by Susan Brady | Apr 27, 2017 | Supplements
The significance of magnesium in bone health is often underestimated. For too long, the emphasis has been on calcium and vitamin D for the prevention of osteoporosis, with little attention paid to other critical nutrients, like magnesium. Yet studies have shown that decreased dietary magnesium promotes osteoporosis.
Magnesium is critical for bone health in several different ways:
- Necessary for proper absorption and metabolism of calcium
- Plays a role in the activation of an enzyme involved in the conversion of vitamin D into its active form
- Important in the activation of an enzyme that is required for forming new calcium crystals in the bone
- Stimulates a hormone called calcitonin which inhibits osteoclasts (the cells that break down bones)
- Suppresses parathyroid hormone which breaks down bone
- Magnesium deficiency has been linked to increases in inflammation which can lead to bone loss
Unfortunately, magnesium deficiency is one of the most common nutrient deficiencies in the US. A 2012 showed that 48% of the US population consumed less than the required amount of magnesium from food in 2005-2006. This is mainly due to the consumption of the standard American diet which is rich in processed foods and poor in quality nutrients. Over consumption of coffee, soda or alcohol and eating foods high in salt and sugar actually increases the need for magnesium in the body. Many Americans also don’t typically eat magnesium rich foods such as leafy greens, pumpkin seeds, beans and fish. And even if you are eating these foods, you still might not be getting all the magnesium you need due to the decline of concentrated nutrients in our food. Modern farming practices drain our soil of many key minerals. Unlike vitamins, plants can’t make their own minerals, so the amount of magnesium in a plant is directly related to the amount of the mineral in the soil. Magnesium is also lost in the processing of food, for instance, the milling process of whole grains strips the food of this vital nutrient. Many medical conditions can upset the body’s magnesium balance as well including: gastrointestinal diseases, diabetes, hyperthyroidism, and kidney diseases. Even aging affects the intestinal absorption of magnesium and increases its excretion through the urine.
So how do you ensure you are getting the magnesium you need to keep your bones strong and healthy? Start by eating an organic whole-food diet that includes magnesium rich foods on a daily basis. The current recommended daily intake for women is 320 mg/day.
Top 10 Magnesium Rich Foods
1. Dark Leafy Greens 157 mg in 1 cup cooked
(spinach, Swiss chard, kale)
2. Pumpkin and Squash Seeds: 184 mg in 1/4 cup
3. Beans and Lentils 148 mg in 1 cup cooked
(black, white and kidney beans,
chickpeas, black-eyed peas, soy beans)
4. Almonds 105 mg in 1/4 cup
5. Sesame and sunflower seeds 100 mg in 1 ounce
6.. Whole Grans 86 mg in 1 cup cooked
(brown rice, quinoa,
7. Avocado 58 mg in 1 medium fruit
8. Fatty Fish 53 mg in 3 oz
(Wild caught Alaskan Salmon and Mackerel)
9. Yogurt or Kefir 50 mg in 1 cup
10. Dark Chocolate 41 mg in 1 oz
Every organ in the body, not just bones, needs magnesium to function optimally. Magnesium is essential to all cells and is needed for the activation of 100’s of enzymes required in biochemical reactions. It is essential for energy production, protein formation, gene maintenance, muscle function, and regulation of neurotransmitters for a healthy nervous system. Dr. Carolyn Dean, M.D., N.D. an expert on magnesium therapy, believes that it is difficult to get adequate magnesium from your diet and that supplementing with magnesium is necessary to prevent deficiency.
The amount of magnesium supplementation that you will need depends on how much you are getting in your diet, if you have a magnesium deficiency and how much calcium you are taking. If you feel you need magnesium supplementation, it would be best to contact me for further evaluation. There are many different magnesium supplements, each with different properties and absorption rates, a more thorough evaluation may be needed to determine the best supplement for you.
DO NOT SUPPLEMENT with MAGNESIUM if you have KIDNEY DISEASE!
Contact me TODAY for more information on how magnesium can help you can build strong, healthy bones for tomorrow!
by Susan Brady | Apr 19, 2017 | Healthy aging
My Grandmother’s 100th Birthday!
Celebrations with family and friends are such an important part of life, not only because they mark important religious and social rituals but also because they play an essential role in our health and well-being. This past week, many of you celebrated Easter and Passover, some will celebrate Ramadan in June, and we all are entering the ceremonious season of graduations and weddings. Although we sometimes over indulge in food and drink during these celebrations, which is typically not conducive to good health, these festivities provide a vital connection to our families and communities that ultimately strengthen and enhance our well-being. One of my favorite books on health and longevity, The Blue Zones, emphasizes the importance of family and social connections for not only living longer, but also living healthier and more vibrant lives.
The Blue Zones, authored by Dan Buettner, looks at the diet and lifestyles from communities around the world where people are living healthy, productive lives at 100 years old and beyond. Buettner identifies 5 areas of the world, which he calls the Blue Zones, that have the greatest number of centenarians: The Barbagia region of Sardinia; Ikaria, Greece; Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica; Loma Linda, California; and Okinawa, Japan. Through his study of these geographically diverse regions, Buettner found 9 common lifestyle principals among these populations that lead to remarkably long and fulfilled lives.
