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How To Be Proactive About Bone Health – InVite Health Podcast, Episode 232
bone health
Invite Health Podcast, Episode hosted by Amanda Williams, MPH.
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The older we get, the weaker our bones can become. We certainly know that this is a problem within this country when we look at which osteopenia and osteoporosis are affecting so many Americans. Osteoporosis is considered a silent disease because you don’t feel that your bones are getting weaker. This is just something that you recognize once you break a bone or if you have a bone density test done. Approximately 10 million Americans have osteoporosis and another roughly 45 million Americans have osteopenia, which is the category below osteoporosis. This is a major problem and I want to talk specifically about what we need to focus on when it comes to maintaining healthy bones as we get older.
Why does bone health matter?
There are different steps that we can implement to try to improve our bone health and to try to prevent osteoporosis and broken bones as we get older. There are a couple of nutrients that we can point out when it comes to bone health and those are Calcium and Vitamin D. However, most Americans are not getting enough of these nutrients from their diet because they follow a Standard American Diet, which is not going to be a good source of the key minerals that we need in order to maintain our skeleton.†
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The skeleton is beyond just our structural integrity that is needed to hold us up. The bones themselves play a really integral role in maintaining our minerals. So when we think about our immune system, we can think about our bone marrow, for example. We know that our red and white blood cells are formed within that bone marrow, so this is an area that we certainly don’t want to just chalk up to aging. This is something that we can definitely make changes to now to prevent things like breaks and fractures from occurring later on. Bone also plays a role as an endocrine organ, when we think about the different hormones that are secreted.†
Tune into the full podcast episode to learn more about the importance of bone health and who might be at risk for developing issues such as osteopenia and osteoporosis.
Ways to start focusing on your bone health now
We want to make sure that we maintain our skeletal muscle, so doing weight-bearing muscle strengthening exercises for stretching and toning is very important, especially in the core. I’m not saying you have to go out and become a fan of heavy exercise every day, but just basic stretching, strengthening and toning exercises can really make a huge impact.†
We want to make sure that we’re not doing things that we know can wear away at the bone density, things such as smoking or drinking too much alcohol.
When it comes to our diet, that’s kind of that first place where we can make those adjustments. We can make sure that we’re getting nutrients in every single day that help to support the bones. When we talk about that comprehensive approach to bone health, we don’t want to overlook the role that vitamins, minerals and antioxidants play in that, and even omega-3 fatty acids. If you adhere to a Mediterranean diet, the likelihood of you maintaining healthier bones throughout your life is going to be much greater.†
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We also can look at things such as Calplex HxⓇ. The Calplex is tablets with a combination of Vitamin D and Calcium as Calcium Hydroxyapatite. It also contains within that Phosphorous and Boron, which is really important because we know that certain trace minerals play a really critical role in terms of normal bone function. This includes things such as Magnesium, Phosphorous and Boron. The Calplex is a really nice blend of the Vitamin D, Calcium, Phosphorus and Boron. We can also look at the Bone Powder. Bone Powder has Vitamin K, Magnesium, Calcium, all of the things that the bone needs.†
Listen to the entire podcast episode to hear more of Amanda’s recommendations for bone health.
Thank you for tuning in to the Invite Health Podcast. You can find all of our episodes for free wherever you listen to podcasts or by visiting www.invitehealth.com/podcast. Make sure you subscribe and leave us a review! Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at Invite Health today. We’ll see you next time on another episode of the Invite Health Podcast.
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Low DHEA Levels May Explain Chronic Inflammation – InVite Health Podcast, Episode 229
Invite Health Podcast, Episode hosted by Amanda Williams, MPH.
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Inflammaging is a term that I really like to talk about because it’s so common. At the end of the day, what we’re really discussing is the chronic low-grade inflammation that leads to an accelerated aging process. We know many different things about chronic low-grade inflammation. Today, I want to discuss in more detail the pathogenesis of this and what we can be doing, especially in terms of one component that comes from our adrenal glands, and that is DHEA. DHEA controls so many aspects of our inflammatory response, as well as our immune system response.†
What is inflammaging?
Inflammaging is that chronic inflammation that leads to accelerated aging. What we know is that long-term chronic low-grade inflammation is a contributing factor to nearly every single chronic disease state out there, such as heart disease, diabetes, chronic kidney disease and Alzheimer’s disease. What we need to recognize is the pathogenesis and understand the difference between acute inflammation and chronic inflammation. Acute inflammation is welcomed. It’s the type of inflammation that is protecting us from injury and infection. Chronic inflammation, however, is damaging at a cellular level, which can lead to overall systemic function.†
How to help fight against inflammation
We know that having a diet that is packed with foods that are high in antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids are very beneficial when it comes to keeping our bodies in a lowered inflammatory status. This is why I so often refer to the Mediterranean diet. This is why you want to fill your plates with bright, colorful fruits and vegetables and have things like seeds and nuts as snacks as opposed to chips and crackers. All of these things can certainly help to keep the body in a state of much less inflammation. High-sugar foods and bad carbohydrates definitely can drive up that inflammation. You want to incorporate high-fatty fish such as salmon. That is certainly something that can help with easing inflammation because we’re getting greater inflammation of those omega-3 fatty acids.†
We also know that, as part of a basic supplementation routine, we want to have omega-3s on board, so fish oil, krill oil or flaxseed oil. We want to have high antioxidants in our daily supplementation routine coming from things such as a multivitamin that provides us with Vitamin C, Vitamin E and powerful carotenoids.†
The role of DHEA in inflammaging
DHEA, or dehydroepiandrosterone, is a hormone that is produced in the adrenal gland. It is the most abundant of all of our steroid hormones that are produced in our adrenal glands. In women, the majority of DHEA is going to be coming strictly from the adrenals. In men, they produce the majority from the adrenals, but they may get a small amount made from the testes as well.†
DHEA is really critical to our overall wellness for a variety of different reasons. DHEA is made from cholesterol and it is stimulated to be released by the body through what is known as ACTH, which is adrenocorticotropic hormone. That is coming from the pituitary gland.†
For more information about the various functions of DHEA, tune into the full podcast episode.
The aging process itself can disrupt the body’s hormonal balance. DHEA levels play a really critical role in all of this. By the time you’re 70 or 80 years old, your DHEA levels have fallen by 80 to 90% compared to where they were when you were in your 20s. Many studies have shown that low levels of DHEA sulfate in the body are linked with the pathophysiological changes in numerous age-associated diseases, such as cognitive decline, cardiovascular disease, bone loss, low mood and sexual dysfunction.†
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DHEA has also been studied in a variety of different inflammatory disorders. When you have low DHEA, this can make a huge impact on the rate of inflammation within the body. So many different studies out there indicate how DHEA works in the body.†
A study done and published in 2011 in the Journal of Aging looked specifically at how DHEA supplementation could have an impact on certain markers for inflammation. This was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial where they found that DHEA supplementation helped to improve levels for these different markers that they were looking at, things like TNF alpha and IL-6. Also in this study, they found that those who were supplementing with DHEA actually had an improvement in their triglycerides, as well as in their blood glucose levels. That shows you the way that DHEA is impacting so many different systems in the body.†
Tune into the full podcast episode for additional research on the role of DHEA in the body.
Thank you for tuning in to the Invite Health Podcast. You can find all of our episodes for free wherever you listen to podcasts or by visiting www.invitehealth.com/podcast. Make sure you subscribe and leave us a review! Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at Invite Health today. We’ll see you next time on another episode of the Invite Health Podcast.