If you thought that mainstream medicine can't get any wackier, well… it has. Here's a line from a recent Women's Health Magazine article:
“Being heavier helps fend off osteoporosis, for example, because a little extra mass helps strengthen bones” (https://www.womenshealthmag.com/health/fat-acceptance).
There you have it. In the words of Women's Health Magazine, being overweight may be great for your bone health.
This is such an outright distortion of the truth that I feel I have to set the record straight.
Put on the pounds to pack on the bone density; or don’t?
First, let’s take a look at an excerpt from the Merck Manual of Health & Aging (Section 3, Chapter 22. Risk Factors for Osteoporosis. Merck Research Laboratories. 2005). You surely know by now that Merck is the maker of Fosamax, the osteoporosis drug “wunderkind” boasting billions of dollars in sales since its debut in 1995:
“Thin people tend to have less dense bones than heavier people. Part of the reason is that body weight puts stress on bone, stimulating it to form more bone.”
Based on the above information, which was obediently adopted by mainstream medicine’s seemingly insatiable appetite for half-truths, it appears that if you want to stave off osteoporosis, you’d be smart to put on the extra pounds and join the already too large overweight population.
Is this one more example of warped scientific conclusions, or could it be that osteoporosis is the ultimate medical renegade challenging a universally accepted health rule? After all, it is no secret that thin people are generally healthier than overweight people and have a greatly reduced risk of falling prey to chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease.
Predictably, there is no shortage of studies attempting to answer this question. And they all have one thing in common: they contradict each other. Many conclude that those who are overweight don’t have any bone health benefits over their thinner counterparts. But several other studies show exactly the opposite, with some scientists attributing the increased density to higher levels of leptin, a hormone that among other things, regulates appetite and metabolism and is produced in larger quantities by plus-sized people.
Breakthrough technology provides a common-sense conclusion
One breakthrough study tackled this issue and quite conclusively demonstrated that excess body fat is actually detrimental to bones, as it is to just about every other body organ and biological process. And no less important is that this study finally elucidates why.
Scientists at the University of Georgia pioneered the use of a unique type of bone scanning equipment to research the link between bone health and excess weight. Instead of the usual two-dimensional scans, they used three-dimensional bone scans.
After adjusting for differences in muscle mass surrounding the bone of the 115 study participants, the results showed that the bones of those with high body fat were nine percent weaker than those of normal body fat participants.1 While the women in this study were merely teenagers – 18 and 19 years old – their bones had stopped growing and age-related bone loss had not yet begun.
The study authors briefly point to Wolff’s law of bone formation, which I cover in detail in the Osteoporosis Reversal Program. In short, Wolff’s confirmed theory – which dates back to the 19th century – postulates that bone growth is stimulated by the constant force applied by muscles. Since overweight people typically have more muscle surrounding their bones than thinner people, prior to this study many researchers arrived to the skewed conclusion that being overweight is good for bone health.
But this study found stunning evidence of an important variable to this equation. As Norman Pollock, the lead author of the study explains:
“When we corrected for the amount of muscle, we found that overweight people were not making as much bone as they should for the amount of muscle that they had. Researchers hadn’t observed that in the past, because they weren’t using the three-dimensional scan.”
And Richard Lewis, one of the co-authors and professor of foods and nutrition in UGA’s College of Family and Consumer Sciences comments that:
“The exact mechanisms by which excess fat hinders bone strength are unclear, but studies of obese rats show that they produce more fat cells in the bone marrow and fewer bone cells. Because fat and bone cells derive from the same precursor, it may be that fat-cell production is favored over bone-cell production in overweight people as well.”
Common sense backed by good science blows away flawed conclusions
This is a perfect example of how we must always question study results that defy logic and ignore the principles of our integrated biology.
How to stay at your ideal weight
Here are two comments that members of the Save Our Bones community posted on one of my other blog posts:
“I am so grateful to have found you and I’ve quit taking Fosamax. I even feel better since I quit about 1 month ago. I’ve been trying to eat healthier and have even lost almost 10 lbs. in the last month. Thank you for your research. I look forward to more of your findings!”
– Rita Hoffman (Submitted on 4/10/2010)
“It has helped not only my osteoporosis but my cholesterol has come down since my last visit to the doctor which i have been seeing six months, and lost 20 lbs as well thank you.”
– Elisa Olgin (Submitted on 1/14/2010)
You see, the beauty of the Osteoporosis Reversal Program is that it not only increases your bone density, but it also balances your entire body. So if you're looking to shed some pounds, the balance you achieve with the program will get you there. And if you're at your ideal weight, that's where you'll stay, and you'll feel better than ever.
Leave your comments below and feel free to tell your story. Till next time…
References
1 Pollock N, Laing E, Baile C, Hamrick M, Hall D, Lewis R. “Is adiposity advantageous for bone strength? A peripheral quantitative computer tomography study in late adolescent females”. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 86, No. 5, 1530-1538, November 2007.