Now if you are going to live to be100 years old and beyond, you have to have healthy bones, right? If we become frail and our bones break, they certainly won’t support us to living vibrantly at 100! By incorporating the 9 common lifestyle habits of the world’s longest living and healthiest people, we can in turn adapt a lifestyle that will not only encourage strong, healthy bones, but also a healthy, happy, more vibrant life.
Lessons from the Blue Zones
1. Move Naturally. Build activity into your routine and daily lifestyle.
2. Have Purpose. Why do you wake in the morning? What are you passionate about? How do you enjoy using your talents? What is truly important to you?
3. Down Shift. Even people in the Blue Zones experience stress. Stress leads to chronic inflammation, associated with every major age-related disease, including osteoporosis. The world’s longest-lived people have routines that neutralize stress. Take time every day to rest, pray, meditate or socialize with friends.
4. 80% Rule. Stop eating when you are 80% full. People in the Blue Zones also eat their smallest meal in the late afternoon or early evening and then they don’t eat any more the rest of the day.
5. Plant Slant. People in the Blue Zones eat 2 vegetables at every meal as well as making beans and lentils, not animal proteins, the centerpiece of meals.
6. Wine at 5! People in all Blue Zones (except Adventists) drink alcohol moderately. Moderation is important because excessive alcohol negates any benefits you might enjoy. Drinking 1-2 glasses of red wine a day with friends and/or with food can be beneficial.
NOTE: Alcohol is NOT conducive to building strong bones, so MODERATION is key!
7. Belong. All but five of the 263 centenarians interviewed in this book belonged to some faith-based community. Studies have shown that attending religious services (1-4 times a month) may make a difference in how long a person lives. It is thought that adherence to a religion can help to alleviate stress and belonging to a spiritual community can foster a supportive social network.
8. Loved Ones First. Successful centenarians in the Blue Zones put their families first. Make a point to spend time with your family, take vacations together, and celebrate together.
9. Right Tribe. The world’s longest lived people are born into or chose social circles that support healthy behaviors. It is much easier to adopt good habits if you are surrounded by people who also practice them.
It is commonly thought that degenerative diseases like osteoporosis, diabetes, heart disease, and arthritis are inevitable side effects of aging. But that doesn’t have to be the case. Studies have shown that adopting a healthy lifestyle can actually stop, slow down and even reverse chronic disease. You can’t stop the aging process, but you can adopt these 9 lifestyle habits that can help you prevent or minimize the impact of age related disease and allow you to live a long life with greater health and vitality.
For more information on the nine commonalities that support a longer, healthier, happy live you can visit the following website:https://www.bluezones.com/ or enjoy the book The Blue Zones by Dan Buettner
by Susan Brady | Apr 13, 2017 | Healthy aging
What could be more nutritious for your bones, than a broth made from BONES? Why bones? Because they are rich in collagen and minerals! Bones are made up of a flexible collagen matrix which is then mineralized by calcium and phosphate, giving bone its strength and density. Bones are also the storage facility for the many other minerals needed by the body, including minerals needed for bone metabolism, like magnesium. The marrow of the bone hosts vitamin A, vitamin K2, and minerals like zinc, iron, boron, manganese and selenium as well as omega 3 and 6 fatty acids. Eating bones would be a little tough, but we can access their valuable nutrients by making a broth. By slowly simmering bones in a pot of water with a little added vinegar, you can extract the collagen and minerals from the bones making a broth rich in many bone building nutrients. The breakdown of bones during the cooking process also makes a broth abundant in amino acids that help maintain muscle tissue, promote healthy digestion and reduce inflammation throughout the body. All important factors in supporting bone health!
Broths made from bones have been used though out history to provide nourishment and sustenance, but also for medicinal and health benefits. Beyond your bones, check out the many ways bone broth supports your over all and well-being.
The Bountiful Benefits of Bone Broth
1. Supports good gut health and promotes healthy digestion.
2. Great source of natural collagen with chondroitin sulphates and glucosamine which help to reduce joint pain and inflammation.
3. Contains amino acids that have anti-inflammatory effects through out the body, which is especially important for people with chronic inflammation or auto-immune disorders.
4. Since 70-80% of the body’s immune system is in the gut, supporting a healthy gut, in turn, supports a healthy immune system.
5. Supports natural detoxification by helping the digestive system expel waste and promote liver health and function.
6. The abundance of amino acids help support muscle function and repair
7. The collagen and gelatin in bone broth support healthy hair and strong nails.
Here is a great recipe for Home Made Chicken Broth
Some times, instead of using a whole uncooked chicken, I will use the bones from a roasted chicken after eating up all the yummy meat!
Ingredients
1 whole free-range chicken or2 to 3 pounds of bony chicken parts, such as necks, backs, breastbones, and wings
Gizzards from one chicken (optional)
4 quarts cold filtered water
2 tablespoons vinegar
¾ inch peel of 1 large white potato, discard the center
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
2 carrots, peeled and coarsely chopped
3 celery stalks, coarsely chopped
1 bunch parsley
Please note the addition of vinegar. The vinegar helps leech all those valuable minerals from the bones into the stockpot water, which is ultimately what you’ll be eating. The goal is to extract as many minerals as possible out of the bones into the broth water. Bragg’s raw apple cider vinegar is a good choice as it’s unfiltered and unpasteurized.
