As clear proof that the current osteoporosis drugs are failing miserably, researchers are trying to develop a completely different type of osteoporosis drug. In other news, a prestigious researcher from Harvard Medical School continues to debunk the milk myth. And in an amazingly ridiculous study, scientists from Texas Biomedical Research Institute conclude that osteoporosis “patients”, not osteoporosis drugs, are to blame for atypical femur fractures.

As you can see, there is some intriguing osteoporosis news this week!

New Osteoporosis Drug: Just Add Water

In Sidney, Australia, medical school researchers are looking at picolinic acid as the next osteoporosis treatment. Derived from tryptophan (an amino acid found in foods like turkey and cheese), picolinic acid has been shown to increase bone formation rather than stop bone degradation.

That’s a step in the right direction, but as Savers know, there’s no need for patentable drugs in order to increase bone formation. It can be safely achieved with easy nutritional and lifestyle changes as explained in the Osteoporosis Reversal Program.

News Excerpt:

“After more than four years of investigation, researchers from the Ageing Bone Research Program (Sydney Medical School’s Nepean campus), have found the treatment has shown very promising results in animal experiments.

…

Lead researcher Professor Gustavo Duque said the odorless compound can be easily dissolved in water.

‘This is a major step in the development of a completely new type of medication for osteoporosis. Instead of stopping bone destruction, our compound instead stimulates bone formation,’ he said. … ‘Despite the current [osteoporosis] treatments available, by 2050, the worldwide incidence of hip fracture in men is projected to increase by 310 percent and 240 percent in women.

‘This increase is explained by the low rate of diagnosis and treatment for osteoporosis, as well as some concerns about the potential side effects of the current treatments.’” ¹

Amazing! Professor Duque says there are “concerns about the potential side effects of the current treatments,” and that osteoporosis rates are doomed to increase despite conventional treatment protocol. This is an obvious acknowledgement of Mainstream Medicine’s failure when it comes to osteoporosis.

Back to picolinic acid itself…in the body, picolinic acid acts as a chelating agent. Like other chelating agents, it adheres to the walls of the intestinal tract where it attracts negatively-charged, inorganic minerals and temporarily incorporates them into an organic molecular structure. You can easily deduce that this promotes absorbability of inorganic minerals (such as calcium) through the intestinal walls. Picolinic acid is particularly adept at chelating bone-healthy zinc.

While picolinic acid may sound like the best, most natural option so far, the fact remains that drug companies will most likely add a toxic synthetic chemical to it. Time will tell…

If you’re eating a bone-healthy diet as described in the Osteoporosis Reversal Program (and illustrated in the Bone Appétit cookbook), you’ll be getting plenty of delicious, bone-healthy foods that promote the formation of picolinic acid in your body.

Prestigious Researcher Questions Milk – Again!

When you were a child or teen, you may have been told to drink plenty of milk to strengthen your bones and to prevent fractures when you’ll grow up. The theory is that drinking milk creates a sort of calcium reserve for your bones, so when you get older, your body can draw on this reserve without decreasing bone density too much.

But Diane Feskanich, a prominent researcher, questioned this theory and her research revealed yet another milk myth buster.

News Excerpt:

“Drinking milk as a teen doesn’t necessarily prevent hip fractures later in life, according to a U.S. study that raises questions about conventional wisdom for bone health.

Having three glasses of milk a day or equivalent dairy foods has long been recommended for children and adolescents to build up bone reserves. It was assumed that having more bone mass in adolescence could help prevent osteoporosis and bone fractures later in life.

Diane Feskanich, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School in Boston, and her team tested the assumption by looking at hip fractures among more than 61,000 women and 35,000 men over 22 years.

‘We questioned the belief that drinking more milk in earlier life would help to avoid these fractures in older adults,’ Feskanich said in an interview.”²

Savers may recognize her name. You see, she questioned milk’s role in bone health back in the 1990s, when she and a team of researchers conducted a 12-year-long study of 77,761 women aged 34 through 59 years of age. Now she’s raising concerns once more about milk’s effectiveness as a bone builder.

Shameful! Study Blames You, Not Osteoporosis Drugs for Atypical Femur Fractures

Drug companies want to avoid accountability whenever and however they can, and here’s yet another excuse for Big Pharma to dodge responsibility.

News Excerpt:

“Research with baboons at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute may help explain why some people who take bone-strengthening drugs like bisphosphonates are at-risk for atypical fractures in the long bones in their legs.

Texas Biomed scientist Lorena M. Havill, Ph.D. and colleagues at the Southwest Research Institute and Indiana University examined femurs of deceased baboons and found differences in the microstructure of their femurs that she traced to genetic variation among the animals. The study supports the theory that genetic variations may regulate bone remodeling, a natural process during which mature bone tissue is removed from the skeleton so that new tissue can be added. These genetic differences could explain why a small percentage of older women suffer a distinct type of fracture of their femurs when they take bisphosphonates, a type of medication prescribed for millions of people with the bone-weakening disease osteoporosis.”³ [emphasis mine]

Incredibly, this study points to your genetic profile, not the drugs, as being the culprit behind atypical femur fractures. If this were the case, why weren’t people with “femur fracture genes” experiencing these breakages in the past? The answer is implied in the abstract itself: because they weren’t taking bisphosphonates!

Genetics notwithstanding, the study explores atypical femur fractures in those who take bisphosphonates, because that is the demographic in which this type of fracture occurs.

Of course, even if this study holds true for humans, there’s no way to know if your genetic makeup puts you at greater risk for femoral breakage, making the ingestion of bisphosphonates even more of a gamble than it already is.

Why take the risk at all? With the Osteoporosis Reversal Program, you’ll learn how to increase your bone density without drugs. The Program is a comprehensive dietary and exercise compendium that is designed specifically to promote strong and healthy bones, even if you’ve been diagnosed with osteoporosis or osteopenia. In fact, the Program is especially applicable if you’ve been given a diagnosis of low bone density. And there’s absolutely no risk of terrible side effects.

Till next time,

References

¹ “Researchers discover new treatment for osteoporosis.” The Almagest. November 21, 2013. Web. http://www.thealmagest.com/researchers-discover-new-treatment-osteoporosis/3377
² “Drinking milk in teen years questioned for bone benefits: Hipe fracture findings has researchers pondering recommended dairy intake.” CBC News. November 18, 2013. Web. http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/drinking-milk-in-teen-years-questioned-for-bone-benefits-1.2431015
³ Carey, Joseph. “New studies may explain fractures in some who take osteoporosis drugs.” EurekAlert. November 14, 2013. Web. http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-11/tbri-nsm111413.php