Good afternoon, I'm Dr. Todd Binkley, board -certified
doctor of non -force chiropractic and practitioner
of functional medicine. Last week, I talked about
osteoporosis and got several questions about,
mostly about what form, what is the best form
of calcium to take to prevent osteoporosis, and
a few questions about how do you know? When should
you do a bone mineral density test? So I'm definitely
going to talk about the best forms of calcium
to take to prevent and reverse osteoporosis,
as well as how do you know when you should take
a bone mineral density test? The whole point
is to be able to reduce your risk of osteoporosis
and even reverse it back to osteopenia, also
known as low bone density, and even reverse low
bone density back to normal bone density without
toxic drugs. that really don't even work that
well. But before I forget, I ran out of time
last week to talk about some specific patients,
so I pulled out some files. Here's a 65 -year
-old woman who was told that she had osteopenia,
also known as low bone density, precursor for
osteoporosis, and it was actually pretty mild.
But still, her doctor told her that she should
start taking Fosamax immediately. So, just so
you know, if you're otherwise healthy, compared
to heavy people, Thin white women tend to have
the highest risk of osteoporosis and the debilitating
fractures from low density that can happen if
you have a sudden fall. So if you exercise regularly
and especially if you do resistance training
to maintain muscle mass in addition to burning
more calories all the time and making it easier
to keep your weight into the range that you want
to keep it into. Maintaining adequate muscle
mass, sufficient muscle mass, significant muscle
mass, dramatically reduces your risk of osteoporosis.
But even if you're carrying extra weight from
fat, if you're a little overweight and carrying
extra weight from adipose tissue, that still
stresses your bones in a good way. Carrying excess
fat around your abdomen causes a whole host of
other problems. Cardiovascular problems can affect
your hormones and even indirectly affect your
bone density. But just the weight itself, any
kind of weight, puts stress on your bones in
a good way. That constant load stresses your
bones, sends feedback to the mechanisms that
they are used to responding to, to increase and
maintain. more bone mineral density to support
and respond to shifting around that weight. So
I'm going to say that again. If you're heavier,
you have a lower risk of osteoporosis. Women
have so many other things to worry about, and
they're often constantly worrying about their
weight, and it has a lot of effects on your health.
But here's something to celebrate. If you're
carrying extra weight, you're probably less likely
to get osteoporosis. So this patient is a thin,
white, 65 -year -old woman who was told that
she had osteopenia, and her doctor says she needs
to immediately start taking Fosamax. But she
was smart. She did her research. She read about
it and heard about the fact that these drugs
are often not good, and that was the main reason
she came in to see me. So she wanted to know
if there was something else that could work as
well as the drugs without side effects. And she
told me she was very excited to tell me that
she was already taking a multivitamin which had
calcium and vitamin D in it. Well, what kind
of calcium do you think she was taking? Calcium
carbonate. It was a one -a -day multivitamin
with calcium carbonate. And how much vitamin
D was she taking in her one -a -day multivitamin?
400 units of vitamin D, the standard recommended
daily allowance. people younger than her, the
daily value or recommended daily allowance for
women that are older her age is actually 600
or 800 units, depending on which useless government
reference you see on the label of your product.
But so if you just tuned in, the standard adult
dose for vitamin D for people who want to be
healthy and especially have healthy bones and
a healthy heart. reduce the risk of dementia,
have a healthy brain, reduce the risk of virtually
every type of cancer and a whole host of other
conditions. If you're one of these people, you
should take 5 ,000 units of vitamin D per day
and get the blood test to make sure that you're
achieving a serum level. of vitamin D, between
50 and 90. The standard medical range on the
blood test that you'll get if you get your doctor
to order it for you is 30 to 100, 30 to 100.
But the healthy range, the most important range
that you're looking for, you want to supplement.
No one gets enough vitamin D from the sun or
from fish or from any food source to keep a strong
immune system, reduce your risk of cancer and
all the other things I just mentioned. You want
your blood level of vitamin D to be between 50
and 90. And the only way anyone ever achieves
that is to supplement about 5 ,000 units of vitamin
D. Sometimes a little less if you're way less
than 120 pounds. 4 ,000 might be enough if you
have comorbidities like an autoimmune condition,
previous history of cancer, just anything that's
stressing your health and causing your immune
system to have to work harder. Lots of patients
take 10 ,000 units of vitamin D for two or three
years or longer and never... end up with an elevated
serum level. So there's all this hysteria in
the mainstream press and the medical press that,
oh my God, if you take too much vitamin D, it's
going to cause kidney stones or some other unstated
melody. The standard range is 30 to 100. And
I have patients who come in and say, oh, my doctor
saw that my blood level of vitamin D was 40.
