Phosphorus- The Way it Affects Our Bones

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Phosphorus - The Way it Affects Our Bones JoAnn Guest Apr 05, 2002 11:27 PST

Phosphorus for Bones?

 

 

We need some phosphorus to help make bone. But most of us have far too

much of it, which upsets the calcium chemistry of the body.

 

Excess phosphorus in the bloodstream sends a message that more calcium

is required, and stores are released from the bones.

 

Some scientists believe that getting the calcium/phosphorus ratio right

is more important than calcium alone in protecting bones. Nowadays its

very easy to consume far too much phosphorus.

 

It's there in all kind of

food -instant soups and desserts, meats, cheese and other dairy, toppings, cola

drinks,

and other carbonated beverages. Cut down on all of these!

 

 

The ideal balance is equal parts of calcium to phosphorus. But research

suggests that we consume four times as much phosphorus as calcium.

Cottage cheese, for ezample, contains far more phosphorus than calcium.

 

Diets deficient in vitamin B6 have produced osteoporosis in rats. It

appears to increase the strength of connective tissue in bone.

 

You can

find vitamin B6 in everyday foods such as whole grains, fish, nuts,

bananas, and avocadoes.

 

Vitamin K is known primarily for its effect on blood clotting.

 

But it is

also needed to synthesize osteosalcin, a unique protein found in large

amounts in bone.

 

 

Osteocalcin helps harden calcium, so vitamin K is vital to bone

formation. In one study of sixteen osteoporosis patients, blood levels

of vitamin K were found to be 35 percent lower than in healthy people of

the same age.

 

Frequent use of antibiotics can result in vitamin K deficiency. The best

source of vitamin K is green vegetables.

 

Zinc

This important mineral helps the activity of vitamin D in promoting

calcium absorption. Osteoporosis sufferers are frequently low in zinc.

Good sources are oysters, fish, animal foods, pumpkin seeds, and eggs.

 

Boron-

Some minerals---phosphorus, calcium, and magnesium, for instance-are

termed macro minerals because they are present in our bodies in large

amounts. Zinc, manganese, copper, chromium, selenium, and boron, on the

other hand, are present in small amounts and are known as trace

elements.

 

Boron is in fact an " ultratrace " element-the amounts needed

are even smaller. But- Boron is now believed to be vital for a number of

reasons. A U.S, Dept. of Agriculture research study demonstrated that

giving post-menopausal women a short course of 3 mg. Boron supplements a

day resulted in a 44 percent reduction in the amount of calcium excreted

in their urine.

 

It also markedly increased the amount of the estrogen

hormone estradiol in their blood. In fact it raised the level of this

estrogen to the amounts shown in the blood of women receiving estrogen

therapy. The conclusions of this rather dramatic Dept. of Agriculture

Study were that boron improved the metabolism of calcium, phosphorus,

and magnesium, helped raise estrogen levels in older women to the levels

needed, helped in the manufacture of vitamin D needed for calcium

absorption, and reduced calcium, magnesium and estrogen loss.

 

Boron is

found to ALFALFA, KELP, CABBAGE, and LEAFY GREENS. It is stored in our

bones and any excess is excreted in the urine.

 

ALFALFA: alfalfa has a superb calcium to phosphorus ratio and it is the richest

land source of the trace elements boron and silicon, both of which are

valuable for bone integrity!

 

Alfalfa has numerous herbal uses, but it really hits the jackpot when it

comes to rheumatoid and osteoarthritis, heart problems, high blood

pressure, labor and nursing, menopause, PMS and tooth decay.Alfalfa won’t help

with these problems if you consume sugar, white flour,

processed chemical-laden foods, salt, caffeine and alcohol. But if you

cut these out of your diet and add alfalfa to your daily regimen, you

can gradually reduce bone loss and alkalize the body to empty

those nasty acid deposits.

 

Tooth Decay

Many herbalists feel that taking two to three alfalfa tablets daily

helps prevent cavities. In combination with proper dental care, alfalfa

tends to ward off dental decay, especially for those people prone to

problems no matter how well they take care of their teeth.

