Prepare to have your health questions answered
here on Safe, Effective, Natural Solutions with
Dr. Todd Binkley, owner of Binkley Healing Center
in downtown Ventura. Now, here's Dr. Todd. Good
afternoon. I'm Dr. Todd Binkley, board -certified
doctor of non -force chiropractic and practitioner
of functional medicine. I've got an exciting
show for you today. We're going to talk about
osteoporosis. How do you figure out if you have
osteoporosis or the precursor osteopenia, low
bone density? Well, the main way is with a test
called a DEXA scan. We'll talk more about that
in a minute. But most importantly, how can you
reduce your risk of bone density? How can you
reduce your risk of having a fall and fracturing
your hip or your spine? the severe consequences
of that. Most doctors don't do that test, by
the way, until you're in your 60s, late 60s usually.
If you have a family history or a history of
fractures, a family history of osteoporosis or
a personal history, if you've broken several
bones and you tell your doctor that, then they
may do a DEXA scan as early as age 50. And, you
know, you should be able to ask any doctor to
order that test for you and your insurance should
cover it. But if it won't, that test is actually
become really, really inexpensive lately. For
years, it was about a few years, it was about
$150. And I think last time I checked, it was
less than a hundred to get a bone mineral density
scan. It's called a DEXA scan. So if you have
any trouble, too much hassle getting your doctor
to order it for you or order it again, if you
haven't had one done in a while, I'm happy to.
order that for you. But before I get back, I'm
going to also talk about some patients that I've
had that have reversed osteoporosis back to low
bone density or osteopenia and reversed osteopenia
back to normal bone density with nutrients and
not drugs. But before I start with that, I want
to begin with a rant against the myopic intransigence
of the medical profession's latest recommendations
for osteoporosis. They're pathetic. And unfortunately,
they're probably not going to change anytime
soon. So here they are. These are the current
recommendations that just came out, published
June 30th, 2025, in the Journal of the American
Medical Association. This is a document the physicians
around the country and around the world look
to for guidance on how to treat patients with
osteoporosis. So it begins with risk factors
for osteoporosis include older age, female sex,
prior fractures, prior falls, low body weight.
history of hip fracture and apparent glucocorticoid
use, steroids, cigarette smoking, excess alcohol
consumption, and certain inflammatory conditions
like inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis,
chronic liver and kidney disease, and of course,
low bone mineral density measured by a DEXA scan,
dual energy x -ray absorptometry is DEXA scan.
Well, so far so good. That's all true. That's
all great to keep in mind. But the next part
is where the problems begin. For patients at
high risk of fracture, those with AT score of
minus 2 .5 or less, equivalent to a bone mass
that is greater than equal to 2 .5 standard deviations
below that of young adults. So these tests are
always kind of confusing to see because you're
usually looking if something's bad, it will be
high and it'll be a positive number. But bone
density scans measure the relative density compared
to a healthy population. So you want your bone
density to be equivalent to a healthy population.
And if it is less dense, then it shows up as
a minus number than the normal. And the diagnosis
of osteoporosis is a T -score of minus 2 .5 or
less, which is actually a bigger minus number.
So, for example, minus 2 .7 or minus 3 .0 is
less than... A T -score of minus 2 .5. So it
gets really confusing. But if you have questions
about that, email me. Of course, I'd be happy
to answer questions about that. But here's the
problem. If someone has this high risk, a T -score
of minus 2 .5 or less, T -score of minus 2 .5
or a bigger number with a minus in front of it,
then obviously what you need to immediately do
is give them bisphosphonates. anti -resorptive
agents to reduce the risk of vertebral and hip
fractures. So there's no mention of the side
effects of these drugs or the fact that they
can actually cause bone necrosis in the jaw,
cell death, and even in the hips where you're
trying to prevent your risk of a fracture, or
the fact that they work. They're a mechanism.
