Crooked Hand of Fate

crooked hand of fate
like me, just bone and sinew
it is arthritic

TOP TIPS FOR BONE BUILDING
by Rudy Sanchez, Holistic Pharmacist

Surprisingly, for all the fuss about calcium, we only have a relatively small amount of it. The average female has one kilo of calcium. The average male, 1.5 kilos. You can carry this amount of calcium in a lunch bag. However, what we do with this lunch bag of calcium is amazing: it gives us hard teeth to chew with, bones to karate chop with, nails to scratch an itch with, and it fuels nerve and muscle activity.

Bone is living tissue and is constantly changing, giving up calcium when asked and absorbing calcium when it needs to get stronger. It behaves much like a calcium bank. The health of your bones is relative to the health of this bank account. It is a matter of balance. Most of us treat our bones like we treat our bank account. We don't really know how much is in there, we just know the "look" that the waitress gets when the debit card does not work. By then, we have already eaten the food and we're not in a position to be returning it.

The basic bone health strategy is this: deposits should at least equal withdrawals.

The Top Tip: The best strategy for bone health is to maintain an alkaline body pH between 7.4 and 7.8. An acidic environment is disastrous for bone health, as the body will withdraw calcium to use as a buffering agent to neutralize the acid. You don’t want to use your precious bone as “internal antacid”. 

Tip No. 2: Take Strontium Capsules to boost bone strength. Stontium has been shown to work in two ways. It supports osteoblast activity to reduce resorption (loss) of calcium. It also imparts flexibility to the bone, creating a calcium trap. It has been shown to be able to grow new bone.

Tip No. 3: Vitamin K is important in the formation of Gla-protein (osteocalcin) and Matrix Gla-protein which are essential for calcium assimilation. Vitamin K2 is now available as a supplement and has been showing up in some quality calcium supplements. If relying on dietary Vitamin K, It is important to have good gut bacteria so take a good probiotic.

Tip No. 4: Lecithin, when taken together with the calcium imparts a vehicle for increasing calcium absorption. It has a perfect lyophilic and liphophilic duality. It ensures transport of calcium ions across the gut wall. 

Tip No. 5: Maintain a schedule of weight bearing exercise. If possible, shoot for 30 minutes of moderate-intensity weight-bearing exercise daily: strength training and bouncy activities such as stair-climbing, mini-trampoline jumping or just plain walking. Less popular, but equally effective are: uphill pogo-sticking, moon shoe kick-boxing and unicycle-bouncing-on-a-trapeze-wire-over-the-Niagara. These bone-densifying activities signal the activity of osteoblast cells which act as spackle, gluing the calcium to the bone. In effect, if you need your bones to be stronger, the body will take care of it, no problem. However, if you are sitting on your buttocks and using your thumbs to press the remote, then you will get calcium deposits in these two areas. You asked for it; no problem there too.

Tip No. 6: Choose your calcium as you would choose your friends: not all calcium is equal. Confused about absorption rates? 

                    Calcium bis-glycinate (best) 

                    Calcium citrate-malate ( very good)

                    Calcium citrate (good)

                    Calcium carbonate (not bad, better than milk)

                    Milk (well, it's better than water)

              

      Magnesium, when taken at the same time as calcium, will work to increase calcium absorption. It acts like Tenille to the Captain, or Herb to the Peaches.If you get the reference, you need calcium and magnesium right about now.

Tip No. 7: Get enough Vitamin D. In the summer, sun exposure for 5-10 minutes on bare skin activates Vitamin D stored in fat cells. Supplements are needed in the winter or if you wear a T-shirt that says "spelunkalot". Vitamin D3, the activated form, is non-accumulative, and is safe even in high doses.  When shopping for Vitamin D, make sure it is D3, the activated, non-accumulating form. Look for super concentrated Vitamin D 3 drops in rice bran oil delivering 1,000iu per drop. 

Tip No. 8: Don’t forget fruits and vegetables. Eat a minimum of 5 to 10 servings of a variety of different colored fruits or vegetables daily. Important for alkalinity and Vitamin K. Avoid the three terrors (not the three tenors): alcohol, smoking and coffee.

This computerized image shows the air pockets in the bone magnified. These air pockets start appearing as the bone loses its integrity. Hormone changes, injury, inactivity and acid-loss all contribute to the acceleration of bone loss.