Cooking Directions
- Fill up a large stockpot (or large crockpot) with pure, filtered water.
- Add vinegar and all vegetables except parsley to the water.
- Place the whole chicken or chicken carcass into the pot.
- Bring to a boil, and remove any scum that rises to the top.
- Reduce the heat to the lowest setting and let simmer.
- If cooking a whole chicken, after the meat begins to separate from the bone, remove the chicken from the pot and separate the meat from the bones. Place the carcass back into the pot and continue simmering the bones for another 12-24 hours.
- If cooking bones only, simply let them simmer for about 24 hours.
- Add the fresh parsley about 10 minutes before finishing the stock, as this will add healthy mineral ions to your broth.
- Remove remaining bones from the broth with a slotted spoon and strain the rest through a strainer to remove any bone fragments.
Simmering bones over low heat for an entire day will create one of the most nutritious and healing foods there is. You can use this broth for soups, stews, or drink it straight. The broth can also be frozen for future use. Keep in mind that the “skin” that forms on the top is the best part. It contains valuable nutrients, such as sulfur, along with healthful fats, so just stir it back into the broth.
by Susan Brady | Apr 7, 2017 | Exercise
Exercise is without a doubt the most important thing you can do to build bone strength. Although it is true that we naturally lose bone mass as we age, it has also been very well established that exercise can maintain and even improve bone mass at any age. Around age 40, women start to lose bone mass at a rate of 0.3-0.5% a year. After age 50, the rate of bone loss increases to 1-1.5% a year and can accelerate to over 2% a year during the first 6-10 years after menopause. The good news is that consistent exercise has been shown to improve bone mass by 1-3% a year!
In the last newsletter, I talked about how stress can be detrimental to our bones, but exercise can stress our skeletal system in a positive way! The greater the stress an exercise places on a bone, the more it stimulates bone turnover and strength. So the best bone builders are exercises that put a force on the bone, like weight-bearing activities such as power walking and jogging and resistance or strength training exercises. However, research suggests that resistance training actually has a more profound site specific effect on bone. For instance, performing squat exercises not only improves leg strength, but also increases bone mass in the hip and lumbar spine. Just as muscle gets bigger and stronger with resistance training exercise, so does bone.
Resistance training, is beneficial in so many ways. Not only does the force of the muscle contracting on the bone stimulate bone growth, but muscle, in response to exercise, also releases a hormone called irisin. Studies have shown that irisn produced by muscle during physical exercise can increase bone mass and strength. Irisin has been shown to increase the number of osteoblasts (bone building cells) while inhibiting the production of osteoclasts (cells that break down bone.) Strength training also effectively offsets age-related decline in muscle mass. Body muscle mass decreases by approximately 15% between the ages of 30 and 80 with a 30% decrease in overall strength between the ages of 50 and 70. Improving overall muscle strength is essential to improving balance, which in turn, decreases the likelihood of falling and breaking a bone.
For the most beneficial effects of resistance training, women should start strength training before menopause, however, you can experience the benefits at any age. Strength training exercises can include lifting weights, using elastic exercise bands or weight machines, or simply lifting your own body weight. Performing resistance training at least twice a week has been shown to build bone and muscle mass.
As stated above, squats are a great exercise to start building bone in the hips and lumbar spine. Below is a progression of the squat exercise from basic to advanced. If you have not been doing resistance training or arthritis in your knees, hips or back, you should start with the chair squat and progress as able. As with any exercise program, go at your own pace, stop if you have pain and progress to the next level only when you feel like the current exercise level is getting to easy.
Squats
1. Chair Squats: This is a great exercise to get you started. Simply start by sitting up tall in a chair and then standing up tall without using your arms. Focus on using your leg muscles to stand up rather than thrusting your body forward. Perform 2 sets of 5-10 sit to stand chair squats a day.
2. Mini Squats: You can start this exercise on a stool or higher chair and then progress to a lower chair once you become stronger. Start by standing up tall with feet shoulder width apart. Slowly lower yourself down, like you are going to sit on the stool or chair. Touch your buttock lightly to the chair, without fully sitting, then straighten back up. Start by performing 2 sets of 10 mini squats daily.
3. Full squats: Perform initially without weight and then progress to using weights as you become stronger. Start with feet shoulder width apart and focus on bending at the hips. Don’t let your knees pass your toes as you squat. When using a weight, keep it a chest level and be sure to tighten your stomach muscles and keep your back straight as you squat. This will protect your back from excessive loads. Start by performing 2 sets of 10 squats without weights. When this becomes easy, you can add light hand weight and progress as able.
Weakening of the bones does not have to be a part of normal aging. You can do something about it! Start performing resistance exercises today and you can stimulate increases in bone mass that can offset the negative effects of aging and help you to age vibrantly!
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