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Happy New Year: Your 2010 Bone Health Resolution

Vivian Goldschmidt, MA — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 21:14:23 +0000

I hope you are having a fantastic holiday season and that you are as upbeat about welcoming 2010 and the new decade as I am.

This past year has been incredible not only because the Save Our Bones community has grown by leaps and bounds but also because our information regarding osteoporosis truth is spreading. Slowly but surely, the truth will prevail… it always does.

And you, my dear friend, are an instrumental part of this.

Together we are opening the door for revolutionary yet safe and effective bone health solutions. Knowing this, it’s no coincidence that The New York Times published an article titled “Exploring a Low Acid Diet for Bone Health”.

Sounds familiar? It seems that even this world-class newspaper is catching up with our bone health revolution. You can read the article here:

New York Times Article

Without a doubt, this article is a breath of fresh air, but let’s not fool ourselves… there is still a lot more to do…and I can’t wait to start the New Year and continue our quest with you on my side!

It’s always great to to kick off the New Year with a healthy dose of inspiration. A close friend of mine shared this video with me, and now I’d like to share it with you in hopes that it will inspire you even more, as we herald the year 2010.

You can watch it here:

The New Year is also a time for reflection and growth, much like starting a new chapter in the book of our lives. And that, of course, includes our bone health. So let me know what your New Year bone health resolution is by leaving a comment below. Mine is to continue my mission of truth and natural solutions with unyielding efforts so the Save Our Bones community can continue to grow to insure that our voices will be heard.

So I wish you all a wonderful, exciting, and healthy New Year, and I’ll leave you till the next time with this great and very appropriate quote by Dr. Martin H. Fischer:

“Truth is rarely written in ink; it lives in Nature.”

Please don’t forget to leave your 2010 bone health resolution below. It means a lot to me.

With blessings for a happy and healthy New Year,

Merry Christmas!

Vivian Goldschmidt, MA — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:48:57 +0000

Wishing you and your entire family a Merry Christmas and happy holidays full of joy and good health.

Happy Channukah!

Vivian Goldschmidt, MA — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 01:56:46 +0000

Happy Channukah to everybody in the Save Our Bones Community who’s celebrating the “Festival of Lights” this week.

May your lives be lit with joy, health and happiness always,

Thanksgiving Event Feeds More than 310

Vivian Goldschmidt, MA — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:59:04 +0000

I am thrilled to let you know that thanks to your participation in our Save Our Bones Thanksgiving event, our donation to the Broward Outreach Center fed more than 310 holiday meals to the homeless!

I visited the facility on Thanksgiving day to hand out the donation check and met with Francine, the center’s upbeat and energetic Director and with her dedicated staff. They asked me to post their most heartfelt THANK YOU for making this Thanksgiving “feast” a huge success. I want you to know that we really made a difference in the lives of hundreds.

Here I am delivering the donation to Francine and some of the event organizers:

Visiting the center is always an uplifting experience for me – you really get to see the true nature of people and the good we can do when we work together.

And of course, I also give thanks to you, not only for joining me to help the homeless, but also for allowing me to do what I love to do each and every day. If not for you joining the Save Our Bones community, I would be all alone in my endeavor to bring common sense back to bone health.

I am thankful for many things in my life… and especially to you for letting me share with you my passion to uncover the truth about osteoporosis and to teach the revolutionary solutions that work… naturally.

My wish is that in return, the Save Our Bones community is your source for good bone health and peace of mind.

I hope you had a meaningful Thanksgiving, and for those of you not in the United States…I hope you had a wonderful and grateful day.

And here’s to a wonderful start to a blessed holiday season.

In health and happiness,

Vivian

An Inspirational Audio Interview

Vivian Goldschmidt, MA — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 05:25:59 +0000

This text will be replaced

Click “PLAY” to listen to the interview

Here are the highlights of the conversation:

In 2004, Melanie Haas, from buffalo New York, doctor recommended that she drink a lot of milk to prevent further bone loss evidenced in her Bone Density Scan.
Two years later, Melanie was diagonosed with Osteopenia, (increasing her milk consumption only made her gain weight) and was prescribed Fosamax. Her doctor also warned her that if she didn’t start taking the medication immediately, she could fall and break a bone, and become immobile.
Melanie was worried about taking Osteoporosis drugs since she knew that they contain harsh chemicals, and read first-hand accounts from people who suffered and continue to suffer from the side-effects of the drugs. After further research online, she came across the Save Our Bones website.
Melanie read Vivian’s story and noticed how similar it is to her’s, and decided to order The Bone Health Revolution program so she could start to strengthen her bone density naturally without taking the drugs.
Melanie found the program very easy to understand and follow, and this further motivated her to stay off the drugs.
After a year of following The Bone Health Revolution program, she went back to her doctor for a Bone Density Scan and was amazed to find that her spine showed a normal reading and and that her hips had improved to only a -1. She had a great deal of success with the program.
Melanie told everyone she knew about her results, and emailed Vivian to report the good news.
This is just one example proving that The Bone Health Revolution program is effective in increasing bone density without drugs. Whether you have Osteoporosis or Osteopenia and even if you have already started taking the drugs, The Bone Health Revolution program will increase your bone density.