When bone loses calcium, the air pockets increase in proportion to the calcium. The density of the bone starts to drop. As the supporting matrix collapses, the collagen protein which gives bone its resiliency gives way to soft, brittle bone.

Unfortunately, this happens over time with little warning. It is common to discover osteoarthritis only after a fall which has resulted in a fracture.

Tip No. 9: Eat enough protein: Vegetarians and raw fooders in particular should make sure they are consuming adequate dietary protein. The recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for protein is 56 g/day for adult men and 46 g/day for adult women. Clean protein is hard to find, but consider brown rice protein of hemp protein. 

Tip No. 10: Avoid excess salt: Higher salt intakes increase urinary calcium loss. Keep salt intake below 5.8 g/day (2.3 g/day of sodium). Avoid salty, packaged, processed foods and preserved meat. If you add up all the salt in packaged food, you will soon discover that there is salt in everything. How to know you are not taking too much salt? Eat in a restaurant. Order soup. if you find the soup salty, congratulate yourself, your taste buds have adjusted to low salt.

Free Bonus Tip: Avoid excess Vitamin A (retinol). Look for multivitamin supplements that contain no more than 2,500 iu of vitamin A or choose a supplement with Beta-Carotene instead.

Top Ten Ways to Balance Your pH

TOP TEN TIPS ON ALKALIZING YOUR INTERNAL pH

One of the givens in achieving health, maintaining energy, reaching vitality and increasing immunity is a proper body pH. The surety of this all-in-one season's pass to good health is based on the fact that our body contains about 60% water. Our being in balance is dependent on a large part on the chemistry of acids and alkalis.

Human blood is slightly alkaline, maintained to precision by the body’s systems to operate between a very narrow range of 7.35 and 7.45. If the pH falls below 6.8 or rises above 7.8, it has a very immediate effect: cells die. That is how important acid-alkali balancing is.
Here are the top ten tips in achieving a perfect body pH.

1. Eat more vegetables. Put two hands out, that's how much vegetables. Put one hand out, that's how much carbs. Put the fingers of one hand together, that's how much protein. Stick your thumb out as if hitching for a ride, that's how much fat.

Vegetables are alkaline producing and carbohydrates (starches, breads, sugars) and protein (fish, meat, dairy ) are acid-producing. At every meal, balance alkaline foods to acidic foods at a ratio of 70% to 30%. It does not work if you have a salad for lunch (good) and a KD for dinner (bad), as the neutralizing effect of the vegetables happens if present at the same meal.

2. Avoid coffee. The acidifying effect will last for several hours. Four cups of coffee a day will create an acid storm which can last for the entire day. If you are after the caffeine, then it is better to have an expresso or an americano.

3. Choose carbohydrates carefully, restricting choices to carbs with a low glycemic index. Reduce sugary snacks. This will include chocolate, cookies, doughnuts and cakes, pastries and desserts. Since you’re skipping the coffee anyway, that doughnut won’t be the same.

4. Limit the consumption of dairy products. You may consider switching to almond milk, which is lower in fat, protein and sugar. And: it does not complicate the hormone thing.

5. Drink sufficient amount of water and absolutely avoid carbonated soft drinks. It is a very potent combination of sugar, carbonic acid and phosphoric acid. It will essentially deplete calcium instantly. Carbonated drinks have a pH value of about 2.8. Since the pH system is exponential, this is about 100,000 times more acidic than water.

6.Drink lemon water. Lemons maybe acidic, but once digested, they form alkali residues which are left to neutralize acidic foods.

7. Eat fermented foods such as fermented sauerkraut, specially at the beginning of a meal. Bacteria and enzymes create a digestion factory that will neutralize acids. There are now enzyme supplements cultured in yeast for this purpose.

8. Apple cider vinegar taken at the start of a meal supplies a neutralizing agent for acidifying foods. Make sure you choose a brand with at least 5% Acetic Acid. Cider Press in Courtenay makes a beautiful pristine product with 6% Acetic Acid.

9. Take a supplement of colloidal minerals. These will scavenge for acid fragments and comb the landscape for acids. There are many excellent choices made from sea vegetables, algae and plankton that are packed with trace minerals that will do the trick.

10.Reduce stress. Stress produces more acid. Acid will destroy cells. Stress can be very distressful to cell function…so you may be sorry for the worry. OK, I’ll stop now.

If you want more information, we can provide you with a complete list of acid-alkali foods and a recipe list of perfectly tantalizing, but alkalizing meals.