 

 

You can take it in either tablet or tea form. (To make teas, steep 1

teaspoon of the herb in 8 ounces of hot distilled water). You’ll need

9-18 tablets per day to benefit from the herb. If you prefer the tea,

one to two cups a day is usually sufficient. Drink it first thing in the

morning and during the afternoon. I don’t recommend it in the fluid

extract form, because the alcohol will destroy many of its life-giving

vitamins and enzymes.

Start with two to three alfalfa tablets and increase to six or ten, then

take that amount twice a day. The optimal dosage may be twenty to thirty

tablets taken throughout the day, until your bowels are regular. Then

cut back to three or four tablets a day. The tablets may be taken at any

time in a day and are relatively inexpensive.

 

 

 

MAGNESIUM: Like calcium and phosphorus, magnesium is required for strong,

healthy bones and teeth. This mineral plays an important part in bone

growth, and helps prevent tooth decay by holding calcium in tooth

enamel.

 

Food Sources:

Magnesium is widely distributed in foods. These foods with the highest

magnesium content include seafoods, nuts, blackstrap molasses,

soybeans, seeds, and wheat germ. Red and black grapes and wine are also

excellent sources.

Magnesium is also present in whole grains such as oatmeal, and

brown rice. Dark leafy greens nd green beans are also good sources.

 

Your body contains between 20 and 28 grams of magnesium. Half of this

amount is found in the bones. The remainder activates hundreds of

enzymes throughout the body and is CRITICAL for proper cell function!It has been

estimated that as much as 60 percent of the U.S.

population is at risk for magnesium deficiency. For instance, people

using a number of drugs, including antiobiotics and diuretics may have

depleted magnesium.

Understandably, poor magnesium intake has been implicated in disorders

such as Osteoporosis.

 

 

Vitamin D

This vitamin is fat-soluble, unlike vitamin C, and is acquired through

sunlight or diet. It helps the vital absorption of calcium and

phosphorus from the digestive process, and helps put them into bone.

The body needs broad daylight to transform cholesterol into vitamin D.

 

 

The hormone that increases dietary calcium absorption (calcitriol), is

composed of vitamin D.

 

Some say osteoporosis incidence is, therefore, higher in countries with

little sunlight.

 

However, if you consume some fish and / or egg yolk once in a while,

you'll absorb all the vitamin D you need - even living in Greenland,

Canada or Northern Europe.

 

Is osteoporosis incidence really lower in countries with more sunlight?

 

Not necessarily. Though Italy is much sunnier than Poland, hip-fracture

incidence in Italy is much higher than in Poland (and Spain),

simply because in Italy 25% more dairy products are consumed.

Kuwait is extremely sunny, but, nevertheless, osteoporosis incidence in

Kuwait is about as high as in Great Britain and France, because in

Kuwait, also, lots of milk is consumed.

 

 

In 52% of examined Saudi Arabian females for example, vitamin D level

was extremely low (because of clothes that block almost all sunlight),

but their bones were not affected.

A

deficiency of Vitamin D leads to decalcification of bones.Good sources

are fish and fish oils!

 

Response on these findings

 

Alternative hypotheses about osteoporosis incidence;

 

The excessive-phosphorus hypothesis

 

Water fluoridation and fracture incidence

 

Osteoporosis and protein- and soy consumption

 

Some think it is because of low milk-calcium bio-availability

 

The magnesium-calcium ratio hypothesis

 

Osteoporosis and a high-fat diet

 

 

In general, we do not need much vitamin D to either inhibit PTH

secretion or to increase calcium absorption. Hyperparathyroidism strongly

increases both uptake of calcium

into the bones and deportation from the bones, eventually causing

osteoporosis. If too little calcitriol is available, the secretion of

PTH is not sufficiently inhibited.

 

When we eat many High-Protein Dairy products,

the animal Protein is broken down into by-products that are highly acidic.

However our bodies can only operate within a very narrow PH range

between acidity and alkalinity.

In order to neutralize the resulting acidity the body is required to

mobilize Calcium from the bones.

