and screws in it. And she said when the surgeon came out of surgery and came and talked to her, that he says, wow, you had the hardest, strongest bones I've worked on in a long time. SPEAKER A Amazing. From fragile paper thin to rock solid. SPEAKER C Literally, literally rock solid. SPEAKER B And this hip didn't break just from a very minor thing. It was actually a traffic accident, which. SPEAKER A Would have broke, took a lot to break. SPEAKER C Big accident, big trauma, and she broke the hip. SPEAKER A And if she had still had the thin bone, she would have had more than just a hip fracture. Oh, yeah, she would have had major bone damage. So it just showed how bones need to be solid for that protection. SPEAKER B Isn't that encouraging to think that something like that can actually be reversed? It'd be interesting to know how long it actually took to fully reverse it. And Jenny, are there other things besides a bad diet and so on that contribute? SPEAKER A Huge factor is stress related. When we have stress, it actually can leach calcium from the bones. So other than like meat proteins and that you add the stress in and then you're not digesting properly, so you're not absorbing the nutrients. So that means her bones keep getting depleted. And a major factor with stress is a loss of magnesium. And magnesium, every cell needs it. It helps to put calcium in the bones. It relaxes the nerves and the muscles. If you don't have enough, you get a lot of cramping. It also helps to pick up the brain function and neurotransmitters, particularly your serotonin factor, so it improves mood, it helps people stay not depressed. And interestingly, they have found in research that people who have osteoporosis get depressed and then they're more likely to have a fall. So this is where when you have a look at the stress factor so a lot of what I do as a health psychologist is teach people how to manage their life. And it is individual, because her situation was individual. And I've also looked at nutritional medicine for mental health. So this is where with John, I use a lot of looking at nutrients. And one of the best ones I found for magnesium comes from the sea. If someone is that depleted and they're not absorbing it from their food, that if they use it's called magnesium chloride oil. And there's a lot of brilliant research now that sings its praises and says it's the best way to get it, but you put it on the skin. SPEAKER B Okay. SPEAKER A So it goes straight into the cells. 100% of it is absorbed. If you take it in tablet form, only about 30% is absorbed. And that's what, again, research is showing us. SPEAKER B That's very helpful to absolutely. SPEAKER A And you can put it directly on the affected bone areas, you see. SPEAKER B Right. SPEAKER A Also, if you don't have enough magnesium and the calcium isn't going into the bones, you've got calcium in your system. It can crystallize and go to the joints and cause arthritis. So you can see how one major player in our system, that one, she's not having the nutrition to get the magnesium and then stress leeches. It is a huge factor because it helps with the calcium. SPEAKER B Yes. SPEAKER A So you can see how correcting one thing so by changing her diet and doing that, she would have got a lot more magnesium in her system, probably calcium, and it was going where it needed to go. So an optimum diet can correct it, but a lot of people don't do the dietary change. Yeah. SPEAKER B John, you mentioned about her going on to a totally plant based diet. Were there any specifics within that diet that she perhaps made sure she included? SPEAKER C Yeah, her word she used to describe her new diet was vegan, which means she totally avoided any animal products prior to this. She'd been eating cheeseburgers and drinking sodas, french fries, and the like, the regular junk food that we think of. And so her changes were to totally get off of any dairy products. SPEAKER B That's a very curious one, and I can just imagine that people tuning into this program will be thinking, oh, come on, this just doesn't make a lot of sense, because we're given to understand that milk being the highest calcium source is going to be the thing that will build strong bones. So it didn't do it for her. And now you're saying when she went onto a total plant diet, her bones increased to a remarkable degree. So how does that work? SPEAKER C Yeah, you know, when I went to switch to a similar diet of becoming a total plant based vegetarian or vegan, my grandmother, who had run a dairy, was just sure that my teeth were going to go bad and my bones were going to go bad. Yeah, she was shocked, which is interesting because a lot of this is sort of like tradition. People have believed this for generations. And I met a young lady who had been raised on a total vegetarian diet, a vegan diet, and when she was in college, the college was doing a research project on bone strength, and they scanned everybody's bones, and when they checked her bones, she had the strongest, hardest bones of anybody in the college. SPEAKER B Interesting. SPEAKER C And it was pretty fascinating, for sure. SPEAKER A Well, it's a great testimony to the value of what you eat and what you put in your system. And I find when you eat properly. Because I had osteoporosis diagnosed and I did lots of things, but stress was my biggest factor, so I've managed my stress levels. Now, this was quite a few years ago, but I did improve my diet, more exercise, like weight bearing exercise. And I