They're called anti -resorptive agents. They
work by stopping the resorption of bone. So your
body's smart. It has two major types of cells
to control bone growth and maintenance. Osteoclasts
and osteoblasts. Osteoclasts, with a C, clear
old bone out so that you have room to make new
bone. Osteoblasts build new bone. So obviously
building new bone is usually good as long as
you don't have a bone tumor. But so the assumption
with... taking these drugs is that clearing old
bone is not important. If you have low bone density,
then you shouldn't clear out any of the old bone.
You should keep all the old bone you can. No,
that's not a good idea. Imagine just shoving.
The reason these drugs quote unquote work is
because they make your tests look better. They
increase your bone mineral density. They make
the test numbers look better. But do they make
your bones stronger? That's the question. And
the answer is often, no, they don't. Because
they don't increase the strength of your bones.
They just increase the density of your bones.
So your bones are made of a collagen matrix,
which is embedded with minerals like calcium,
strontium, and a few others to make them strong.
So it doesn't make any sense. Imagine if you
had a part of your house that was falling down,
and instead of doing any demolition to clear
out the damaged structure, like say you had a
flood. and the drywall's all wet, or you've got
mold or something else, wood rot that's damaging
the framing. Imagine just covering that up or
injecting the wall with more something to stiffen
it up, maybe just injecting a rotten wall with
concrete to make it more dense. Is that going
to make that wall stronger? Of course not. You
need to clear out the old, damaged, weak, decayed
tissue. so that you can rebuild ongoingly, continually
rebuild strong new bone. That's the way our bones
are designed. That's the way all of our bones
have both the clear out the old cell cells, osteoclasts,
and the build new bone cells, osteoblasts. So
the drugs work simply by just shutting down the
osteoclasts. And that's just not good, especially
when it works so much better just to take the
nutrients you need that your body needs to heal
and repair bone. So these current standard recommendations
that probably your doctor and everyone you know's
doctor is getting continually. It hasn't really
changed. It's the same recommendations that have
been around for years. Patients are recommended.
The Journal of American Medical Association 2025
current recommendations for osteoporosis. Patients
are recommended to follow appropriate intake
of calcium, 1 ,000 to 1 ,200 milligrams, and
vitamin D, 600 to 800 international units. and
to pursue a regimen of muscle resistance exercises
like squats and push -ups, and balance exercises
like heel raises, standing on one foot. All right,
let's break that down. Here's the problem with
the first part, appropriate intake of calcium.
If you look at the studies that all of this information
is based on, it's always taking calcium carbonate.
Calcium carbonate is ground -up rocks and seashells.
No one should take calcium carbonate. Most people
do take calcium carbonate because it's cheap.
And it is the calcium that's in almost 100 %
of one -a -day multivitamins and many, many,
many of the calcium supplements that people take,
even if it's a standalone calcium. So vitamin
D, and if you take the better forms of plant
-like forms of calcium. then the dose is half
of that, 500 milligrams. So I'm going to come
back to that in a bit as well. Vitamin D, 600
to 800 international units is ridiculous. The
standard adult dose for vitamin D is 5 ,000 units
a day. Some people do fine, especially as they
get older or who have any kind of chronic illness
or inflammatory condition, cancer, anything that
requires immune system action or decreased bone
density. A lot of people take 10 ,000 a day and
do fine. And how do we know if they're doing
fine? We test the blood level of vitamin D. And
the serum level of vitamin D should be between
50 and 90. Well, the standard range on most lab
tests is 30, which is way too low, but up to
100. And I have patients all the time that come
back and say, oh, yeah, my doctor told me I should
stop taking vitamin D because my vitamin D level
was 40. Now, they read the range. It says 30
to 100. And they've never seen anybody that's
above 30 because most people they see don't take
any vitamin D at all. And they ignore the fact
that the normal range is actually up to 100.
And the healthy range is, they don't know that
the healthy range is 50 to 90. So they actually
tell people to stop taking vitamin D when their
level is 40, which is still too low for most
people. Okay, so these guidelines also say pursue
a regimen of muscle resistance, exercise, squats,
push -ups, great. Balance exercises, heel raises,
standing on one foot, also great. But what's
even more important, especially when you consider
the fact that a lot of people don't want to exercise
for various reasons because of inconvenience
or difficulty with arthritis, pain, but most
people are still walking, and just walking is
an excellent exercise to maintain your bone density.