And so he said I should stop taking any vitamin
D. The range right on the lab test is 30 to 100.
LabCorp, Quest, any standard laboratory, the
normal medical range is 30 to 100. And 30 is
not enough. 40 is not enough. You want it to
be between 50 and 90. And the standard of care
is to wait two years. Whatever intervention you're
going to do for a patient with osteoporosis is
to wait two years because it usually takes a
couple of years to see a significant difference.
And that's okay. As you get older, bone changes
are very slow. So waiting two years if you're
in your 70s or 80s isn't unreasonable, especially
if you have significant osteoporosis. But this
woman was 65 and looked like she could have been
49. She was taking great care of herself, exercising
regularly, maintaining muscle mass, and exposing
her bones to some impact every day by walking,
jumping, doing gentle things that... pounded,
you know, gave a little direct anti -gravity
impact to her bones. And her insurance wouldn't
pay for her doctor to order another DEXA scan
for two years. So I ordered one for her after
one year. And back then, I think it was about
$150 if you're willing to pay out of pocket.
It's even less now. I think the last time I checked,
it was, I'm pretty sure it was less than $100,
maybe even as low as $85, something like that,
at the radiology centers. in Ventura County.
And the upshot is she had already reversed. She
continued to exercise. I put her on 10 ,000 units
of vitamin D. for three months to get her serum
level back up into the healthy range as quickly
as possible. She continued to do her exercise.
And I combined, I do it with anybody with osteoporosis.
I recommend a combination product because nobody
wants to take any more pills than they have to.
And lots of top shelf manufacturers make combo
products with vitamin D and vitamin K2 in the
same. In one capsule. So one of the most common
products I use is by Orthomolecular Products
called K -Force. And it's called K -Force because
it has the standard 5 ,000 units of vitamin D
that you need per day to maintain healthy levels
in your body and your blood. plus 180 micrograms
of vitamin K, which is four times what a lot
of products have. Sort of the standard low dose
of vitamin K2 is 45 micrograms. Some products
have 90 micrograms. Anyone with osteoporosis,
I recommend doubling that to 180 micrograms.
Why do I do that? Because I've been treating
patients with osteoporosis for... 30 years and
one of the most common missing links so patients
come to me that have been to other functional
medicine practitioners or just you know other
doctors or have done their own research and know
that they should be taking adequate amounts of
vitamin d and a good amount of vitamin k and
they're still not getting the result they need
and i've had so many cases like this with bone
bone density issues and also people with fractures
that haven't healed. I've had a couple of people
who injured their shoulder skiing or broke a
bone in their shoulder or a few that broke a
bone in their foot and you're constantly moving
your arm, you're constantly moving your feet.
Six months go by, the x -rays show the fracture
hasn't healed at all and just getting them on
a good dose of vitamin D and a high dose of vitamin
K2 and it will heal. So we had good reason to
believe that this woman's bones would test out
heading in the right direction if we did another
DEXA scan. And so she chose to pay for that herself
out of pocket. And it showed that she had indeed
gone from osteopenia back to normal bone density.
I'm Dr. Todd Bankley. You're listening to Safe,
Effective Natural Solutions to Almost Any Health
Challenge. We're talking about osteoporosis,
continuation of a discussion from last week.
Had a bunch of questions last week about what
is the best form of calcium to take to prevent
osteoporosis? And how do you know when you should
do a bone mineral density test, also known as
a DEXA scan? So most doctors don't recommend.
Therefore, most people don't get their insurance
to pay for a bone mineral density test or a DEXA
scan until they're in their late 60s, early 70s.
Unless you've had some kind of other reason to
suggest that you're at an increased risk. Risk
factors for osteoporosis include older age, being
a female, having prior fractures or falls, low
body weight, a history of hip fracture in a parent.
taking steroids, glucocorticoids, cigarette smoking,
excess alcohol consumption, and certain other
diseases like inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid
arthritis, chronic liver and kidney disease,
and a few other much less common conditions.
So here's another file. Here's a 72 -year -old.
patient diagnosed with osteoporosis five years
ago when she came in to me. And she had done
two DEXA scan bone mineral density tests. She
had been taking Boniba for those five years.
And her latest bone density scan was slightly
worse than the last one. Worse than the last
one after treatment for five years. It's just
not unusual because the goal of these drugs is
just to slow the progression of osteoporosis.