know I don't have that now that that's been treated, but it's a huge component. To have that diet is crucial and it's amazing how much difference it makes just by shifting the focus of the food you eat. SPEAKER B Jenny, you're saying that you had a really good healthy diet like John's been discussing. SPEAKER A Well, I improved my yeah, I mean, I was having a reasonable diet, but when I started to explore what treats osteoporosis and found like dairy products well. SPEAKER B Get rid of the dairy products. Okay. SPEAKER A There were things I was having that I considered healthy and I was eating a lot healthier than most people. SPEAKER B Yes. SPEAKER A And then, like you said, get onto a vegan diet. So in my research I found the same thing. Well, that was quite a while ago interesting. SPEAKER B You both researched this out and you separately came to the same conclusion, but you believe that stress was probably the. SPEAKER A Stress was my biggest problem. SPEAKER B Biggest problem. SPEAKER A And that was it was more events in my life work environment. There are lots of stresses which are common to a lot of people. SPEAKER B That's right. I don't think I think they say if you haven't got any stress, it's because you're in a box. And so we do all have to have some. SPEAKER A It's getting the good stress, not the bad stress. So a lot of what I do is train people to recognise their stress levels because this is that mind body connection. SPEAKER B How do you do that, Jenny? How do you get them to recognize one? SPEAKER A Working with the way the brain thinks, their beliefs and their attitudes create a lot of stress. And that's what you were saying, like her belief around certain things, once it was challenged and she realized it was a wrong belief around eating certain foods, then she changed it. So people, if they'd not told what their belief system is doing or it's incorrect, then they won't do it. And someone who's got a very black and white belief system, it's either this or that, is going to have a lot more stress than someone who can step back and observe and go, well, that's okay, we can manage this. SPEAKER B So you're saying that you explain to them like we've just had an explanation that this works. But what about the motivation part? SPEAKER A Well, I help people get motivated because when you have something like osteoporosis, as I said, you get depressed. Depressed? When you're depressed, you're not motivated, you don't want to do anything. So it's not about feeling motivated because you'll never do it. So what I get people to do is to pick a small, simple goal that they can action. Because action creates motivation. But this is where helping them psychologically to not overstep the mark and see one small step is better than no steps. SPEAKER B Right? SPEAKER A Because once they do that one, they get momentum, then we add on and we build the program. SPEAKER B All right. SPEAKER A But also, there's a huge component with the physiology, with stress, you see. And so I help people to recognize their stress markers and what are they doing? Like the sweaty palms. I know you can talk about that one. The heart rate up and doing all of that, because once they realize and they start to see the subtler signs of stress, they manage it earlier. SPEAKER B All right, and just come back to that. But one thing I don't want to miss, including John, did this lady have much support? I mean, she made some significant changes and we haven't even talked about them. All you've talked about, to some extent, the diet, and I think there's sort of exercise comes in there, too. But let's just talk about did she have some support to make significant changes to actually achieve what she achieved? SPEAKER C No. In fact, her husband was sort of like, Where's the beef? I don't want to quit eating meat. And he sort of gave her a hard time about her new dietary changes. SPEAKER A That's often a conflict I come across with clients. Yes, one wants to make a positive change like that, but the family doesn't, therefore they give up. SPEAKER B And I think it's important that we sort of talk about this, because I'm sure that people tuning in would find themselves in the situation that this young woman did, where she had to pretty much be strong enough to do it on her own. And so it's encouraging to think that it can be done, certainly a whole lot better if you've got some support. It's a huge marker for long term success. But she did it. She did it with still having her husband there, wanting to eat differently, and no doubt having to do two different things. And that's hard when you got the smell in your nostrils of foods that you've eaten and enjoyed, and yet she was able to do that. So it can be done. We need to have a few more things going for you. What else actually did you get her to or what did she do? She actually initiated this all by herself, didn't she? Just from information that she knew. So she changed her diet and what else? SPEAKER C She sure did. And we might explore the diet a little more. People wonder why are animal products a problem? Yes, vegetable protein. And you see, here's the thing. When people eat foods that create more acid in the body, it takes calcium from the bones to counteract that acid. It's like taking a Tums, which is a calcium pill that's very popular for an acid stomach. Well, if they eat food that turns to acid in their blood, then it's going to take calcium from the bones to make that so it doesn't get too acid for your blood. And so