And if you can tolerate it, something that's
even better, a category of exercises that's even
better, is anything with just even a little bit
of impact. And by impact, it doesn't mean you
have to jump up and down off of a stair. Well,
there's some severe impact exercises that are
not appropriate for people beyond a certain age.
But something as simple as lightly jumping rope,
if you have the balance to do that, or simply
standing. raising your heels up and gently, not
intensely, but gently dropping them down quickly.
You know, not slamming hard, but, you know, just
dropping, lifting up on your heels with both
feet, holding on to something so you're not going
to lose your balance depending on your age. And,
you know, basically slamming your heels down.
Boom, boom, boom. Pounding them down because
that impact stimulates bone growth. You hear
about astronauts that are in zero gravity. for
even a few months come back and that's one of
the main side effects and one of the main challenges
for people that go up to the space station is
they very quickly lose muscle mass and bone density
and they have equipment there to exercise to
try and maintain it as best they can but when
you're not in gravity when you're not actually
bumping your bones into something every day through
normal daily activities like walking then your
bones very rapidly decrease, decline. Your bones
are there to provide a framework for your muscles
to pull on and to support the weight of your
body. And they respond, they remain strong when
you're walking around in gravity, heels hitting
the ground. So doing something that involves
a slight amount of impact that doesn't cause
any pain, doesn't aggravate arthritis, you know,
depending on your general level of fitness and
your age, do a little bit of, you know, pounding
your heels on the ground, jumping, will maintain
bone density. And of course, I should mention
that what's really the most important thing that
kind of just, you know, most people don't want
to hear about, but if you have children and grandchildren,
the most important thing for preventing osteoporosis
is to get adequate Exercise and calcium and vitamin
D and vitamin K when you're an adolescent and
in your early teens and 20s. That's when you're
building all of your bone. Up to about age 30,
you're still building bone density and then it
starts to decline. And the more you build up
in adolescence and in your 20s, the more you'll
have for the rest of your life. And any cause
of the decrease on that will be less likely to
send you full -blown into osteoporosis. I'm Dr.
Todd Benkley. You're listening to Safe, Effective
Natural Solutions to Almost Any Health Challenge.
Today we're talking about osteoporosis. The most
important nutrients to prevent osteoporosis and
even reverse it are bioavailable calcium, adequate
amounts of vitamin D, adequate amounts of vitamin
K2, and sometimes supplemental collagen. So let's
break those down. Adequate bioavailable calcium.
This is the most important one. Everyone knows
you need calcium to build bones and maintain
bones. And most people take, if they're taking
any supplemental calcium when they need it. And
an older, you don't need to supplement calcium
when you're in your, if you're less, if you're
younger than 50, you probably don't need to take
a calcium supplement unless you find that you're
very easily falling and breaking bones in an
unusual way. And, you know, if you're barely
falling, you break something. That's pretty unusual.
Until you're older than 50, you usually don't
need to supplement calcium more than the amount
that is in a good multivitamin. The problem is
not necessarily the amount, and especially with
calcium, it's a classic example of just the wrong
form. So most calcium supplements that you buy
in stores at Costco or Trader Joe's or a pharmacy,
any kind of store that sells vitamins other than
a health store, and even some of them there,
most calcium supplements are calcium carbonate,
and no one should take calcium carbonate. But
nearly all of the research done on osteoporosis
and calcium is done with calcium carbonate. Most
doctors say, oh, the most cost -effective form
of calcium is calcium carbonate. Well, it's not
cost -effective. It's cheap. It's not effective.