Click here to learn about the drug-free program
Mellanie used to increase her bone density »

Low Levels of Vitamin B12 Linked to Osteoporosis

Vivian Goldschmidt, MA — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 19:15:32 +0000

I’m sure you know that the most commonly used supplements to conquer or prevent osteoporosis are calcium and Vitamin D. While both of them have well-known proven benefits, you might not be aware that vitamin B12 may play an important role in your bone health.

A study conducted by epidemiologist Katherine Tucker at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging in Boston, found a link between B12 deficiency and osteoporosis in men, and later confirmed the link in women as well (Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, Volume 20, pages 152-158). The research was based on the vitamin B12 blood levels and bone health indicators of 2,576 men and women spanning from 30 to 87 years of age participating in the Framingham Osteoporosis Study.

At least for now, the mechanism by which vitamin B12 and bone health indicators are interrelated is not well understood. However, the study did confirm that both men and women with vitamin B12 levels lower than 148 picomoles per liter (pM/L) were at greater risk of an osteoporosis diagnosis than those with higher levels. Also, study subjects with B12 levels below 148 pM/L had significantly lower average bone mineral density (at the spine in women and at the hip in men) than those with higher levels of B12.

Besides the recently found bone health benefit, Vitamin B12 -also known as cyanocobalamin- plays many important roles in the body, such as the processing of carbohydrates, proteins and fats. It also helps make all of the blood cells, acts as a coenzyme in the synthesis and repair of DNA, and is required for maintenance of nerve sheaths.

A Vitamin B12 deficiency may result in pernicious anemia, a condition characterized by general weakness, numbness of the extremities, pallor, and other symptoms. Foods that contain the highest levels of B12 are liver, meat, fish, and yogurt.

During digestion, hydrochloric acid helps release vitamin B12 from the protein in food and then it is absorbed as it combines with the Intrinsic Factor, a mucoprotein made by the parietal cells in the stomach lining.

The good news is that the minimum requirement is only 2.4 micrograms a day -the amount in just three ounces of beef. However, approximately 30% of people older than 50 no longer have the ability to absorb adequate vitamin B12 from meat or dairy products. This is due to a lack of stomach acid production, as two articles by R. Carmel confirm (“Cobalamin, the stomach, and aging”, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1997;66:750-9 and “Prevalence of undiagnosed pernicious anemia in the elderly”, Archives of Internal Medicine, 1996;156:1097-100). Additionally, foods highest in B12 have an acidifying effect on the pH (except for plain yogurt), so, as I explain in The Bone Health Revolution, their consumption should be limited.

A word of caution: Proton Pump Inhibitor drugs such as Prilosec, Nexium, and Prevacid as well as drugs used to treat peptic ulcers (Tagamet, Pepsid, Zantac) can interfere with B12 absorption from food by reducing the release of hydrochloric acid into the stomach. Metformin, a diabetes drug, also indirectly affects the absorption of B12 because it interferes with calcium metabolism and B12 absorption requires calcium.

Your best bet is to take a multivitamin paying special attention to the levels of Vitamin B12 and the rest of the B complex vitamins, as they all act in synergy with each other. The other B-complex vitamins are thiamine (B1), riboflavin (B2), niacin (B3), pantothenic acid (B5), pyridoxine (B6), folic acid, and biotin.

New Year Off To A Bad Start For Osteoporosis Drugs

Vivian Goldschmidt, MA — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 02:54:57 +0000

The year 2009 has just begun, and it looks like it will be a year of big surprises – at least for the makers of Osteoporosis drugs. New information is opening up the door to many unanswered questions and suspicions about the most commonly prescribed drugs such as Fosamax, Actonel, and Boniva.

On December 31st, just on time to herald the New Year, Reuters reported the following:

Diane Wysowski of the FDA’s division of drug risk assessment said researchers should check into potential links between bisphosphonate drugs and cancer. In a letter in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine, Wysowski said since the initial marketing of Fosamax, known generically as alendronate, in 1995, the FDA has received 23 reports in which patients developed esophageal tumors. Typically, two years lapsed between the start of the drug and the development of esophageal cancer. Eight patients died, she reported. In Europe and Japan, 21 cases involving Fosamax have been logged, with another six instances where Procter & Gamble’s Actonel or risedronate and Didronel or etidronate, and Roche’s Boniva (ibandronate) may have been involved. Six of those people died.

