NUMBERS OF FRACTURES SEEN IN CHILDREN IS GOING THROUGH THE CEILING
If you are as old as I am (born in ’67), you remember how different it was being a kid than it is today. There were no internet, cell phones, or video games. TV was 3; maybe four channels if you were lucky. You rode your bike everywhere, all the time. You constantly played outdoors with your friends. Roughhousing was just another part of growing up. You probably didn’t know anyone in high school that didn’t have a job. Things were different then, and it wasn’t a bad thing (something I suppose every generation before us has nostalgically lamented). And despite the bike wrecks, fights, falls, and /asfkfjk, the truth is, most of us turned out OK as far as our bones were concerned.
Today, despite childhoods that are far less ‘physical’ than ours, what do we see as far as bones are concerned? The newest issue of the medical journal Pediatrics spells it out in a study called Bone Densitometry in Children and Adolescents. Off the get go we learn that, “Children with forearm fractures have been shown to have lower bone mass, a greater percentage of body fat, and less calcium intake than their peers without a history of fracture. The documented increase of 35% to 65% in childhood fractures over the past four decades has raised concern that current lifestyles are compromising early bone health.” You see; according to Wolff’s Law, the only way to strengthen bones is by stressing them in a mechanical fashion.
Back in the mid 1800’s, Dr. Julian Wolff figured out that in order to stimulate OSTEOBLASTIC ACTIVITY (bone growth and strengthening), a person has to “stress” their bones. According to that bastion of truth and wisedom Wikipedia, “The internal architecture of the bone undergoes adaptive changes, followed by secondary changes to the external portion of the bone, perhaps becoming thicker as a result. The inverse is true as well: if the loading on a bone decreases, the bone will become less dense and weaker due to the lack of the stimulus required for continued remodeling.” This is why the number one thing you can do (J.O.) is to make sure you are working your bones against some sort of resistance (aka “STRENGTH TRAINING“).
All this is great to know, but the real question remains thus far unanswered. What in the world are we as a society going to do about this? Even though dozens of studies show how harmful — even deadly — this practice can be (HERE), the study’s authors firstly recommended taking more calcium — lots more calcium. While this is poor advice in most cases, some of the advice was actually good; or at least could potentially be good. They suggested controlling INFLAMMATION (although, unfortunately, diet was not mentioned). They also mentioned WHOLE BODY VIBRATION. Of course, they mentioned bispnoshphonate drugs.
BIS PHOS DRUGS are particularly scary because of the way they work. While it’s true that these drugs unquestionably cause bone to grow, the mechanism used to do it is so pathetically devious that, just as I warned two decades ago would eventually happen, people are now warned that these drugs actually cause osteoporosis (HERE). “None of the drugs used to treat bone fragility in the elderly have yet been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for pediatric use. Nevertheless, therapy with bisphosphonates is considered reasonable for children with moderate to severe osteogenesis imperfecta.” OI is a serious and not too common problem. However, mark my words, it’s just a matter of time before these drugs are being regularly prescribed for children — sort of like they’ve done with PPI’S, ANTIDEPRESSANTS, and any number of others (HERE).
Because osteoporosis is one of the myriad of problems caused by inflammation (HERE), you already know how to solve it — that is, you know how to solve it if you have regularly been following my blog. Although I do not recommend tons of supplements on my site, CALCIFOOD, along with synergists, can be indispensable.
