Save Our Bones Bulletin: Exercise Pills, Brain Poisoning Pesticides, A Food Pharmacy, And More!

This month we have a mixed bag of news, running the gamut from the latest research on proteins that inhibit muscle development, to an innovative health organization that is replacing pharmaceutical drugs on pharmacy shelves with natural foods.

Staying on top of the latest health information plays an important role in improving your bone health and staying healthy, so I’m thrilled to bring you this month’s Bulletin. Let’s begin with…

Exercise Pill Inches Closer To Reality

A group of scientists at Augusta University are conducting research that suggests a future pharmaceutical treatment that would help obese people to build muscle; effectively an exercise pill.

They are focused on a known fact about the development of muscle: it is inhibited by a particular protein called myostatin. High levels of this protein have been linked to obesity, which suggests that some obese people are prevented from effectively building new muscle because of how much myostatin they produce.

Savers are well aware of the importance of exercise to bone health, as well as living a full and functional life. This is also reflected in these researchers’ work.

Relevant Excerpt:

“The researchers bred four groups of lean and obese mice that were genetically programmed either to produce uninhibited levels of myostatin or to be completely lacking in the protein.

As expected, mice with no myostatin became markedly more muscular. Obese mice unable to produce myostatin remained fat, but they were also stronger and showed markers of heart and metabolic health on a par with their lean counterparts. They were in dramatically better shape than obese mice with unrestricted myostatin production.

Dr Butcher added: “In our muscular obese mouse, despite full presentation of obesity, it appears that several of these key pathologies are prevented. While much more research is needed, at this point myostatin appears to be a very promising pathway for protection against obesity-derived cardiometabolic dysfunction.”¹

While these researchers were not testing a drug that inhibits myostatin on these rats, that is the next step in the drug development path. Scientists, likely supported by pharmaceutical corporations, will attempt to develop a drug that inhibits myostatin to be tested on rats. Be on the lookout for this step, and for the use of the phrase “exercise pill.”

While this future addition to the crowded drug market might have very legitimate uses, for example for people who are severely ill and cannot exercise, drug companies will find ways to push it on the general population.

The idea that a pill could replace the benefits of exercise is clearly ludicrous, and even this very early research makes that clear. The rats lacking myostatin were still obese, and while they may have had more muscle mass than other obese rats, other impacts of obesity remained. In humans, that will also be true.

The benefits of exercise go well beyond the development of muscle, so the suggestion that blocking a protein that limits muscular development would somehow replace all the benefits of exercise is clearly flawed. It’s just another example of a profit driven pharmaceutical-focused medical industry.

You already have all the tools you need to build muscle, strengthen your bones, and improve your health. Don’t let a pharmaceutical company with a pill to sell convince you otherwise.

Pesticides More Dangerous Than Previously Thought

We all know pesticides are poison. While it might be logical to think that because they are designed to kill insects, in small quantities they are not dangerous to humans, this is unfounded. Pesticides are toxic, and any amount potentially has an effect on human life and places a harmful burden on the body’s filtration system.

Our knowledge of the dangers of residual pesticides has been steadily increasing, and is a significant factor in the booming market for organic foods that are grown without the use of chemicals. As knowledge keeps advancing, more evidence-based data confirm that these pesticides are harming us in ways that haven’t yet been adequately explored.

A study by Philippe Grandjean of the Harvard School of Public Health and the University of Southern Denmark has exposed the neurotoxicity of pesticides. After reviewing a whopping 200 studies from around Europe he concluded that these chemicals are causing brain damage in humans.²

Of particular concern is the impact of these chemicals on the developing brains of humans in the earliest stages of life: from fetal development through childhood. Furthermore, there is a dearth of studies examining the neurotoxicity of these pesticides, meaning the truth may be worse than what we already know.

