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DISSOLVING BONES

    (Dr. W.)  The weakening of bones is a modern health problem of staggering proportions.  Almost every modern bone is unhealthy.  Half of all women and about 20% of all men over the age of 65 will experience a fracture as a result. For a large number of the elderly who experience such a fracture, the resulting medical care and complications finish the job of doing them in.   About 30 million Americans have osteoporosis or osteopenia (decreased bone density prior to osteoporosis).  Almost everyone is on his or her way there, as you will see.
    Millions are injected into research (over $136 million in 1999 alone) and about 2500 peer reviewed scientific articles are written on the problem each year.   The result?  Bones keep getting weaker; the disease spreads and increasingly impacts a younger and younger population.  Recent studies have shown as much as a five-fold increase in fractures in teenage girls who regularly consume acidic soft drinks.
    Why?  Modern life takes us from our healthy, genetically-expected context, and allopathic symptom-based medicine does not address underlying causes. 
    The ultimate cause is improper diet and lifestyle.  The direct result of this is chronic acidosis.  The secondary result is (among other adverse effects of acidosis) bone weakening.  Fractures and attendant health decline are the beginning of the grand finale. Note that modern medical approaches only become engaged at the end-stage problems.  True prevention, by addressing the underlying causes, is missed.
    Although at puberty increase in bone length stops, the heft and thickness of bone can continue in adaptation to significant weight bearing work or exercise.  Anthropological studies of pre-Industrial people show much thicker bones than in modern times.  (See Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston Price, and The Wysong Book Store Catalog for more information.)
    Nevertheless, even if growth stops, there is a constant turnover in bone.  Osteoblast cells add bone; osteoclasts remove it.  Every ten years we have an entirely new skeleton resulting from their constant interplay.
    But with acidosis, homeostasis is lost and the balance shifts to the negative side.  Acid stimulates osteoclasts, inhibits osteoblasts and induces mineral dissolution.  Even a 0.2 pH (pH above 7.0 is alkaline, below 7.0 is acid; 7.0 is neutral) change toward the acid side can result in a 900% increase in osteoclastic activity.  For health, the body should be slightly alkaline, about 7.4 in extracellular tissue fluid.  But just day-to-day metabolism (never mind dietary indiscretion) produces some 70,000 mmol of acid protons.
    As I discuss in the WellSpring™ Monograph, life is a constant struggle for alkalinity (electrons).  The more acid we produce (stress, disease, exercise all increase acid load) or consume, the more electrons we need.   But our air, water, land, food and home environment are increasingly electron stripped, acidic.
    Acidity must be neutralized, so mineral buffers including, calcium, magnesium, potassium, zinc, sodium and others are pulled from the bone and excreted in the urine.  Couple this with modern acidic diets and foods from land increasingly depleted in minerals, and the stage is set for dissolving bone to get at their buffering minerals.
    If acidity is not compensated (fixed), ATP energy production is decreased, free radicals are increased, fluid is retained, metabolism and protein synthesis are less efficient, growth and other pituitary hormones are suppressed, and there is nitrogen wasting. If it is compensated by drawing the minerals from bones, osteoporosis is on its way.  It's a big catch-22 problem, friends, and the odds are about 99:1 that it's going on in your body right now – and is the root cause of many of your ailments.
    Modern life puts an extraordinary burden on the acid buffering systems.   Even with an ideal diet, the body can only neutralize about 50 mEq of acids.   Yet the average modern diet creates 100-200 mEq.
    This is not to mention the boatloads of acidic soft drinks guzzled daily.  A 12-ounce can of cola – laced with phosphoric acid to give it that zip – has a pH of about 3.  Since the kidney cannot excrete acid below about 5 without damaging tissues, the cola would need to be diluted 100-fold, which would take about 33 liters of urine.   Since that does not happen, the body first pulls potassium and sodium buffers, and then calcium and magnesium from the bone for neutralization.  The equivalent of 4 Tums™ tablets are excreted to neutralize the cola.  The average teenager gulps about 6 of these colas a day.  See a problem?
    The constant daily loss of minerals from the bones to buffer acids results in an average 50-60 milligram loss of calcium per day.  Over 20 years, that is equal to one-half the skeleton of a female and one-third that of the male.
    The solution is apparent when the underlying problem is understood.   The problem is eating and living unlike that for which we are designed.   Natural balances must be restored for health to be regained.
    1.  Water – drink 3-4 quarts of alkaline water daily, depending upon heat and activity.  (See "Rationale for Healthy Water Products," available soon from Wysong Corporation.)
    2.  Eat raw, organic, mineral-rich foods as much as possible – lots of nuts, vegetables, fruits and spices, in particular.
    3.  Decrease unnecessary stress.  Excess cortisol and adrenaline contribute to the acid load.
    4.  If you are not growing muscle, decrease meat protein intake since excess acidic, keto- and sulfur-bearing protein increases acid load.  About four ounces per day is sufficient for sedentary living.
    5.  Begin a regular weight bearing exercise program.
    6.  Keep body weight in the normal BMI range.
    7.  Eliminate, as much as possible, processed sugars, starches and hydrogenated oils.
    If you are doing things right, your first morning urine pH should fall in the 6.5-7.5 range (use pH Indicator Tape™ to test this).  If you struggle to bring the pH up, refer to the WellSpring™ Monograph for more aggressive measures you can take to get things balanced.  If you get your acidosis under control, not only will you be preventing bone loss, but many other chronic degenerative diseases as well. 
    Addressing this modern undercurrent of acidosis is about as important as anything you can do for your and your family’s health.  The adverse effects of acidosis are not immediate, but they are sure.  The benefits of reversing the process are not immediate either, but they are sure.
    It's one of those things intelligent people do because they know it is the right thing to do, even if it does not bring instant gratification.
    Be a thinking person.