How common osteoporosis is after 60
Osteoporosis means the bone has thinned and weakened to the point where it breaks easily. Osteopenia is the earlier stage. On a bone density scan, the standard definition puts osteoporosis at a T score of minus 2.5 or lower, and osteopenia between minus 1 and minus 2.5. Those are the scan's cut offs, not his.
He opens with statistics he looked up: half of American women and a quarter of American men will break a bone in their lifetime because of osteoporosis. He reads that about one in five people who break a hip from it die within a year, and that one fracture sharply raises the risk of the next.
He acknowledges hormonal factors after menopause, but spent this episode on what you can change.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 816There's some hormonal factors, but what you can control, guys, what you can control is the food you eat and the exercise you do.
Why he looks past the bone drugs
He remembers how hard Fosamax and the bone building drugs were promoted. His objection is that nobody looked at why bones were weakening, and the side effects were not talked about.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 816It's typical in medicine, they try and solve a problem with a drug that creates other problems.
That is his view of the approach, not an instruction to stop anything. If you are on a bone medication, any change belongs with your own doctor.
Reason one: sugar
He thinks food first, and the first change he names is that we went sugar crazy. He says orthopedic surgeons describe bone quality dropping and bone turning brittle.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 816It glycates it. What's that mean? Glycation. It strips away the youth of bones and they become glycated.
Glycation is sugar attaching to tissue and aging it, the same process he blames for aging skin and organs. In bone, he says, sugar also does damage at the cellular level. Bone is constantly being broken down by cells called osteoclasts and rebuilt by cells called osteoblasts. With age the breakdown side starts to win, and sugar pushes it further, hurting the builders and helping the breakers.
Reason two: not enough vitamin K2
This is the part of the episode most women have never heard from their doctor. Calcium, he says, is still the number one selling supplement of all time, and he does not like it.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 816It's a terrible supplement. You need calcium by the way, you do, but you don't need it in a supplement.
His reason is where the calcium ends up. In food, he says, calcium comes packaged with vitamin K2. Butter, cheese, eggs and meat carry both. K2 is the vitamin that directs calcium to the right place.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 816K2 takes calcium, doesn't leave it in your bloodstream like a calcium supplement and puts it where? In the bones, where it belongs.
K2 also helps keep the osteoblasts and osteoclasts in balance, which is his second reason it matters. K1, found in salad greens, is a different vitamin, and he says the two should not be lumped together. K2 comes from the animal kingdom.
When a generation swapped bacon and eggs for cereal and went fat free, he says, they lost their K2 with the fat.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 816That's why I don't want you to ditch dairy. I want you to switch dairy.
Switch means away from grocery store milk and toward cream, butter and cheese, which he calls nature's answer for your bones.
"Never too late to start to get strong bones."
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 816Reason three: not enough vitamin D
The third reason is people staying out of the sun. He says vitamin D does far more than build bone, but it does build bone, and there is no getting around it.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 816You can't have strong bones without vitamin D.
He says twenty minutes of sun on bare arms, without sunscreen, makes about 10,000 IU of vitamin D, and that the amount most physicians recommend is far too low. He describes women covered head to toe under wide hats on sunny days, and he wants them thinking about their bones. Like K2, vitamin D is fat soluble and comes in animal foods such as fish and organ meats, but you have to eat it every day. When you cannot see the sun, he supplements. He says he put K2 in the Martin Clinic vitamin D for exactly this reason, to carry the calcium to bone. For more on getting vitamin D right after 60, see what supplements a 65 year old woman should take.
The minerals bone needs
Bone looks like calcium, and there is a lot of calcium in it, but he says it is more complex than that. It also needs zinc, boron, selenium and magnesium, plus vitamin E.
He is blunt that a plant based diet will not deliver them. Plants carry oxalates and phytic acid, and fiber, which he says pull minerals out of the body. Meat, he argues, carries more usable magnesium than plants, and steak brings zinc and K2 with it. His summary is short: do not live on plants if you want strong bones.
The exercise that builds bone
Many women over 60 walk every day and assume it protects their bones. He walks too, and he likes it. It is just not enough.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 816It's all right, but you're not going to get strong bone and you'll never regenerate bone by walking or jogging or on the treadmill or biking. Okay. Won't do it, honey. You need resistant exercises.
Resistance means weights, resistance bands, pushups. His reason is that muscles pull on the bones they attach to.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 816The stronger your muscles are, the stronger your bones are because what muscles do, they create more osteoblasts.
He says this applies at 80 as much as at 60. Think of the muscle attachments around the hips and spine, which are exactly where a fracture does the most harm. A bad lower back, he says, means strengthen your legs. A bad neck means strengthen your upper back. If you want to go further on building muscle after 60, read should women over 60 take creatine, and for the joint side, joint pain after 60.
Common questions
What causes osteoporosis in women over 60?
He acknowledges hormonal changes after menopause, but on this episode he focuses on what you control: too much sugar, too little vitamin K2 and vitamin D, minerals lost to a plant heavy diet, and no resistance exercise.
Should I take a calcium supplement for my bones?
He calls calcium a terrible supplement. You need calcium, he says, but from food like butter and cheese, which come with vitamin K2 to put it in the bone. Talk to your practitioner before changing anything you were prescribed.
Is walking enough to prevent osteoporosis?
No. He says walking, jogging, the treadmill and biking will not regenerate bone. Resistance exercise with weights, bands or pushups builds the muscle that builds the bone.
Is it too late to strengthen my bones at 70 or 80?
He says it is never too late to start. He tells people at 80 to begin resistance exercise if they have not already.
Vitamin D, with the K2 to carry calcium
He says you cannot have strong bones without vitamin D, and that K2 puts calcium where it belongs. Martin Clinic Liquid Vitamin D + K2 carries both in one tasteless liquid.
60-day money-back guarantee. Formulated in clinic.These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Always consult your healthcare practitioner before starting a new supplement, especially if you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or have a medical condition.
