Osteoporosis is a complex disease caused by a progressive imbalance in the activity of the cells involved in bone remodeling. Bone remodeling is the process of repairing wear related microcracks in bone.  This occurs in 10% of bone each year with the entire skeleton being rebuilt every decade.  Resident bone cells called osteocytes are sensitive at […]

Osteoporosis is a disease involving weakening of bone increasing the risk of fragility fracture or fractures from insignificant trauma.  This weakening is estimated by measurement of bone mineral density (BMD) on a DEXA scan.  On these scans the BMD is reported as a T score, or the standard deviations in BMD compared to healthy 30 […]

Osteoporosis is a complex disease of aging.  Complex means it isn’t caused by “A” but rather it is by “A”, “B”, “C” and “D”.  To further complicate this, one patient may have the disease caused by 20% A, 70% C and 10% D while in another patient, it is caused by 60% A, 30% B […]

A new study examined living near a golf course and the risk of Parkinson’s disease.  The study based their data on the disease from the Rochester Epidemiology Project.  Compared to those living more than 6 miles from a golf course, those living within 1 mile had a 126% increased risk.  The authors comment on several […]

When bad food means bad bones One of the common responses I hear from a patient when I explore dietary patterns that may be contributing to their health challenge is “but I don’t eat fast food”.  Generally, fast food is highly processed, loaded with artificial ingredients, fat and sugar all associated with a broad array […]

We are very excited to have added a state-of-the-art piece of equipment to be the core of our non-drug therapy program for osteoporosis.  Bone is constantly remodeling, removing damaged bone and replacing it with new, healthy bone.  With age, and particularly as estrogen declines, osteoclasts which remove bone become more active while osteoblasts which fill […]

Designing an Effective Non-Drug Treatment Program Summary As we have discussed in this series, osteoporosis and osteopenia are common with age.  Simply supplying the building components of bone, minerals and vitamins D & K2 are the standard concept of non-drug treatment, yet the research demonstrating benefit once disease is present is rarely helpful.  The maintenance […]

Designing an Effective Non-Drug Treatment Program Part 3 – The Piece We Omitted! In writing this summary putting all of the pieces of osteoporosis treatment together, I realized that a piece of the process was left out in the last blog.  That piece is insuring/restoring bone matrix.  Bone matrix is the fibrous mesh that supports […]

Designing an Effective Non-Drug Treatment Program Part 3 – Activating Osteoblasts for Bone Building As we discussed in the first blog in this series, bone mass is maintained by balanced activity in osteoclasts which remove bone and osteoblasts that build it.  Aging is associated with a progressive increase in osteoclast bone removal and diminished osteoblast […]

Designing an Effective Non-Drug Treatment Program Part 2 – Inflammation and Bone Loss The first post in this series discussed the concept that osteoporosis is a problem of imbalanced cell activity between bone removing cells, osteoclasts, and bone building cells, osteoblasts.  Both cells are important for normal bone health and strength giving bone the constant […]