dairy products and animal protein, like from beef, are going to cause lots of acid. The other thing she quit using was brown sodas, sodas with caffeine, okay. Which usually have phosphoric acid in them. And the phosphoric acid in studies, when people start drinking phosphoric acid pop, we won't name the brands, but the brown sodas, they start peeing out calcium right away. And then the other thing she definitely did was she did take up an exercise program. If you load the bones, they develop stronger. They actually make electricity and attract the calcium to them. SPEAKER B Oh, excellent. So she got into an exercise program and she did all of this. She just initiated it and carried it out. And what did she have in place of the sodas? The soft drinks? SPEAKER C Well, I'm sure she drank a lot of water. I didn't really ask. SPEAKER B Didn't ask her that. Yeah, that's good. SPEAKER A Come back to the stress factor, because you're talking about acid in the system and stress produces a lot of acid in the stomach. The moment we get stress, the stomach excretes a lot more hydrochloric acid. And this becomes a problem because everything you put in your stomach at that point is going to become totally acidic and you don't absorb nutrients and it won't digest. SPEAKER B So we're getting double whammy, getting an acidic problem with the foods. SPEAKER A And the stress factor is another one. SPEAKER B Yeah. SPEAKER A And that means acid foods, acid stomach is you can see why illness can just take over. SPEAKER B Yeah. It's just interesting. And this might really come a big surprise to some people tuning in, but the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating, which is put out by the government for this country, at first glance, you would not think this, but actually it's user friendly for people on a totally plant based diet. Now, when you look at it, at first glance, it wouldn't strike you that way, but when you look at it more closely, more than half of it is exclusively plant foods. That's the grain products, the fruits and the vegetables. That covers more than half of the plate model. Then you come to the part where you've got meats and fish and chicken and eggs and things like that, but there's nuts and there's legumes in there as options. And then you come to the dairy section and there's soya milks and things that are included in there, and they would be fortified with calcium. So it's user friendly. And just in case anyone out there is thinking, oh, this is just what you're talking about, isn't diametrically opposed to what we've been taught? No, actually, it's made provision for and even the World Health Organization, I was looking up there just a night or so ago, and they're talking about tips for an optimum diet, and they think more fruits, vegetables, legumes, grains and nuts and that's what they want us to be having more of. So just thought I'd mention that. And you've probably come across studies that have affirmed what you're talking about here, John. SPEAKER C Oh, absolutely. And the studies show that if you go on a more vegetarian diet, then you end up with better bones. In fact, like we said, it can happen within six weeks. SPEAKER B Six weeks. SPEAKER C They can show a difference. SPEAKER B Very encouraging. That's not a long time, is it, to actually start don't turn around. SPEAKER A Weight. A problem happens the moment you change. Your whole cellulose begins to happen. And they can and then if you work on the stress levels again and one of the things that helps stress is exercise, which you mentioned, because when you exercise and that's walking is one of the best exercises, it actually helps to dissipate the adrenaline and cortisol buildup in the system and get the body to eliminate it. Because stress produces too much cortisol and adrenaline. It's an inflammatory factor, and it causes toxins and acids, particularly it inflames the brain. SPEAKER B It affects everything, doesn't it? Every cell of our body, I think they say, exercises the law of our being. We're a total package, not just a. SPEAKER A Brain or a body. SPEAKER B Now, you mentioned that this young woman was a Christian, and I imagining, I guess we can only imagine, but she really prayed about what she was going to do. And I no doubt she drew on her spiritual resources to be able to see her through what would not have been a short program, and I gather it's one that she implemented and maintained. So that would be a huge help. SPEAKER C That's right. And so she had actually brought her back to church. This is a very difficult problem. And her church group was very supportive, social. SPEAKER B And that's something I'd just like to say to people tuning in. If you don't have already a support network, seek one, because they're there, and it will be hugely beneficial. SPEAKER A Professional people can become part of that support. And that's what I do. You get to know the client and you work with them, and they feel very supported. And that's a huge component. Like the same with your work. People would feel very supported by what you're doing. So that's part of the support system. SPEAKER B This exercise, John, that would be outdoors. SPEAKER C I would take it outdoors is best out in the sunlight. Because you want to get your vitamin D. SPEAKER A Vitamin D helps bones. SPEAKER B Very important. SPEAKER A Helps mental yeah, mental health. SPEAKER C And you want to have weight bearing exercises, which means that your bones are getting loaded. SPEAKER B Yes. SPEAKER