Lately I have been wondering about my bone health. I was consistently underweight between the ages of about 13-16, but I don’t remember any prolonged periods of time when my periods stopped. They were somewhat irregular but whose aren’t at that age? I was diagnosed with anorexia when I was 16, with a BMI of 15, and in recovery I gained enough weight to reach a BMI of 18.5. Since then I’ve relapsed a few times, but my periods have never really been affected and when I’m doing well, my BMI is usually between 18 and 19. I know this sounds low, but I honestly don’t think it shows in how I look. I’m slim, yes, but I do look healthy at that weight. So I’m wondering if my bones are less dense from being underweight as a teen? Would that account for my weight being low even though I don’t look like I’m too thin? Presumably bones that are less dense weigh less too. I remember them saying in treatment that they’d do a bone scan at some point but they never did. Should I ask my doctor for one?
I do not think anyone is saying become Obese to make bones stronger, but if your anorexic, gaining 5 or 10 pounds could help
and if your 100 lbs overweight, losing weight could help
I have osteoporosis on my back n osteoponia on my left neck fosamax is not for me is proila better? I notice I loose some weight n loosing fats I front of my shoulders .thanks for your advise. Betty.
being an orthopedic surgeon i add to it that bones of fat ppl are much weaker and osteoporotic and i never found strong bones in fat ppl while operating upon them . and its difficult to manage their fractures
That’s interesting, Dr. Junaid. Thank you for sharing your observations!
Hi there I am extremely curious I recently lost 92 pounds you can about 14 months because I had breast cancer once I became in remission my twin girls got into a massive car wreck where one was killed the level of stress. Was so overbearing I didn’t want to eat I was never hungry. I noticed the weight coming off so I started exercising I’m very active I am I have been since I was young I am 53 years old and I have a small body frame I went from 218 pounds being that heavy for about 15 years to I weigh 146 now. The extra skin I guess if you will is massive on me my I’m short 54 I have a small body frame and my crazy thank you what is that because of this weight loss and the extra skin on my stomach and my breast because there march I have broken my collarbone my scapula and my clavicle. Not by I fall a wreck on any kind of a heavy injury anything like that . earlier this year I moved l lifting a heavy box I heard my clavicle crack , I now have my bones on my neck one sticks out way farther than the other . After that I was making my bed I felt my collarbone pop thinkingit popped out of jointsocket that was actually A hospital rush because I also at the same time broke my scapula in my back . My question which is a extremely long one and I’m quite sorry I’m a talker is it possible for a small framed person to lose that much weight and break your bones even though you’re active on your life could that possibly be because of the weight of the extra skin ?
Could some osteoporosis diagnoses be statistical artifacts?
I was not born in the US. People where I was born are not as fat or as tall as Americans.
I am a female aged 70.
I am an accident-free ski instructor (and so, physically fit).
I weigh 100 pounds as recently recorded at a doctor’s. Size-wise, I can still wear the same clothes I have been wearing all my adult life.
Placing myself on the chart linked here:
https://halls.md/average-weight-women/
which I assume shows data for American females weights, I find that weight-wise, I am extremely close to the bottom edge of the range of the data for weight.
How then can any conclusions about my supposed bone density, based on that population, have any meaning? (Would you attempt competing in a car race on a lawnmower?)
Also, for the T score, do they assume a 20 year old now in the US is similar to a 20 year old 50 years ago and in a different country? That assumption is obviously unsustainable.
Could your site publish something about this? Thanks.
Hi Stats Fan,
Your thinking is on the right track. DEXA scanners beam X-rays at the lumbar vertebrae and the hip to measure the shadow cast by the bones. Software in the machine estimates the amount of calcium in the bone based on the darkness of the shadow. This means that DEXA scans are not three-dimensional; they are two-dimensional, like a plain X-ray, so it is very “insensitive.” This two-dimensional reading, therefore, causes errors in the “reading” of actual bone density.
Let’s say a woman has large vertebrae and she’s tall and big-boned. The DEXA X-ray beam must travel farther to get a reading on her bones than on a woman that has smaller bones (because it only detects two-dimensional distance). Meanwhile, the smaller woman could have more calcium in her bones and more resilient and healthy bones. The DEXA scanner cannot detect this. So DEXA scans measure quantity of bone rather than quality.
The T-score does not tell you if the bone is strong; it simply places your results within a certain age and gender group. And several studies point to the inexact science of measuring bone density. And as you point out, ethnicity is not considered when the Establishment decides these parameters.
Dear Vivian,
Do you have any suggestions on what are calorie dense foods that are also alkalizing? I am trying to gain weight and so many foods that are good for you are low calorie.
Thanks,
Lynne
I have the same problem. In recent years I have lost weight. I have been on Save Our Bones program for about
two years or so and, of course, eat mostly fruits and
vegetables. Before going on this program I was a BIG
ice cream and cookies person. But I would like to gain
a few pounds. I have shrunk from 5 ft 3 to a little under 5 foot and I now weigh 85 pounds down from the 115 I weighed at 5 f 3
A part of my profession is being a Bone Densitomery Tech. I do perform DEXA examinations on patients once week. At first I thought that women who are overweight would really have good bone density. A lot of them are, but I have done some women who are overweight that does have osteopenia or even borderline osteoporosis.
Your articles really are an eye opening on on this side of health issue. We thank you very much sharing all this informatio to us.
Connie