So something that's cheap that doesn't work is
not effective at anything, therefore also not
cost -effective. So check your labels. If your
calcium supplement says calcium carbonate on
it, throw it away and get something better. Of
course, the best place to get any nutrient is
from food. Good food sources of bioavailable
calcium are leafy greens, sesame seeds, beans,
and almonds, among others. And then if you're
not getting enough from your diet, take a good
calcium supplement with more than one form, with
three or four different forms of plant -like.
calcium forms like calcium hydroxyapatite, calcium
bisglycinate, calcium malate. I'm going to come
back to these. I'll tell you about the calcium
product that I recommend and have recommended
for 20 plus years to hundreds and hundreds of
patients and seen my, I hear my colleagues talk
about the results of recommending it to thousands
and thousands of patients who have been able
to reverse osteoporosis back to low bone density,
osteopenia, or reverse osteopenia back to normal
bone density by getting adequate. So I mentioned
before that you don't want to take calcium carbonate.
Well, how do we know that? I mean, isn't it better
than nothing? Well, not really, especially considering
that other alternatives are better, which work,
are available, which are not that expensive and
work much better. But what is the problem with,
where's the data? I like to base everything I
speak about on this show on available research.
plenty of research that shows problems with calcium
carbonate. For example, here's a study published
in Cancer Epidemiological Biomarkers in 2003,
which says intake of calcium and or dairy products
has been associated with an increased risk of
prostate cancer in some epidemiological studies.
It goes on to say that one potential biological
mechanism is that high calcium intake downregulates
dehydroxyvitamin D in the blood. bloodstream,
which may increase cell proliferation in the
prostate. Well, what that really means is that
most people don't take enough vitamin D. If you
have enough vitamin D in your system, then it's
not going to downregulate the form that is involved
in making it bioavailable to you when you do
take it. And most people don't take enough. And
in fact, almost all, pretty much all studies
that properly examine the effects of vitamin
D on human health, show that adequate doses of
vitamin D, 5 ,000 more units a day, achieving
a serum level of 50 to 90, dramatically reduce
your risk of almost every type of cancer, and
especially breast, prostate, and colorectal cancer.
You know, these are among, I think the last reference
I saw was 40 % of cancer deaths. are from breast,
colorectal, and prostate cancer. And there's
robust data that shows that getting adequate
vitamin D in your system dramatically reduces
your risk. Something like 50 or 60 % reduced
risk of those types of cancer. And the real reason
that this study showed a slight increase in the
risk of prostate cancer is because it was all
based on ground -up rocks and seashells, calcium
carbonate. Close listeners to this show and who
do their own research and pay attention to alternative
health and functional medicine related newsletters
and podcasts and things like this may remember
hearing that calcium can increase your risk of
heart disease, of arteriosclerosis. Well, of
course, calcium from food doesn't do that, but
calcium carbonate does. So here's another study
that was from the... Journal of American College
of Cardiology published in 2021. If you just
tuned in, we're talking about why most people
and most doctors especially are so misinformed
about the proper form of calcium people should
be supplementing and getting into their diet
to prevent and reverse osteoporosis. So American
College of Cardiology 2021, we're talking about
why you shouldn't take calcium carbonate. This
paper talks about both taking vitamin D and calcium.