C This is very interesting. When they send somebody up into outer space, within a few days, they start losing calcium from their bones. No activity and no weight bearing. SPEAKER B That's incredible. Say it again. How long? SPEAKER C Within a few days. A few days, they'll start losing bone. SPEAKER A Mass and they've developed programs to get them to exercise in when they're in. SPEAKER C Outer space to stress their bones and keep calcium in their bones. That's correct. SPEAKER B I'm intrigued, actually, that this young woman had osteoporosis in her mid twenty s and had it so badly. That's scary. Really? I would not have expected that that would happen. You kind of associate it with being older, but not necessarily so. SPEAKER C Yes. And it's definitely her diet. I mean, you look at cheeseburgers, the cheese itself is the most acid forming food you can put in your mouth. SPEAKER B Is that right? SPEAKER C And it'll make huge amounts of acid. So your body has to buffer it with calcium. And then, of course, there's the refined grains and the white buns that go with these hamburgers. Refined grains make acid. The things that don't make acid actually make alkali are fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, nuts and seeds and beans. SPEAKER B Yeah. And some very good sources of calcium. What would you be suggesting there? SPEAKER C Where are you going to get your calcium if you don't drink milk? Be a question my grandmother might have asked me. Some of the highest things are your green leafy vegetables. SPEAKER B Well, that's what cows have, isn't it? SPEAKER C Green leafy, lo and behold, where'd the cow get calcium. SPEAKER A But see, a lot of the foods we talk about, like nuts and seeds and that have high magnesium levels. So when you eat the right diet, you're not just getting calcium, you're getting the magnesium to transport the calcium into the bones. Because that's what magnesium does. SPEAKER B That's right. And there's a whole range of things, a whole range of nutrients that make us well and including in the bones. It's not just and I think this is where we need to get away from a single nutrient. And just think whole foods, because they're packaged in a remarkable way. And when we interfere with that, it's a bit like having maybe a football team and sending part of the team onto the field and pulling them off, and then the others have a team. It's just not going to happen. It's a team effort. It is. SPEAKER A We have to see the body as that team. SPEAKER B That's right. SPEAKER A And work with the team and do everything we can to get it working together. SPEAKER B Foods as a whole food, and our bodies as whole people, mental, physical, spiritual, social, because they all blend in together. SPEAKER A They all support each other and impact. SPEAKER B On each other, for better or for worse. Like you were saying, what's going on in your mind with stress? Every cell of the body, instant and the other way around. I've read somewhere once someone said, we don't just have a mind, we are a mind. Because whatever's going on in the body is going to affect the mind, which in turn dictates to the body, because it's our master. SPEAKER A This is why we need a healthy nervous system, which is a telegraph system for the brain to the body and the body to the brain. And again, if you have, like, magnesium and calcium that fortify the nervous system so you can see how important it is. SPEAKER B And I just think it's something you said there has triggered a thought then that's just escaped me. No jokes about seniors moments. SPEAKER C Well, the calcium thing, we're thinking about it as a supplement, actually. People taking calcium supplements end up with more heart disease because the calcium goes to plaque in the heart. SPEAKER A It's dangerous. SPEAKER C You're much better off eating a food with everything balanced, the magnesium and the calcium and the zinc and the copper and so forth, so that the body can sort out how much it needs of each one and can put it in the right place. SPEAKER B Yes. Once we start messing around with food and pulling out this and that, we don't really, really know what we're doing. I think of it's only maybe three or four decades ago, they even found out about phytochemicals that are in plant foods exclusively. Phyto means plant, and they're essential, and they work together. And we still don't even know how many there are. There's thousands. And we don't know how they work together, we just know eat them. SPEAKER A We are created in an amazing way. SPEAKER B We are. SPEAKER A When you have a look, it's just incredible. And there's so much we don't know about our system. SPEAKER B Yeah, so it is. It's just been a wonderful thing. Well, thank you for all of that. It's just been a really good exploration of this disease, which can be fatal or can cause us to die early and can just impact on the quality of our lives in such simple solutions. Eating very simple, lovely, lovely plant foods. And they're very enjoyable, too. And so that's all we really have time for for today. But we probably have questions about this. Maybe you've got questions about other things, other health concerns that you have. And if so, you can contact John or Jenifer by emailing healthyliving at threeABN australia.org Au. So you can watch out for our programs on demand or download our fact sheets. And to do that, you visit 3abnaustralia.org.au. Click on the watch button. And remember, today is the first day of the rest of your life. God bless.