Participants: Nick Evenson (Host), Dr. James Marcum
Series Code: UP
Program Code: UP000078B
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00:01 Welcome back and thank you for being part of our conversation
00:03 here today as we are talking about bone density. 00:05 And if you have a question regarding any area of health, 00:08 visit our web site at heartwiseministries.org 00:11 where you can ask the doctor for some simple 00:13 advice to point you in the right direction. 00:15 And, Dr. Marcum, you know we talked earlier about 00:18 1 out of 2 women over 50 are likely to experience 00:22 a broken bone. 00:23 A fracture.. yep! Fracture. That's a lot. 00:25 It's a big statistic. 00:26 One in 4 men over 50, and as we talked about earlier, 00:30 you know, the chance of that happening to you is 50%, 00:34 and we want to do precautions because if we break a bone, 00:37 that's just not the end of it. Right 00:38 You break a bone and you lose mobility and it raises the risk 00:41 of a lot of other health problems especially the 00:44 older you get. 00:45 And, bone loss, to some degree, is inevitable. Sure 00:49 But if you're losing 15% of your bone mass every year, 00:52 your muscles are getting weaker every year; 00:54 you're not getting as much calcium because you're 00:56 not eating well every year... then it sort of accelerates 01:00 the bone problems that we might have. 01:01 So I think there are some great questions that have come in 01:03 that we want to talk about. 01:05 I think it's going to elucidate this subject 01:07 and help us all have better bones - like an elephant! 01:10 Our first question comes from someone - they want a little 01:13 clarity and they ask: "What is the difference 01:15 between osteoporosis and osteopenia?" 01:17 Okay, that is a great question. 01:19 Anything that has the name "osteo" means "bone." Sure 01:23 So "osteo" means "bone." 01:25 And, what we do is, we measure... 01:27 we have a way to measure how much bone 01:29 a person is losing as they age. Okay 01:32 And a couple of ways to do that is #1, the way we can do it 01:35 with x-rays we can look at the bone density. Right 01:38 And there's another machine that we do called 01:40 "the bone densitometry." 01:43 Now this machine doesn't have much risk, 01:45 it has a little bit of radiation, but they say 01:47 if you were flying in an airplane from New York 01:51 to San Francisco, you get 15 times more 01:54 radiation just from that flight than you would get from this. 01:57 It's very little radiation. 01:59 And why we're concerned about radiation is because radiation 02:02 can damage cells, mutations, things of that nature, 02:05 so that's why everyone should be sensitive about radiation. 02:08 So anyway, we measure it with bone densitometry. 02:11 So if you have osteopenia, that's just a little bit 02:16 of bone loss and it gives something called a "T-score" 02:20 that measures that and if it's between negative 1 and 2.5 02:24 on that, that's how much bone, it's just a relative score, 02:26 they say you have osteopenia. 02:28 Now if it's below minus 2.5, and these are just scores... 02:32 we don't want to get into, that's osteoporosis. 02:35 If you've lost that much osteoporosis, 02:37 you're even at a greater risk of falling. 02:41 So bone mass is important and also sometimes you can 02:44 look at... the bone is usually fully developed 02:47 by about age 25 and bone health, a lot of it, is genetic. 02:52 And they say about 80% of our bones are genetic, 02:55 so if you have a history, if you're one of those 02:58 1 in 2 women and you look at the history of your family, 03:02 and your mom and your grandma had bone fractures, 03:04 well that's even going to put you at a greater than 50% risk. 03:08 Do you have any bone fractures in your family? 03:10 Not in my immediate family, no. 03:12 That's good, then you're in pretty good shape. 03:14 So that bone history is very important, 03:16 but that only applies to about age 65. 03:20 After 65, it's not so much genetics, but it's lifestyle. 03:25 And the moving, believe it or not, as people get older, 03:28 they move less. Sure - yeah! 03:30 And muscles have an important effect on the bones... 