Relevant Excerpt:

“Recent insight into the toxic effects of pesticide exposure suggests that early-life exposure is of greatest concern, especially prenatal exposure that may harm brain development. Most insecticides are designed to be toxic to the insect nervous system, but living creatures depend on similar neurochemical processes and may therefore all be vulnerable to these substances. Besides insecticides, experimental studies have suggested the potential of adverse effects on the nervous system for many herbicides and fungicides as well. However, no systematic testing is available since testing for neurotoxicity – especially developmental neurotoxicity – has not consistently been required as part of the registration process, although it may be required for more substances in future. Nevertheless, at least 100 different pesticides are known to cause adverse neurological effects in adults, and all of these substances must therefore be suspected of being capable of damaging developing brains as well. Such adverse effects are likely to be lasting and one main outcome is cognitive deficits, often expressed in terms of losses of IQ points. growth, brain functions and sexual development.”²

Unless you’re eating a fully organic diet, you have definitely consumed residual pesticides. Fortunately our bodies are equipped to cleanse the toxins, but because these synthetic chemicals didn’t exist during the evolutionary development of those systems, filtering man-made chemicals leaves other important tasks unfinished.

Find ways to give your body a break from modern day toxins like pesticides. It will help you to get back to a balanced starting place for improving your health and bone quality.

Prescription Food Proves More Efficient Than Prescription Drugs

Imagine walking into a pharmacy, but instead of rows and rows of bottles of drugs, the shelves are lined with delicious, healthy, fresh food. That sounds like the sort of pharmacy the Save Institute would want!

Amazingly, it actually exists, and it’s called the Fresh Food Pharmacy, located at a hospital in central Pennsylvania. Patients struggling with various health problems including type II diabetes and obesity are getting a prescription that can improve their lives without risking their health: eating right.

Along with it come a number of support systems to help patients make the most of this resource. As you’ll read below, this groundbreaking facility counsels patients on natural ways to achieve significant improvement in their health by consuming natural foods.

Relevant Excerpt:

“In its new incarnation, [the Food Pharmacy] looks more like a grocery, with neatly stocked shelves filled with healthy staples such as whole grain pasta and beans. The refrigerators are full of fresh produce, greens, low-fat dairy, lean meats and fish.

The participants meet one-on-one with a registered dietitian. They're given recipes and hands-on instruction on how to prepare healthy meals. Then, they go home with a very different kind of prescription: five days' worth of free, fresh food.

“It's life-changing,” David Feinberg, the president and CEO of Geisinger Health System, says of the results Geisinger has seen.

He says, so far, all the patients in the pilot program have made similar improvements. “It's mind-blowing,” he says. And he says the range of support patients are offered — everything from dietary counseling to wellness classes and workshops — can help them succeed.

Take, for instance, the significant declines in patients' hemoglobin A1C levels. This is a blood test used to track how well patients with diabetes are controlling their blood sugar.”³

This is most certainly a step in the right direction. Savers are already acquainted with the power of healthy eating to build their bones and improve their health. And there is no need for a doctor’s prescription to eat healthy, because fortunately, you can find resources to improve your diet. In fact, this advice is one of the foundational basis of the Osteoporosis Reversal Program.

Furthermore the Program offers the science behind the nutritional recommendations, explaining the benefits of the vitamins, minerals and other vital compounds found in Foundation Foods. And it goes so much further than that, reaching many areas of life that can be optimized for the improvement of bone quality, as well as quality of life.

Turn your own pantry into a food pharmacy, and live your healthiest life every day!

References

¹ John von Radowitz. “Muscle-building ‘exercise pill' one step closer, scientists say.” Independent. 25 April 2017. Web: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/exercise-pill-muscle-building-scientists-myostatin-protein-gym-augusta-university-a7701711.html
² Philippe Grandjean, et al. “Human health implications of organic food and organic agriculture.” European Parliamentary Research Service. 2016. Web: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2016/581922/EPRS_STU(2016)581922_EN.pdf
³ Allison Aubrey. “Fresh Food By Prescription: This Health Care Firm Is Trimming Costs — And Waistlines.” NPR. May 8, 2017. Web: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/05/08/526952657/fresh-food-by-prescription-this-health-care-firm-is-trimming-costs-and-waistline