Total Health Breakthroughs: Free Natural Health Newsletter and Alternative Health Articles

A day doesn’t go by that I don’t see Valerie Bertinelli or Sally Fields on TV advertising Boniva® or some other treatment for osteoporosis. This condition is a major health problem in older people, especially women, who often sustain fractures as a result of falls. There are over 1.5 million fractures a year attributed to osteoporosis in the US each year.¹

Normally, the bony skeleton is maintained by continual renewal called remodeling, removing old bone and replacing it with new bone.¹ The entire skeleton is replaced every seven years. To do this, our cells require calcium, and to absorb calcium from our diet, we also require vitamin D, which our bodies can manufacture in the skin, with exposure to sunlight.

In osteoporosis which means “porous bone,” bones are peppered with millions of microscopic holes, or pores, the result of continual bone resorption over time. (Resorption is the process in which bone is broken down and calcium is released into the blood.) The normal balance between bone resorption and new bone creation is lost, with bone loss overwhelming the formation of new bone.¹ This results in a net loss of bone volume and strength and bones that are brittle.

The bone that remains is normal bone; there’s just less of it. Think of Swiss cheese: the cheese itself is normal, but it’s shot throughout with lots of holes. Really advanced osteoporosis would be analogous to lacy Swiss cheese.

Recently, I did some radio and TV interviews on the topic of osteoporosis. Rates are increasing, especially in men; 55% of people over the age 50 have osteoporosis; and another 34 million or so have low bone density.

As a pharmacist, I feel obligated to warn people that one of the contributing factors to these increased rates is taking prescription and over-the-counter drugs that reduce or block the production of gastric acid. I’m talking about proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) and other acid blocking drugs like H2 antagonists for heartburn and ulcers.

Besides lowering B12 absorption which influences red blood cells and homocysteine levels, these drugs reduce stomach acid so effectively, they keep your body from absorbing calcium, and therefore can reduce bone density.

In people aged 50 and over, PPIs are associated with a 2.6 times increased risk of hip fracture when taken for over one year. The longer you use PPIs, the greater your risk of fracture.¹ In 2003, one PPI became available over the counter. Needless to say, this tremendously increased the use of this class of drug. Used short term, acid blockers and PPIs are not a problem, but many people use them for much longer than the recommended few months.

In my book, The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth, I list chocolate as one of the best foods on earth.
Chocolate is also one of the seven foods that make up what researchers writing in the British Medical Journal1 called the “Polymeal,” a kind of super meal that, if eaten daily or even a few times [...]