03:34 the way the bones get weak or not depends on muscles, 03:37 moving the bones - very important. 03:39 So people don't move as they get older and that predisposes 03:44 them to osteoporosis and osteopenia. 03:47 Now some people never get their bones checked at all, Nick, 03:50 and then they fall down and they break a hip. Right 03:53 And the doctor goes in and says, "Wow, you've had a 03:55 hip fracture, I looked at your x- ray and you have weak bones." 03:58 "Okay, you've lost the calcium in your bones, 04:00 your bones are weak." 04:01 And then, at that time, then they start working on 04:04 the exercises, sometimes supplements, whatever, 04:06 to build it up. 04:07 And we hear a lot, you know, we're going to talk... 04:09 There are some questions that ask about calcium and vitamin D. 04:12 So getting back to this question, 04:15 the difference between osteoporosis and osteopenia: 04:17 Osteoporosis means more bone loss. 04:20 Osteopenia is not as much bone loss. Okay 04:23 And everyone is going to lose bone the older they get. Right 04:26 So, being that it's a hereditary thing, 04:28 if you're a young person watching this program, 04:30 and you want your offspring and your lineage 04:32 to have strong bones, you can start today 04:34 by working on better bone health, right? Right! 04:36 And, before we're done, we're going to have 04:38 3 or 4 things that everyone can do right now to lower 04:41 their risk so they might not be 1 in 2 women or 1 in 4 men, 04:45 at older ages, that break a bone. Excellent! 04:48 Breaking a bone hurts, Nick. 04:50 I broke a bone when I was little and it hurt. 04:53 It hurt because there are nerves in the bones, bones bleed. 04:56 It's a pretty traumatic experience when you 04:58 break a bone, so no one wants this to happen. I'm sure! 05:01 You know, we've got another question here about calcium. 05:03 It says, "What foods have the most calcium?" 05:06 And I'm sure there's a little confusion out there because 05:08 I remember when I was in school campaigns 05:10 even not too long ago, "got milk" because it's got all 05:14 this calcium - it's going to be good for you, right? 05:15 Well, what's the story behind that? 05:17 Not necessarily - now calcium is in milk, okay? 05:21 But there are a lot of other bad things in milk 05:23 now that we're discovering and especially fat. 05:26 Milk has lots of fat, has lots of protein, 05:29 casein is one of the proteins in milk that is not so good, 05:31 it has been implemented with cancer. 05:34 Fat has been implicated with cardiovascular disease 05:36 and, unfortunately, we used to drink a lot of 05:39 milk as we grew up and now we're finding out 05:43 that milk may not be so good for us for other reasons 05:46 than just the calcium part of it... 05:48 And so we're looking for other ways to supplement 05:51 calcium other than that and there are lots of ways 05:54 that we can build up calcium in our body 05:57 besides drinking milk or eggs or cheese or dairy. 05:59 You know, I'm going to give you a list of these 06:01 and we'll see how many, I've got a list here. 06:03 Did you know... now what we're shooting for 06:06 is about 1,200 mg of calcium a day if you keep track. Okay 06:12 That's sort of a gross number of how much you need, 06:14 and remember calcium is not only important, 06:17 but vitamin D is important... 06:19 Because just because you bring calcium into your body, 06:21 doesn't mean it's getting into the bones. Sure 06:24 So when you take some calcium and things that have lots 06:28 of calcium - orange juice - that has about 350 mg in 1 cup, 06:35 and most people drink more than 1 cup. 06:36 It's about a quarter of your daily need. 06:38 Yeah, right there and a lot of the orange juice is fortified 06:41 with other things as well. Sure, yeah 06:43 But orange juice is a good source. 06:45 Tofu - if you like tofu, that has about 170 mg 06:49 of calcium in it. 06:51 Greens - greens are filled with calcium! 06:55 That gets us back to our elephant... 06:56 What do you think the elephant ate? GREENS! 06:58 He got his calcium for his strong bones from greens. 