The acid that is secreted by the parietal cells in the human stomach play a couple of very important roles.  First off, it helps to break down proteins so that nutrients are more available in the intestines and easily absorbed.  Stomach acid is important for calcium absorption, among other nutrients.

Stomach acid is also an important part of the immune system of the digestive tract.  Acid kills many of the organisms that we are commonly exposed to and helps to prevent infection.

Over the counter and prescription medications used to treat heartburn or GERD focus on reducing stomach acid production.  As I mentioned in the previous post, stomach acid is not the cause of heartburn - it is caused by a loose lower esophageal sphincter.

Consistent with the physiological importance of stomach acid, recent medical research indicates that medications that lower stomach acidity are associated with an increased risk of infection (gastrointestinal and pneumonia!) and osteoporosis.  Another of the known adverse effects of these medications is hair loss - treated naturopathically with specific nutrients.

The natural treatment of GERD involves identification and avoidance of aggravating foods and herbal and nutritional recommendations that soothe and protect the esophagus while improving gastrointestinal function.  Discontinuance of acid lowering medication and WITHOUT GERD symptoms is a real possibility for many patients.

Be Well,

Richard

RSS makes it easy to subscribe to the Simply Well blog - just add the feed address (feed://maliknd.com/simply_well/?feed=rss2) to your RSS reader (your email program) and get updates automatically.

As mentioned in the podcast, it is now possible to determine your 10 year fracture risk from osteoporosis.  This is a wonderful tool for clinicians and patients to help them understand the seriousness of their osteoporosis, the likely benefit of treatment, and to monitor the effectiveness of treatment.

All you need to know is: your age, sex, height, weight; if you have had a previous fracture in adulthood; if you have a parent that had a hip fracture; if you smoke; if you take steroids; if you have rheumatoid arthritis; if you have osteoporosis caused by other medical conditions (diabetes, hyperthyroidism, bone disease, premature menopause, hypogonadism, etc); how much alcohol you drink per day, and you most recent bone mineral density results.

Osteoporosis Fracture Risk Assessment Tool

Be Well,

Richard

Preventing osteoporosis begins at a young age.  Yet another study has found that when girls exercise, their risk of post-menopausal osteoporosis is reduced.  These results were identified with bone mineral density and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) testing.

Bottom Line:

In addition to adequate calcium intake and adequate vitamin D status, lifelong exercise plays an important role in preventing osteoporosis.

Be Well,

Richard

In October of 2008, an original research article was published in PLoS Medicine that reports 5mg of daily vitamin K1 supplementation for two to four years does not prevent or reduce age related losses in bone mineral density, but may protect against fractures and cancer.  The results are interesting, but provide little new information in the treatment of osteoporosis with vitamin K.  The studies that have shown good results with vitamin K used 45mg per day of a different form of vitamin K - vitamin K2.  I am concerned that these results, on face value, may lead clinicians to believe that vitamin K does not work for osteopenia or osteoporosis.  This study actually tests a new therapy with a different medicine and different dosing.

Another recent study using vitamin K2 used only 200 IU of vitamin D daily in conjunction with vitamin K2 treatment. This is far below the vitamin D3 dosage that has been used in effective vitamin K2 studies in the past.

Sometimes the headlines from new medical research can be misleading and easy to misinterpret.  These are just a couple of possible examples.

Be well,

Richard

While several research studies (1, 2, 3) show that very high-dose supplementation with vitamin K2 can be very helpful for IMPROVING bone mineral density in women with osteoporosis, another recent study exploring the same treatment has found dramatic reduction in liver cancer in patients that are at high risk for liver cancer.  Other studies show improved outcomes in liver cancer patients taking vitamin 

Vitamin K2, unlike other forms of vitamin K, is non-toxic.

The possibility exists that vitamin K recommended daily allowances are adequate for preventing coagulation problems (one of vitamin K’s jobs is to support blood clotting) but not high enough for healthy bones.  I think it is interesting that the daily recommended allowance of vitamin K is only less than 120 micrograms per day while one cup of chopped kale has over 500 micrograms.

Kale, broccoli, swiss chard, and parsley are the best dietary sources of vitamin K and are also rich in calcium!

For more information on Vitamin K and Osteoporosis, please take a look at my articles and podcasts on the subjects.

Be well,

Richard