in combination. Vitamin D and calcium supplements
are commonly used often together to optimize
bone health. Multiple observational studies have
linked low blood levels of vitamin D with increased
cardiovascular risk. And subsequent randomized
controlled trials failed to demonstrate cardiovascular
benefit with vitamin D supplementation. Although
vitamin D supplements do not appear to be harmful
for cardiovascular health, The lack of benefit
in randomized controlled trials should discourage
their use for this purpose, favoring optimization
of vitamin D through healthy lifestyles such
as specific foods, which are not listed specifically,
and modest sunlight exposure. Well, first of
all, what is modest sunlight exposure? Most people
have no idea what that is, and the only way you
can tell if you're getting... enough vitamin
d is to do the blood test and when we test millions
of people if they're only getting it from the
sun they're usually not getting enough so this
paper goes on to describe the original 2008 auckland
calcium study which first raised concerns that
calcium supplements may increase cardiovascular
risk again if you read the bought the data, how
they actually did this study and all calcium
studies in the medical literature, they always
use calcium carbonate because it's cheap. or
as they say, cost -effective. Since that time,
multiple studies have shown that calcium supplement
users have greater risk for cardiovascular events
than non -users, particularly for calcium intake
in excess of 1 ,400 milligrams a day. Well, no
one takes 1 ,500 milligrams a day of calcium
unless they're taking calcium carbonate, because
that's what their doctor tells them to do. Take
1 ,200 to 1 ,500 milligrams, air quotes, the
only kind of calcium that's cost -effective,
calcium carbonate. In the MESA study, the multi
-ethnic study of atherosclerosis, calcium supplement
use was associated with an increased risk for
coronary artery calcification, 22 % increased
risk. In contrast, higher intake of dietary calcium
from food sources was not associated with elevated
cardiovascular risk. So the sad thing is that
all these studies use cheap calcium that is ground
up rocks and seashells. And why should we be
surprised if you increase that? that's not well
absorbed, any nutrient you take, you don't want
it to just increase your blood levels. That's
one measure that's the starting point. But you
want it to end up in your cells. Calcium goes
to your muscles and your bones primarily. So
why should it be surprising if you take ground
-up rocks and seashells that increase your blood
levels but then are not efficiently absorbed
into your muscles and bones, not efficiently
absorbed into your tissues? They're just increasing
your blood levels. And what would you imagine
would be more likely to increase the hardening
of your arteries, which is formed partly by calcium.
Plaques in their arteries are formed by calcium,
cholesterol, and fibrin, scar tissue. And if
you already have plaques, then taking... Calcium
carbonate will slightly increase your risk for
arteriosclerosis, heart failure, stroke, as this
study goes on to mention, and type 2 diabetes.
Add to that list kidney stones. The main reason
most doctors freak out if you're taking more
than 400 units of vitamin D a day when you should
be taking 5 ,000 is because they're convinced
you're immediately going to get kidney stones.
Well, it's the form of the calcium. Calcium that
is not absorbed into your tissues. stays too
long in your bloodstream and then is filtered
out by the kidneys where it can increase your
risk of a kidney stone so even that's really
really rare but that's that's why that's one
of the reasons why the mainstream medical recommendations
are the way they are so the takeaway is read
your labels carefully if you're taking any supplement
that has calcium carbonate in it throw it away
and to make this task easier if you're taking
any one a day multivitamin you can be virtually
assured that it has calcium carbonate in it.
The reason one -a -day multivitamins can fit
the minerals, which is the most important reason
to take a multivitamin, is not for the vitamins,
which you can get from food, but for the minerals
that most people are missing from their diet.
The reason you want to take a multivitamin is
for the minerals. And the minerals in one -a
-day multivitamins are always in forms that are
very, very difficult for your body to absorb.
So you can get vitamins from food relatively
easily, but most people are deficient. in minerals
and that's why taking a good four capsule a day
multivitamin to replace those missing minerals
is something that I recommend to almost everyone.
Most good multivitamins are for the minerals
and they're usually three to four capsules a
day. I've got some more really important material
to present about osteoporosis but it looks like
we're going to run out of time here in a bit
so I promised I'd talk about some patients that
I've seen and Unfortunately, we're just not going
to have time to mention someone in specific and
do it justice. But the general situation is they
come in and we reverse the osteoporosis with
safe, effective, natural alternatives like adequate
calcium, vitamin D, vitamin K2, and sometimes
for some people, adequate collagen supplementation.
As always, thank you for listening. Send me your
questions about osteoporosis. Have a fantastic
weekend. You've been listening to Safe, Effective,
Natural Solutions with Dr. Todd Binkley. If you
have a health question you want discussed on
the show, email your health questions to drbinkley
at binkleyhealingcenter .com. Take advantage
of this opportunity to ask questions for yourself
and for your loved ones because our health matters.
Join him next Friday at 2 p .m. for Safe, Effective,
Effective Natural Solutions, here on 98 .3 FM,
The Word.