07:01 Just a half cup of collard greens - 120 mg, 07:05 1/2 cup of spinach - 120 mg. 07:09 So all of these green things have lots of calcium in it. 07:14 And the nice thing about eating it in plants is it 07:16 gets absorbed easier in our body. Right 07:19 If you take a calcium pill, that doesn't get absorbed 07:22 as healthfully as you would if you would eat 07:24 that calcium in its read-to-go form. 07:26 Other things that have it, oatmeal! 07:29 A lot of people don't realize oatmeal! 07:30 A half a cup of oatmeal has 100 mg of calcium. 07:33 Whole wheat bread - if you just eat one slice 07:36 of whole wheat bread, that has 70 mg of calcium in it. 07:39 Almonds - nuts have calcium 07:41 and a lot of people don't realize that. 07:43 Beans - white beans, 1/2 cup of white beans - 80 07:46 Kale - another green has it. 07:48 Just eating orange. 07:50 Have you ever had those little... 07:51 they sell these appetizers at restaurants called "edamame?" 07:56 Edamame? Edamame! Did I say it wrong? Sure 07:58 Did you say it right? I think it's "e-de-ma-me." 08:00 Edamame - well those, according to this list, 08:03 those have 50 mg of calcium in it. 08:05 Broccoli! But the point is this... 08:08 If you would eat some orange juice, beans and some greens,, 08:10 beans and greens, you're going to get tons of calcium! 08:13 And it's ready to be absorbed into your GI tract, 08:15 and if you have some vitamin D to go with it, 08:19 it going to get in your bones. 08:20 So there are lots of ways besides milk to take calcium. 08:24 Now some people, you know, they have to have their milk. 08:28 Well, guess what? They can try soymilk. 08:31 Almond milk - guess what that has in it? 08:33 That has calcium too and it does away with some of the 08:36 bad proteins that we don't want the animal-based proteins. 08:39 You don't get as much fat in it which causes cardiovascular 08:42 disease and it's just a lot healthier for you. 08:45 So I know they have a lot of commercials of famous people 08:48 with these milk moustaches, "milk is good"... 08:51 I'm going to make one some day, if I ever get famous, 08:54 and I'm going to take some almond milk, 08:57 and I'm going to put it around my mouth and say, 08:59 "almond milk is good!" Right sure! 09:01 Now I'll see if that gets any publicity! 09:03 I don't know if the dairy industry will appreciate that, 09:05 but the almond industry will. 09:07 So bone health is just one more area where a whole food 09:10 plant-based diet really benefits. 09:12 Well, you know, it's eating the way God had 09:14 designed us to begin with. That's right 09:15 You know and you think about Adam and Eve, 09:18 what did they eat? and you think of Daniel 09:20 and his friends, you know, they were fed pulse and vegetables, 09:22 and they were 10 times smarter so it helped their brains too! 09:26 So God knew what He was doing when he gave us the foods to eat 09:29 and unfortunately, we've gotten a little off track in our world, 09:32 but now it's time to bring the world back on track 09:35 so we can eat a little bit healthier. Yep! 09:37 I tell you what, if I'm losing bone density, will I feel it? 09:41 How will I know that I'm losing bone density 09:43 unless I go to my doctor and have it tested? 09:46 Sometimes you don't even know it if you don't get it tested. 09:50 An x-ray might show your doctor. 09:53 For a while people said if they started getting shorter, 09:56 they could feel like they're losing bone density. Okay 09:58 And there's a little bit of truth to that, 10:00 but actually, as we get older, we lose about 1-1/2 inches 10:04 of our height and we lose that from the vertebra, okay? 10:08 And the vertebra actually loses water within the 10:11 vertebra and we lose about 1-1/2 inches of height. 10:14 Now if you lose a lot more than that, 10:16 then you might have some compression fractures, 10:20 fractures in spine that you don't even feel. 10:23 But everyone that I've seen that has had a bone fracture 10:26 in their spine, has felt it! 10:28 They go, "Man, my bones hurt, things ache, it hurts." 10:31 And, one way a person might know if they've hurt their bone 10:34 or fractured is - if you have a point in your bone 10:37 that has point tenderness, one spot, you touch it 10:40 and it hurts like crazy... 10:42 Well that's a significant injury that happens. 10:44 Some people, even though things aren't dislocated, 10:47 they have what we call, "micro fractures," 10:50 small fractures in their bones. 