What is osteoporosis?  It is the condition where more calcium is pulled out of the bones than is absorbed into the bones, resulting in the bones becoming more and more porous. If this is allowed to continue through life, a bone, usually the hip bone or an arm or a leg,  will break, and the patient will fall. It has been debated as to whether the patient falls as a result of the broken bone, or whether the bone breaks as the result of the fall. I believe the former is correct.
   Other causes of osteoporosis are the use of steroids, such as prednisone or cortisone; the lack of, or the inability to, exercise; drinking coffee, smoking (or both), hormone therapy for more than three years, or the excessive use of alcohol.
   What is most often believed is that there is a lack of calcium in the diet. Usually this is not so. When a bone scan is taken, the quantity of calcium is measured. If the scan shows less bone density than what is considered to be normal, the tendency for doctors is to prescribe calcium in relatively large amounts, in the form of milk products or oral calcium tablets, or, most often, a drug called Fosamax, which has tremendous side effects. There are significant dangers in taking calcium alone, which I will describe in the next few paragraphs.
   The average poor diet, consisting of junk foods, excessive protein and fat, coffee, tea and soft drinks, and using fluoride products, prevents calcium utilization in the body by increasing the phosphorous and lowering the calcium levels in the liquid portion of the blood. Chronic lower back trouble and arthritis usually occur toward later middle age or the beginning of old age. Osteoporosis and osteomalacia (both are bone diseases) and slipped disk, deteriorating spine, ankylosing spondylitis and scoliosis occur more frequently now, and at an earlier age.
   Chronic lower back trouble usually occurs in the middle or older years. A person is most likely to suffer upon arising from bed after a night’s sleep. This is normal, due to the physiological changes that have occurred with the aging process.
   How does one make the pain go away? Do the stretch exercises described in ISSUE 3. Then take a hot shower to further limber up the back. Later, before or after a good breakfast, do the calorie-burning exercises, also described in the same issue.  
 
   It has often been stated that little or no calcium is deposited in the bones after the age of thirty-five. If this is so, It would, therefore, be ideal to load the body with calcium in the pre-teen and teen-age years. Osteoporosis, contrary to popular belief, begins often as early as the onset of the teens or even younger. Autopsies performed on the bodies of young people have shown that arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) had already begun to take place. The abnormal material in the arteries consisted, in part, of calcium which was dissolving from the bones, due to drinking caffeinated and chocolate beverages, soft drinks containing phosphoric acid, and smoking.
   The counter-balancing force preventing osteoporosis from becoming an obvious (apparent) disease in childhood or early adulthood was, and still is, the performance of physical exercise;  this force diminishes with advancing age or physical impairment. Avoid being a “couch potato.” Following the ABC Diet throughout  life, however, prevents both  arteriosclerosis and osteoporosis. Once these occur to any degree, stronger nutritive measures must be employed.
   During the 6 to 12 month period without junk food and with the improved nutrition of the ABC Diet and weight-bearing exercise, the body will begin to repair itself by manufacturing new bone and cartilage. This can be proven by utilizing comparative X-rays.  Sufficient calcium and magnesium, in the forms of eating dark green, leafy vegetables or taking CalMag (500 mg of calcium and 250 mg of magnesium) tablets, plus Vitamin D, should also be taken. These quantities in divided dosage, along with a good multiple vitamin and mineral capsule, is needed daily to repair or maintain good bone density, but the calcium must always be given with the magnesium.
   Why? There is a urinary excretion complex which the body follows in the ratio of 2 parts of calcium to 1 part of magnesium. If this ratio is not followed, by taking calcium tablets only, magnesium will be pulled out of various parts of the body to attempt to satisfy this complex. The more calcium taken without half-as-much magnesium, the more damage results. A deficiency in magnesium can result in bladder stones, kidney stones or gallstones; digestive disorders; heartbeat irregularity; damage to the nerves; or various kinds of mental illnesses, such as depression, A.D.H.D., manic depressive state or schizophrenia. It is the main reason that adults should avoid drinking large amounts of milk and cheese, or taking calcium citrate, calcium gluconate, calcium lactate or oyster shell calcium carbonate preparations which do not contain enough magnesium to satisfy the ratio. Taking Cal Mag tablets, with the correct 2:1 ratio, helps to prevent magnesium deficiency.