The article also comments on the known fact that these drugs can cause “esophagitis, which is an inflammation of the lining of the tube carrying food to the stomach…which is why patients are instructed to remain upright for at least a half hour after taking them.”

As if this were not enough, on January 2nd 2009 The New England Journal of Medicine
(Volume 360:53-62) published an article titled “Giant Osteoclast Formation and Long-
Term Oral Bisphosphonate Therapy” by Robert M. Weinstein, M.D., et al., that seems to shatter everything we were told about how these drugs work.

Until this study, bisphosphonates were believed to destroy osteoclasts, the crucial bone cells that remove bone so new bone can be deposited. But now – and I’m quoting from the article’s conclusion – “long-term alendronate treatment is associated with an increase in the number of osteoclasts, which include distinctive giant, hypernucleated, detached osteoclasts that are undergoing protracted apoptosis.” And to make matters worse, nobody knows what these strange cells can do!

And last but not least, even though it is a known fact that bisphosphonates can cause osteonecrosis of the jaw, few expected the definitive study in the January 1st issue of Journal of the American Dental Association stating that “even short-term oral use of alendronate led to osteonecrosis of the jaw.” According to Science Daily (January 2, 2009):

This is the first large institutional study in the U.S. to investigate the relationship between oral bisphosphonate use and jaw bone death, said principal investigator Parish Sedghizadeh, assistant professor of clinical dentistry with the USC School of Dentistry. After controlling for referral bias, nine of 208 healthy School of Dentistry patients who take or have taken Fosamax for any length of time were diagnosed with osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ). The study’s results are in contrast to drug makers’ prior assertions that bisphosphonate-related ONJ risk is only noticeable with intravenous use of the drugs, not oral usage, Sedghizadeh said. “We’ve been told that the risk with oral bisphosphonates is negligible, but four percent is not negligible,” he said. The results confirm the suspicions of many in the oral health field, he said. “Here at the School of Dentistry we’re getting two or three new patients a week that have bisphosphonate-related ONJ,” he said, “and I know we’re not the only ones seeing it.”

I am really not surprised that this information is now divulged by mainstream medicine because sooner or later, as in the case of Vioxx, the truth will be known. My heart is with all those who are suffering the horrible consequences of being human guinea pigs. As the list of serious side-effects of bisphosphonates continues to grow, I hope that those who are given a prescription will question its value and at least try to discover the truth about these drugs and seek a safe and natural alternative.

Study Shows Grapefruit Slows Down Bone Loss

Vivian Goldschmidt, MA — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 22:42:23 +0000

We’ve all heard of the many health benefits of oranges and of other citrus fruits. But there’s a lot more to citrus than just Vitamin C…

In a new study conducted by Texas A&M University recently published in the journal Nutrition shows that the antioxidant effects of red grapefruit may increase bone density and slow down bone loss (Source: Grapefruit pulp increases antioxidant status and improves bone quality in orchidectomized rats. Nutrition, Volume 24, Issue 10, Pages 1039 – 1044 Farzad Deyhim et al).

The very promising conclusion was based on a sixty day study involving a total of fifty-six male rats. Forty-two rats were castrated to induce oxidative stress and lower testosterone levels so as to increase their risk of osteoporosis. One-third of the rats were then fed a regular diet, one-third were fed the same food plus five percent red grapefruit pulp, and the other third were fed the same diet plus ten percent red grapefruit pulp.

When compared to the unaltered rats, the castrated rats on a normal diet showed a substantial decrease in bone density, overall bone quality and antioxidant levels. They also lost more calcium and showed signs of bone breakdown markers in the urine. And while all the castrated rats showed a decrease in the magnesium and calcium levels in their bones, the decrease was not as severe among the rats fed the grapefruit pulp.

The altered rats not fed grapefruit pulp showed a 16%-24% percent reduction of the calcium and magnesium content in the lumbar spine. While the rats fed the grapefruit pulp had a decrease of only 10%-16%. Similar results were obtained for the hipbone density results of both groups.

Olympic athlete fractures bones – Does she need Osteoporosis treatment?

Vivian Goldschmidt, MA — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 09:35:27 +0000

You surely know by now that it really makes me happy to share experiences, comments and opinions with you either by phone, by email and in person. One of the most common topics of conversation is about the bone density test results – specifically, the magical T-score number that causes a barrage of stressful emotions.

When somebody asks me about their “number”, my response is invariably focused not on that particular number, but rather on two very important points. First and foremost, I explain that the T-score is a flawed determination of the actual condition of our bones because it is based on arbitrary guidelines (more on this later). Next, I mention that regardless of the T-score, statistics show that most people never break their bones.

