If you get your health news from the evening news on TV, or morning shows, for that matter, you probably are as confused as the rest of us. Headlines (and teasers) based on results of published studies go for the obvious, if often inaccurate, medical news.
One of the most recent headlines, “Calcium and Vitamin D Don’t Prevent Bone Fractures,” left me totally perplexed. For years, we’ve been told to take 1,000 to 1,200 milligrams of calcium a day to stave off osteoporosis. Also, conventional wisdom held that older women have difficulty converting sunlight to vitamin D and should supplement with about 800 IU per day.
So what gives with the Women’s Health Initiative, which studied 50,000 subjects? How could they have come up with a “statistically insignificant” lowering of fracture risk in the trial subjects?
I consulted Nutrition Action, published monthly by Center for Science in the Public Interest. What I learned was that women in the study who were given calcium and vitamin D actually had significantly higher hipbone density than those in the control group. This is probably more significant than the risk of actually sustaining a fracture, given the difficulty in measuring risks of falling such as frailty, failing eyesight and, of course, the klutz factor.
Study results were also skewed by the roughly 40 percent of women who stopped taking their calcium pills during the trial. Pills left in the bottle don’t do much good. So among women who took at least 80 percent of the calcium/vitamin D pills, the risk of hip fracture was actually 29 percent lower.
Supplement quality also could have played a part in the unexpected result. The trial used calcium carbonate (the cheapest choice) rather than the calcium citrate recommended for older women because it is more easily absorbed.
Years ago, my doctor ordered me to have a bone scan because my mother and sisters had osteoporosis. I agreed, even though I had fewer risk factors than any of my relatives. Most at risk are Caucasian women over 65 who are underweight, smoke, drink alcohol, don’t exercise and have fractured a bone as an adult.
I fit the first two, was skinny as a snake for most of my adult life, but now weigh more than the 127 pounds below which fracture risk increases. I drink a moderate two glasses of cabernet a month, haven’t smoked since 1953 and exercise all the time.
I have, however, broken numerous bones, usually when flung to the earth by a 1,200-pound equine that has miscalculated a jump five feet high and two meters wide. Two ankles, one shinbone, three ribs, one wrist, two fingers and a toe. Often it’s the horse with a klutz factor.
Since I gave up death-defying leaps on horses of mediocre talent, I’ve sustained no fractures even though I’ve fallen regularly on packed snow, icy parking lots and rocky hillsides.
Anyway, the doctor had said my original bone scan showed some loss but not to the level of osteoporosis. He said it wouldn’t hurt to start taking Fosamax. I declined, but said I would try to rebuild density by increasing weight bearing exercise and taking additional calcium.
I switched to a better supplement, Jarrow Formulas Bone Up, with calcium citrate, magnesium, vitamins D and K, and other minerals. Since I get a lot of calcium from diet (dairy is my comfort food) I take only as many calcium pills as needed to reach 1,200 milligram total. I also added Qi Gong, yoga and brisk walking to my regular activity and some weight lifting. The results were extraordinary. Bone density increased, and, as an added benefit, cholesterol decreased. I was feelin’ fine.
At least until that incident two years ago in the Whole Foods Market parking lot, the rude impact of auto, hip and pavement. But that had nothing to do with brittle bones, lack of calcium, failing eyesight, frailty, dementia or even plain old klutziness.
During three months of convalescence, I lost bone density in the (other) hip from lack of weight bearing exercise, but gained some in the spine. It helps to keep those five-pound barbells next to the couch and hoist them during TV commercials and goofy medical reports based on skewed results of flawed studies.
Common sense would also favor yoga and Qi Gong to mitigate the klutz factor.