   Manganese, another mineral, taken in a daily divided dose of 180 to 650mg. is recommended to strengthen the ligaments of the spine and the disks.  The higher dose should be given especially while pains and spasms are present. Vitamin E (d-alpha tocopherol), from 200 to 400  I.U. a day, with butter or salad oil, also strengthens the back muscles and prevent leg spasms. Taking as much as 2,000 mg. of Vitamin C, and half of a CalMag tablet three times a day has often proven effective in relieving severe back and leg spasms.
   Currently in the Washington, D.C., area, and elsewhere in the country, there is a widespread problem with lead leaching out of the aging water pipes. Extremely high blood levels of lead in children’s blood have been found. The solution to the problem, according to water experts, is adding orthophosphates, a form of phosphorous, to the water supplies in order to lower the lead content.
   What’s the problem with that?  When phosphorous is taken in higher amounts, calcium absorption is decreased– less calcium enters the bones, resulting in the possibility of osteoporosis earlier than later in life.  The same thing happens in drinking soft drinks, which contain phosphoric acid, resulting in diminished calcium absorption into the bones. 
   The best answer is to replace all the deteriorating lead pipes and joints as quickly as possible, an extremely expensive but absolutely necessary step. In the meantime, while the pipes and joints are being replaced, there are two items that can help to protect the body against lead. They are Vitamin C 1000 Complex and calcium, both known for their detoxifying abilities. However, these two should not be taken at the same time because they are slightly antagonistic to each other, and calcium should never be taken without taking half as much magnesium with it.
   The ideal situation would be for everyone to take a multiple vitamin and mineral capsule, which contains Vitamins A, B Complex, C and D with breakfast daily. An hour later, a half to one tablet of Cal Mag should be taken.  
   So when your doctors tells you to take some kind of calcium tablets to avoid osteoporosis, ask them whether you can take a good multiple vitamin and mineral tablet and a Cal Mag tablet instead, for better, safer results.
   Summary of the ABC Diet. (For an explanation, see ISSUE #2.)
“A” for Avoiding chemical poisons normally considered harmless but which are really harmful:
coffee, tea, soft drinks, chocolate, tobacco, alcohol, legal and illegal drugs, artificial sweeteners, coloring agents, preservatives, flavoring agents, white flour, fluorides, sugar, and more than a small amount of salt.
“B” for Be Sure to Eat some raw, uncooked vegetables or fruit, with each meal, in addition to cooked vegetables or fruits. Should eat whole grains cereals, brown organic rice, wheat, barley, oats, corn, beans, legumes, peas, seeds and nuts. May also eat some whole grain wheat bread, and pasta. Although they do have some fat and protein, the above are considered
     CARBOHYDRATES, the major source of energy for the body.
   Up to, but not more than one-sixth of the daily calories may come from FATS, such as butter and oils from palm, coconut, olive, sunflower, soybean. Fats are important raw materials for many endocrine hormones, including male and female hormones, and cholesterol for healthy nails, skin and hair. Fats also serve as an extra energy source and transport Vitamins A, D, E and K around the body to where they are needed.
   No more than one-sixth of the daily calories may come from PROTEIN, which may be from animal sources, such as red meat, fish, eggs, milk and cheese, or from vegetable sources, such as soy protein or a blend of pea, rice, or potato protein, rice bran, corn bran, apple and oat fiber, mushroom extract and other ingredients. Proteins serve as building blocks for the body. 
   Fortunately for the body, where good nutrition is present and through chemical processes, carbohydrates, fats and proteins may be transformed into each other when needed. Enzymes, mostly made up of protein, are catalysts, substances which help chemical reactions to be created or speeded up by providing a substance which itself is not changed in the process. In order to digest proteins, the enzymes pepsin, trypsin, proteolytic and certain liver enzymes must be present. We must eat fresh sources of enzymes, found mostly in raw vegetables and fresh fruit, on a daily basis,  to enable the body to do its job of living– pumping blood, breathing, thinking, moving, digesting, excreting, and so on.
“C” for Complementing (or supplementing) the diet with the correct supplement, or supplements, to prevent or postpone disease, or to modify a disease of which we show symptoms.
 
   Always remember that one must eliminate the “A” items before expecting positive results from this therapy in any disease.