Every day I see patients who were recently diagnosed with either osteopenia or osteoporosis. My new book Healing the Thyroid With Ayurveda will delve more deeply into the subject because thyroid problems can contribute to bone loss.
There are numerous factors that must be addressed in order to maintain strong healthy bones. Here is a great place to start:
– Avoid colas aka pop, soda, coke. (the phosphoric acid found in colas acidifies the blood forcing the bones to give up their calcium to keep the blood pH alkaline).
– Keep coffee consumption to a minimum as the caffeine increases your body’s excretion of calcium.
– Keep your bile thinned out and flowing (my book has a whole chapter on the gall bladder and how to do this easily and effectively). The bile keeps our digestive juices alkaline which keep the blood alkaline. When the blood is alkaline there is no need for the bones to give up their calcium. However most of us are walking around with bile sludge creating an acidic condition in the gut and blood as the bile is now too thick to flow.
– And drink very high quality milk, in the correct way. My book has a very large section on milk because everyone is told to avoid it as it is nowadays considered a poison. While it is true that poor quality overly processed milk taken incorrectly (drank cold) and mixed improperly in the stomach with the wrong foods (meats, fruits and vegetables) combined with improper digestion, will produce a poison, known as “ama visha” in Ayurveda. However, if you get raw or unhomogenized milk from grass fed cows treated properly, you simmer the milk with cardamom (to help you digest the protein in the milk) and cinnamon (to help you digest the sugar in the milk), and you fix your digestion and combine it properly with other foods (such as grains and dried fruits), then the milk is like a nectar and will thoroughly nourish your bones. If cow’s milk bothers you try goats milk as it is very close to mother’s milk plus the fat molecules are 10x smaller than cow’s milk, making it easier to digest. Again always simmer it with these spices. If goat’s milk bothers you then make your own almond milk (see recipe in my book). Don’t buy it off the shelf as its nutritional value declines as it sits there.And yes! You want full fat milk because the fat in the milk delivers the calcium into your bones. If you take the fat out and drink low fat or skim milk the calcium will never reach your bones but will instead be excreted in the urine.
– Stop juicing kale and spinach! And don’t make smoothies with them! The oxalic acid they contain leaches the calcium out of your bones. Instead, cook them to decrease their oxalic acid content.
– Don’t drink the tap water. Much of it is fluoridated and fluoride disrupts proper bone formation. Plus the water is acidic (due to the acid rain), which negatively impacts the bones. Instead drink naturally occurring alkaline spring water such as Mountain Valley, Fiji, Evian or Iceland.
One Note About Calcium
Calcium has to be burnt into an ash into small nanoparticles (which we always recommend in Ayurveda). Most of the calcium supplements given in this country will just get stuck in your arteries contributing to plaque formation and hardening of the arteries, so beware. My book will discuss this issue in greater detail.
And yes, one more reason to eat ghee: it thoroughly nourishes the fat tissue, and it is the fat tissue which is the raw material to make the bone tissue (also discussed in my book). Healthy fat tissue equals healthy bones. Plus ghee contains Vitamin K2 which directs the calcium into your bones and teeth and away from your arteries, joints and soft tissues.
Following these guidelines will insure strong healthy bones into old age.