Most medical doctors are happy if you take these
drugs for two years, come back, and do another
bone mineral density test. And your bone mineral
density is exactly the same, or maybe even a
little bit worse. Some of you might be... Surprised
by that? Some of you may not. If you are surprised,
I promise you I am not making this up. Where
else do you get a test that shows you have a
disease, then get a recommended standard treatment
for that, well -researched in the medical press,
funded by the pharmaceutical industry, that tells
you this is the best thing for you, and you take
that medication every day for two years? And
then you come back and get the test to see if
it's working or not. And the test is unchanged
or slightly worse. And the doctor says, yeah,
that's great. That is the standard practice of
medicine for osteoporosis. That's not good. That's
pathetic. So I explained all this to this lovely
lady. And I did some blood tests and found out
that her vitamin D level was 32. Which, unsurprisingly,
her regular doctor told her was totally fine.
Incidentally, in addition to Boniva, she was
taking a calcium supplement. Kirkland Signature
Calcium with 600 mg of calcium carbonate. Please
review my previous episode to hear everything
you should know about why you shouldn't take
calcium carbonate. And I'll just repeat a little
bit now. No one should take... Kirkland Signature
Calcium. No one should take any Kirkland supplement.
But anyway, the product she was taking was 600
milligrams of calcium carbonate, ground up rocks
and seashells, and 400 units of vitamin D. The
standard RDA recommended daily value of vitamin
D, 400 units a day. It's barely enough to maybe
prevent rickets in a child. And quite reasonably,
because it says right on the label that this
is 100 % of the recommended daily values, she
assumed that she was getting all the nutrients
she needed to maintain healthy bones. Well, I'll
say it again. No one should buy Kirkland Signature
Calcium. No one should buy any Kirkland vitamins.
And people buy them because they're cheap. And
you don't get what you don't pay for, like healthy
bones and other potential outcomes you're hoping
to get from buying cheap. crappy vitamins that
never do what you think they're going to do.
The labels look pretty and the government does
regulate the labeling of all supplements. So
whatever is on the label is, you can be assured
that that is in the tablet or capsule. What it
never says to give you any idea is whether or
not that the ingredients in that bottle will
end up in your bloodstream, let alone in the
tissues where you want those nutrients to end
up. to do the job that you're hoping that they
will do. So I'm sorry, so many patients, I always
tell everyone to bring in the products that they're
taking in. So some of them, well, not all of
them, some of them are upset. Some of them are
actually not surprised at all. But if you're
taking cheap vitamins that you bought at Costco
or a lot of other stores that are not health
food stores, the likelihood is that it's a waste
of money. The most expensive Any misinvestment
that you'll ever make in any product to improve
your health is something that has no effect at
all and just passes through your body and ends
up in the sewer system. If you're just tuning
in, I'm talking about a 72 -year -old patient
diagnosed with osteoporosis five years ago who
has done two DEXA scan bone mineral density tests
and has been taking the very common osteoporosis
drug Boniva. for five years. Her latest bone
density scan is slightly worse than the last
one. She's not excited about that. And that's
why she came to me. And I recommend that she
take 10 ,000 units of vitamin D for three months
because it was so low. Well, if you tell your
MD that you're going to take 10 ,000 units of
vitamin D one day, they'll freak out because
they just don't understand how that works. Lots
of people take 10 ,000 units of vitamin D for
a year, especially if they're in their 70s or
80s. And in so many patients that have told me
they were doing this, even when I told them to
cut it down from 10 ,000 back to 5 ,000 after
usually two, three, four months, they say, oh,
I forgot I've been taking 10 ,000 every day for
a year. Their serum vitamin D levels are still
fine after taking 10 ,000 units a day for up
to a year. So for most people, 5 ,000 units a
day is enough. But with any osteoporosis patient,
it's also important. So, so important to take
adequate amounts of vitamin K2. So I gave her
a combo product with 5 ,000 units of vitamin
D and a high dose of vitamin K2. And this is
so important because it's hardly ever mentioned
in the literature. And vitamin K2 is critically
important for maintaining bone density and reversing
low. Bone density comes in several forms. MK7
and MK4 are the most common in supplements. But
the most important thing is to know that vitamin
K2 is not the same as vitamin K1. Vitamin K1
is the one that you hear about that's in food.
And it's also important for bone health and for
a whole host of other reasons. Vitamin K1 is
ubiquitous. And dark green leafy vegetables.