10:52 We usually see that in the feet the most, Nick, 10:54 because, you know, your foot hurts, your heel hurts, 10:57 it's not getting better, you think it might be 10:59 plantar fasciitis or tendinitis or something else, 11:03 and then when we x-ray the foot, we find - 11:05 No, it had a micro, a small, fracture within the foot 11:09 because they have a weak bone that has caused the problem. 11:12 And in that case, you know, to get the bone to heal, 11:15 we want to give all the things, calcium and sometimes 11:18 immobilizing. 11:20 We want to make sure they have vitamin D. 11:21 All those things will make the bone heal and do better 11:24 from a strength standpoint. 11:26 So back to your question though, how do we know... 11:28 Sometimes we don't even know if we're losing bone 11:31 because it happens so subtly. Right 11:33 So if you feel pain and soreness and you think, 11:36 "Oh no, it might just be bone loss," it's probably something 11:39 else that you really need to get checked out. 11:40 Usually the bone won't hurt unless it's fractured 11:43 or been damaged. It's a serious problem. 11:44 Right, usually it's not that and we do that with an x-ray. 11:47 X- ray is probably the easiest 11:48 way to see if a bone has been broken. 11:50 So then, if we're worried about bone loss, 11:52 and maybe we have some hereditary issues... 11:54 You know, in our family, we've had some osteoporosis, 11:58 how can we strengthen our bones - what's the best way? 12:00 Okay, now this is a multifactorial... 12:03 There are many ways we can strengthen our bones. 12:05 So I say, "Let's think about the elephant again." 12:08 Elephants have strong bones, how do they do it? 12:10 Well the first thing we want to do is make sure 12:13 we're on a movement program. 12:15 We want to keep moving the parts. 12:17 And if we think about it, over the last 100 years, 12:19 people have more bone fractures, their bones are weaker. 12:22 Well, let's ask ourselves "why?" We don't move as much! 12:27 We have cars now, we have ways to move around. 12:29 We don't walk; we sit at the desk all day long; 12:32 we sit in a car all day long; we watch TV too much; 12:36 we sit in front of the media; we don't move our body parts. 12:39 We're not active like we were made to be. Right! 12:40 And when we do that, the muscles which are connected 12:43 to the bone - don't keep the bones doing. 12:45 And when the bones and the muscles aren't working 12:47 together, the bones become weaker. 12:49 If you don't use it, you lose it. Right! 12:53 And that's very interesting... 12:54 Here's a bone quiz for you... 12:57 Let's see if you get this right, Nick. 12:58 This is going to be hard and we'll see if 12:59 you can do it out there too. 13:01 See if you can answer these questions about bones. 13:03 What is the biggest bone in the body - what's the name 13:06 of the biggest bone? I'm going to go with the femur. 13:08 Yeah, you got that one. All right! 13:10 Now, I didn't think that's the biggest bone 13:12 in my friend the elephant... so now this is going to be a 13:14 hard one, okay? 13:15 What is actually the smallest bone... 13:18 You know, now you know how to use the femur. 13:20 What's the smallest bone in the body and how is it used? 13:23 I'm going to say that there are some 13:24 bones in our ear that help us hear. 13:26 Yeah, Nick you nailed it, you know that we have 13:29 3 bones - the malleus, the incus and the stapes 13:31 which are very small bones. 13:33 Those bones usually don't have fractures because we're 13:35 using them all the time. Right - sure. 13:37 Because we're hearing things; 13:38 the sound wave energy comes in, it's moving all the time. 13:42 The bigger bones we fracture seem to be the ones that 13:45 carry lots of weight and we don't move. 13:47 So the biggest muscles in our body, the gluteus maximus, 13:50 the muscles that do our femur and the hip, 13:52 they get weak because we don't move and then we get up 13:55 suddenly when we get in an awkward situation 13:58 we fall - our bones can't keep up with it, they break. 14:01 So the first big principal #1, we think about our elephant, 14:05 he moves. Okay? 14:07 The second principal, let's think about the elephant again. 