Magnesium Supplements Can Protect Bones of Older People

Calcium is pushed as a preventative for osteoporosis, but researchers discovered that taking magnesium supplements could help protect bones as well.

Taking magnesium supplements in middle age could help protect bones, a study suggests.

The pills may hold the key to reducing rates of the most preventable cause of disability in middle-aged and elderly people, UK scientists said.

Researchers discovered middle-aged men who had high levels of magnesium in their blood nearly halved their chances of breaking a bone over the next 25 years. Read more

10 Foods for Healthy Bones and Teeth

Eat these ten nutritious foods for healthy bones and teeth, says Dr. Edward Group.

Phosphorus is a mineral that helps your body maintain healthy bones and teeth.^[1] It is essential for life and makes up about 1% of your body weight, making it the second most abundant mineral in your body next to calcium. 85% of the phosphorus in your body is in your teeth and bones; with calcium, it keeps your bones and teeth strong. It also plays a major role in how your body uses carbohydrates and fats, repairs cells, stores energy, and works with B vitamins. Most people are able to get enough phosphorus from their diet, so let’s take a look at the top 10 foods high in phosphorus. Read more

How to Sweep Away Dangerous Arterial Plaque

Dr. Mercola reveals the missing nutrient vital to heart and bone health.

Most everyone, including many conventional physicians, have begun to appreciate the importance and value of vitamin D. Few, however, recognize the importance of vitamin K2, which is nearly as important as vitamin D.

Dr. Dennis Goodman,1 who was born in South Africa and trained at the University of Cape Town, has multiple board certifications in cardiology (and several subspecialties) and holistic integrative medicine.

After his internship at the Grootte Schuur Hospital—where Dr. Christian Barnard did the first heart transplant in 1967—he came to the US, where he did his cardiology fellowship at the at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, where Dr. Michael DeBakey performed the first bypass surgery. Read more

Bone Density: Quality over Quantity

When it comes to reducing the risky of fracture, bone quality is more important than bone quantity, says Margaret Durst, and to get quality, you need more than calcium.

D is for density as in bone density – a statistic that many women are concerned with. Bone density is a measure of the quantity of bone, not the quality. I like to make a distinction here, because bone quality is an important concern that is being overlooked by many.

Bone quality concerns reduced risk of fracture which should be distinguished from bone quantity as expressed as bone density. The conventional way to deal with osteoporosis is to keep old bone from being torn down by using estrogen and prescription drugs such as Fosamax and Actonel along with calcium and vitamin D supplements. .

The problem with this approach is that bone is living tissue. It is constantly being built up and torn down. The modern approach just works at keeping old bone from being torn down and using just calcium which does not greatly strengthen bone such that it resists mechanical stresses. The result may be increased bone density, but the quality of the bone is poor and tends to be brittle.

Calcium alone does not build strong bone. Read more

Do Calcium Supplements Actually Improve Bone Health?

Do calcium supplements actually improve bone health? Bill Sardi says they don't and discusses what does.

The dietary supplement industry is such a mixed bag these days. It has such promise, but often fails to deliver. For example, garlic pills were once the number one herbal supplement. But studies showed most garlic pills failed to deliver the active ingredient produced by fresh-crushed garlic cloves. Subsequently garlic pills fell from their top-seller spot. Turns out that stomach acid destroys the enzyme (alliinase) that produces the active ingredient allicin. Only if a garlic clove is crushed outside the acidic stomach is allicin produced. Only enteric-coated or buffered garlic tablets produce what a fresh-crushed clove of garlic delivers.

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But now the dietary supplement industry is once again, crying foul, and circling its wagons around calcium supplements, its number-two seller next to vitamin C and used by 43% of the American public (2003–2006), claiming a recent analysis of pooled studies shows calcium pills increase the risk of a heart attack by about 30% represents "cherry picking" of studies. But the dietary supplement industry reacted more out of protection of their vested interests than in delivering solid public health information. Read more