If you eat salads regularly, which include anything
dark green, like broccoli, kale, spinach, mixed
greens. If you do any kind of super greens shake
as part of your diet, then you're usually getting
plenty of vitamin K1. And vitamin K1 is very
important. But the missing link with most people
who have osteoporosis, one of the most important...
additions that i've found if someone has tried
everything been doing a pretty good job of you
know getting some nutrients when i add extra
vitamin k2 that makes all the difference i've
had so many patients that did a trial didn't
get the results they were looking for and if
they were already doing the vitamin d and a good
bioavailable calcium. That's actually pretty
rare. But the few times that I have had that,
somebody's already taking good bioavailable calcium
and 5 ,000 units of vitamin D or at least maintaining
the serum level that they want. They're still
not getting the reversal or the stoppage of the
decay in osteoporosis. We add a higher dose of
vitamin K2. So the normal dose in most supplements
of vitamin K2 comes in a couple of forms, MK7,
and MK4 are the most common. The ones with the
MK7 form usually dose it at 45 micrograms, some
90 micrograms. And the product I recommend, K
-Force, by Orthomolecular Products for patients
like this, is 180 micrograms of MK7 form of K2.
So the upshot is this 72 -year -old patient diagnosed
with osteoporosis for five years. who had done
two dexascandibum mineral density tests and had
been taking Boniva for five years, wanted, and
the last one had been slightly worse than the
previous one. At her age, it basically made sense
to wait a couple of years to see a significant
shift. And two years later, her bone density
score actually got better after getting slightly
worse when she'd been taking the standard medical
advice. her five years before that. She didn't
go from osteoporosis fully down to osteopenia,
possibly because she didn't exercise enough and
mostly because she started so late. But it was
still a significant improvement that she was
very happy about. She also fell a couple of times
during this period, and she didn't break anything.
In my mind, that's an even better test. The whole
goal is to prevent ending up in a hospital with
a hip fracture and then getting some horrible
infection that you can only get in a hospital
while you're waiting for your fracture to heal.
And people die from that. It's really sad. Last
week, I referenced an article published in the
Journal of the American College of Cardiology
in 2021. And some of the mostly stupid advice
included in that, that unfortunately is the advice
that most doctors are getting and recommending
to their patients. But buried near the end of
that paper is the following, which is a little
encouraging. Quote, other research should evaluate
the effects of different dosing strategies of
calcium supplements and types of calcium supplement
formulations. Wow. What a great thought. Additional
research is also needed to further understand
the effect of combined calcium plus vitamin D
supplementation on cardiovascular outcomes. But
all of this is immediately nullified by the very
next sentence that begins the conclusion section.
Quote, although vitamin D does not appear to
be harmful. for cardiovascular health the lack
of a demonstrable benefit of supplementation
in randomized controlled trials should discourage
its use for this purpose how ridiculous is that
these are the mainstream recommendations for
cardiovascular health for vitamin d supplementation
calcium supplementation that all doctors get
that most people are taking the advice of it's
Just it's unconscionable. Mostly because robust
research exists, which is available on PubMed.
Just Google PubMed benefits of vitamin D, cardiovascular
health. You'll see robust, abundant studies showing
the benefits of adequate vitamin D supplementation
for reducing your risk of cardiovascular disease,
bone health, cancers, a whole host of other conditions.
So lastly, this article. that is the standard
recommendations for all doctors to advise their
patients on how to take better care of their
bone health. It says, for many patients with
nutrient deficiencies that cannot be fulfilled
with dietary changes, supplementation plays an
important role in correcting those gaps. However,
many persons who do not have clear nutrient deficiencies
also may take supplements in the misguided belief
that they are optimizing their health through
quote, natural means. One should capitalize on
such patient motivation for non -pharmacological
health promotion by encouraging quotes, their
quotes, natural lifestyles, being physically
active, eating a heart -healthy diet, abstaining
from tobacco products and excessive alcohol,
and maintaining optimal weight. Okay, raise your
hands if any of that is news to you. Raise your
hand if you didn't know that being physically
active, eating a heart healthy diet, abstaining
from tobacco and excess alcohol, and maintaining
an optimal weight are good for your health. Far
more importantly, what if you've already tried
that? What if you're already doing the best you
can, knowing what you know, and you're looking
for a little extra support? I'd love an opportunity
to help you or someone you love identify the
things that are missing. your diet and healthy
supplement regimen. Things that could change
your life with proper testing to identify where
you just need a little bit of extra support.
And in the meantime, go for a walk. Reach out
to someone that you haven't spoken to in years.
Find something you can do to make next week healthier
than you were last week. Have a great weekend.