14:10 What does he eat? Greens! 14:12 Lots of greens and beans and anything with calcium. 14:16 Our bones have calcium in it. 14:18 We have to get enough calcium in our body into our bones. 14:21 So #2, we have to eat lots of calcium. 14:24 Now here's another thing... 14:25 Is an elephant outside or inside? Outside! 14:29 All the time. Outside. 14:30 So when he's outside, he gets sunlight, 14:32 activates vitamin D. 14:35 We need vitamin D to move the calcium into the bone. 14:39 To move it from the diet, move it into the bone, 14:41 we need vitamin D. 14:43 In fact, vitamin D is in every cell of the body. 14:46 Vitamin D is not only important to make your bones strong, 14:48 but it is important for muscle health. Really? 14:50 To keep your muscles strong, you have to have vitamin D. 14:52 That's why sometimes when older people fall more 14:55 because their muscle gets weaker. 14:56 It's really a vitamin D deficiency. 14:59 If they don't have vitamin D, their muscles get weak, 15:01 then they're more likely to fall, 15:03 and put pressure on the bone and break it. 15:04 So without vitamin D, you can't do much with the calcium. 15:08 That's right - you can't get the calcium into the bone 15:10 without vitamin D in there. 15:11 So again, our Mr. Elephant, he's outside taking vitamin D. 15:15 He's outside taking calcium. 15:17 He's outside moving and working. 15:19 He's not sitting. 15:20 He's keeping his bones strong. 15:22 I don't know if I've ever heard of an elephant breaking a bone. 15:26 I don't know if it's... because they do the things 15:29 that God designed them to do to keep bone health. 15:31 So if we can do the same thing, 15:33 we're going to keep our bones the healthiest, 15:35 but those are 3 things that are very important. 15:37 Now, there are other things that I have to mention... 15:39 There are some medications that weaken the bones, 15:43 and I probably need to mention the medications... 15:45 I have a list here: Steroids that some people take, 15:48 those weaken bones. 15:51 Are these steroids to fight diseases or steroids 15:54 to get big and strong? 15:55 Well any steroid for a prolonged period of time. 15:59 Short-term usually not, but there have been some 16:01 football players that have osteonecrosis of the hip 16:05 after taking long-term steroids. 16:07 Some people have disease conditions, lupus and arthritis, 16:11 they're on steroids. 16:13 These people have higher chances of having bone fractures. Right 16:16 So steroids can do it. 16:17 Certain antiseizure drugs can do it. 16:20 Here's an interesting one... 16:22 The medicines that block acids in the stomach, 16:25 the proton pump inhibitors, they block acid, 16:28 and when they block acid in the stomach, 16:30 it changes the pH in our body. Right 16:33 You know, positive charges and negative charges. 16:36 If you have too much negative charge, 16:37 your body tries to balance it with positive. 16:39 Calcium is a positive charge. 16:42 So, literally, if you take those medicines, 16:44 and you're more acidic, it would pull calcium out of the bones. 16:47 So long-term proton pump inhibitors or acidic 16:51 in nature, it pulls positive charges, calcium, 16:55 out of our bones which makes our bones weaker 16:57 when we take them long-term. 16:59 So stay away from those, long-term, if you can. 17:01 Certain antidepressants can make the bones weaker. 17:05 Certain other medicines, different types of long-term 17:10 progesterone can make it weaker too. 17:12 So there are a lot of things that can make 17:14 our bones weaker medicine-wise. 17:16 Then, before I go on, I want to talk a few seconds 17:19 not on medicines, but on illnesses. 17:21 Certain illnesses make our bones weak, diabetes is a big one, 17:24 but diabetes makes our bones weak. 17:26 The different inflammatory bowel diseases... 17:30 We talked about that on previous shows 17:31 about how the bowel flora changes. Right 17:34 When that changes, it can also cause all sorts of problems. 17:37 Rheumatoid arthritis, anorexia nervosa because we don't eat it. 17:40 Different types of malnutrition because we just don't eat it. 17:43 Those are all disease conditions 17:45 that make our bones worse too. 17:48 So, we talked about the medicines that make it worse. 