And finally, I predictably go on to say that regardless of its density, when a bone is hit in a certain way, it’ll break. Here’s a perfect example: Abby Wambach, a member of the US Olympic soccer team, fractured both her tibia and fibula (the two bones that make up the lower leg) on July 16th during a game against Brazil, and will miss the 2008 Olympics.

But wait a minute…Could 28 year old Abby, who was named U.S. Soccer’s Female Player of the Year for 2003, have osteoporosis or osteopenia? That would most certainly explain why a consummate athlete would fracture bones…

Of course not! Abby collided with another player and fell down hard on the floor, and common sense dictates that the impact is what caused her fractures. We will most certainly never read in the news that Abby’s bones might be weaker than normal and that she has decided to “take action” and get a bone density scan.

And it’s just as well… Dr. Susan Love, clinical professor of surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles says: “We’ve convinced people that you’ve got to have a certain bone density or you’ll have fractures and horrible things will happen to you, but bone density is only one aspect of bone health. It just happens to be the one we can measure.” Indeed, what a shame we can’t measure bone flexibility!

And here’s the kicker (pun intended): Dr. Love goes on to mention that most people who suffer hip fractures have normal bone density. So why is it that as we age there is so much emphasis on bone density rather than on overall bone health, you might ask?

The answer is quite simple: because, as Dr. Love mentions above, it is the only aspect of bone health that can be measured. Hence it can be studied, and the results produce statistical comparisons that will ultimately benefit Big Pharma.

Here’s a brief history of the T-score, and how its creation coincided when long-term Hormone Replacement Therapy was deemed too dangerous to simply tackle bone health.

In 1994, a World Health Organization (WHO) working group proposed that, in epidemiologic studies, osteoporosis could be determined when bone density at the hip, spine, or forearm is 2.5 standard deviations or more below the mean for healthy, young, adult women (a value defined as the T-score), or when a history of a fracture is present in the absence of trauma.

The group also proposed that osteopenia be determined when the bone density was 1.0 to 2.5 standard deviations below the mean for young, healthy women (Osteoporosis in Postmenopausal Women, US Department of Health and Human Services.) These guidelines were rapidly adopted worldwide.

Somehow, the fact that the public doesn’t know anything about the “young and healthy women” used as the example of a perfect score never created a stir. But what we do know is that from then on, most of us were condemned to fail the bone density test.

And then Fosamax came to the rescue in 1995, like a knight in shining armor, hastily converting the bone health landscape for years to come.

I’ve devoted an entire chapter of The Bone Health Revolution to discuss the dangers of the drugs currently used to treat osteoporosis, so there’s no need to rehash now. But here’s a new and important twist that most doctors will never tell you: should someone have the misfortune of breaking a bone while taking Fosamax or any other bisphosphonate, the recovery period may be much longer than if they would not be taking the drugs.

According to orthopedic surgeon Jonathan Cluett, “bone is constantly in a state of turnover, even when not damaged or injured. We continually absorb and replace the cells that make up our bones. Because of this natural turnover, the process of healing bone also comes about quite naturally.”

It is a fact that bisphosphonates alter the normal bone turnover, therefore actually delaying the healing process and, in some cases, potentially increasing the risk of complications. So now you are aware of one more good reason to stay away from Fosamax, Actonel, or Boniva…and one more good reason to be happy that your bone health does not have to depend on these dangerous drugs.

Stay strong, smile often, and until next time.

Vivian

Welcome To The Brand New Save Our Bones Blog

Vivian Goldschmidt, MA — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 04:04:52 +0000

It’s busy here as usual as I’m wrapping up some exciting upcoming projects. I truly never expected such an overwhelming response to my book and my website. It turns out that spreading the truth about Osteoporosis is a full time job… and I love every minute of it.

Our circle of friends is growing by leaps and bounds and I’m thrilled to share this special announcement with you.

Over the past year, I’ve been hard at work expanding the Save Our Bones website. The end result is something that I would have loved to have when I was diagnosed with Osteoporosis a few years ago. Finally, SaveOurBones.com is a comprehensive resource and support center for you and others that are seek natural solutions to Osteoporosis and Osteopenia… and it’s just getting started.

Now when you visit, SaveOurBones.com you’ll notice a brand new design with links that guide you through the new pages of the site.

Here on the Save Our Bones Blog, I post the latest articles, news, updates, videos, and much more. You can interact with me and others in the Save Our Bones community by leaving your comments on my articles (at the end of each blog post you’ll find the “Leave a Reply” form). I think you’ll benefit from it greatly.

Stay tuned, because there’s more to come in our bone health revolution. Let me assure you that I couldn’t do all of this without you.

Talk to you soon,

Vivian