17:51 We talked about a little bit about 17:52 the three things that can make it stronger. 17:54 Oh smoking! Smoking makes our bones weak. Oh Okay 17:57 Did you know that? I did not. 17:58 Alcohol can make our bones weak. Really? 18:00 So if you're a smoker or alcohol, 18:02 you have a family history, just don't do it! Right 18:05 Just don't do it because we don't want to have a fall 18:08 and a broken hip in our later years or in our younger years. 18:11 So I want to know about calcium... 18:12 Is there ever a way that you can get 18:14 too much calcium in your body... Yes there is. 18:16 And what does your body do with that? 18:17 Well, most people do not get too much calcium 18:21 from eating a regular diet, 18:23 you know, from eating a whole food plant-based diet. 18:24 But sometimes people eat too much supplements of calcium. 18:28 And too much calcium has been associated with kidney stones, 18:32 okay, you get stones and those are very painful. Right 18:35 Too much calcium has also been associated with 18:37 cardiovascular disease. 18:39 But the people that I see that get too much calcium 18:42 are the people that are taking too many supplements, 18:44 and they also are eating calcium. 18:47 There are also diseased states with the parathyroid glands 18:50 which regulate calcium. 18:51 Those can have a problem too, but we can easily 18:55 tell if someone is getting too much calcium, 18:56 we can measure the amount in the blood, 18:58 and we can tell if they're getting too much calcium... 19:00 But that is a great question! 19:02 We don't want anyone to get too much of a good thing, 19:04 and we talked about this earlier. 19:06 Anything in excess is not good. That's right. 19:09 We talked about eating greens, but we want you to eat a 19:11 balanced diet of lots of different 19:13 colors, not just greens. Right 19:15 Now let's say that I have a family history of 19:17 osteoporosis and I'm a little bit younger, 19:20 and I want to get in a movement program... 19:23 Is there any type, like if I exercise for an hour 19:26 in the morning - is that going to be most beneficial for me or 19:28 do I need to worry about moving frequently? 19:30 Is it the amount or the frequency of movement? 19:32 We're finding it's more the frequency. 19:34 Every hour, we want someone to get up and be moving. 19:38 That's the minimum because God made us that way. 19:40 Also, we sort of move in intervals. 19:42 You know, move fast for 6 minutes, 19:44 a little bit slower for 6 minutes. 19:45 We want to do that and if we can add some 19:47 long-term walking, resistance training is good 19:49 for the muscles, very, very important. 19:52 So to summarize, we want to move; 19:55 we want to have vitamin D, make sure we're not deficient, 19:57 get out in the sunshine... like an elephant... 19:59 We want to move all the body parts, 20:00 and we want to bring a lot of calcium in our body. 20:03 We want to make sure we don't have 20:04 diseases that weaken our bones. 20:05 If we are, we want to be more careful. 20:07 We want to make sure we are not 20:08 on medicines that can weaken our bones. 20:10 If we do that, we've done almost everything within 20:12 our power to keep our bones strong. 20:15 Thank you Dr. Marcum, I think those 20:16 are some great suggestions for better bone health. 20:18 And if you have more questions, please visit our website at: 20:21 heartwiseministries.org 20:23 where you can ask the doctor your questions. 20:25 We'll be back in just a moment as Dr. Marcum 20:27 would like to pray for you. 20:34 When it comes to your bones, I want you to remember 20:37 our friend the elephant. 20:39 Elephants move, elephants eat lots of 20:43 greens and elephants stay out in the sunshine! 20:46 Those will be a great way to help keep your 20:49 bones healthy. Let's pray together... 20:51 Father in Heaven, Thank You for making us 20:54 so wonderful and we want to thank You for helping 20:56 us to learn about what You created... 20:58 And help us to be good stewards of our bodies, 21:01 and realizing that we are to use them for You. 21:04 And thank You for this day and for the love You give us 21:06 is our prayer... Amen |
Revised 2016-10-31