 

Once this is accomplished, the Calcium is lost in the urine,never to

be returned to the bones.

 

Studies 20 years ago showed

that even when Calcium intake was increased to Optimum high

levels,...more Calcium was lost in the urine than added to the

skeleton on a highly *acidic* Protein diet.

 

With a High-Protein Diet,....you will invariably flush 80 mgs of bone

away each day.

Stay on a High-Protein Diet for 40 years, and you'll inevitably lose

75 percent of your Skeleton!

 

The First step toward bone building is to eat fewer animal proteins

and more calcium rich vegetables/fruit!

 

Replace dairy milk with non-gmo SOY or RICE milk in cooking and on your

cereal.

 

Eat lots of dark leafy green vegetables, beans, lentils, broccoli,

sesame seeds, oats, fruits, Soymilk and Tofu for strong bones.

 

 

Added hormones (artifical hormones such as rBGH) are commonly used

to increase milk production.

These hormones (59 of them, to be exact), as well as a variety of

antibiotics and pesticide residues, come through in cow's milk.

It takes seven gallons of milk to make one pound of cheese, so as

you can see...

the problem is triplicated with cheese consumption.

Constant exposure to rBGH and other articial hormones can cause

physical problems (Breast, prostate and ovarian cancer are directly

related to hormonal imbalances).

 

Statistics

And yes….

 

For example:

 

In Greece the average milk consumption doubled from 1961 to 1977

(and was even higher in 1985), and during the period 1977 - 1985 the age

adjusted osteoporosis incidence almost doubled too.

 

In Hong Kong in 1989 twice as much dairy products

were consumed as in 1966 and osteoporosis incidence tripled

in the same period. Now their milk consumption level is almost “European”, and

so is

osteoporosis incidence.

 

 

It is very simple:

where the most milk is consumed, the osteoporosis incidence is highest.

Compared to other countries, the most milk is consumed in Sweden,

Finland, Switzerland and The Netherlands (300 to 400 kg / cap / year),

and osteoporosis incidence in these countries has sky rocketed.

 

 

 

Like Australians and New Zealanders, Americans consume three fold

more milk than the Japanese, and hip-fracture incidence in Americans is

therefore 2½ fold higher. In those within America that consume less

milk, like the Mexican-Americans and Black Americans, osteoporosis

incidence is two-fold lower than in white Americans, which is not

due to genetic differences.

 

 

 

Chinese consume very little milk (8 kg / year), and hip-fracture

incidence, therefore, is among the lowest in the world; hip-fracture

incidence in Chinese women is six fold lower than in the US. (30) (The

average American consumes 254 kg milk / year)

 

 

 

The less milk consumed,

the lower is the osteoporosis rate.

 

 

If you’re looking to consume less protein and more nutrients that help

prevent Osteoporosis, here are the plant foods I’d suggest.

 

Cabbage:

Boron helps raise natural estrogen levels in the blood, and estrogen helps

preserve bone. In my database, cabbage ranks highest in boron content

among leafy vegetables with 145 parts per million (ppm) on a dry-weight

basis.

 

I eat a lot of coleslaw, and it’s easy to combine cabbage with

high-calcium broccoli, kale, beans and tofu in salads and steamed

vegetable dishes. Cabbage is also a key ingredient in my

Bone-strengthening Broth.

 

Dandelion:

Speaking of boron, dandelion shoots run a close second to cabbage, with

125 ppm. Dandelion also has more than 20,000 ppm of calcium, meaning

that just ten grams (just under seven tablespoons) of dried dandelion

shoots could provide more than 1 mg of born and 200 mgs of calcium.

Dandelion is also a fair source of silicon, which some studies suggest

also helps strengthen bone.

 

Pigweed:

On a dry weight basis, pigweed leaves are one of our best vegetable

sources of calcium, at 5.3 percent. This means that a small serving of

steamed leaves provides a hearty 500 mgs of calcium. Other good plant

sources of calcium in descending order of potency include broad beans,

watercress, licorice, marjoram, savory, red clover shoots, thyme,

Chinese cabbages (bok choy), basil, celery root, dandelion root, and

purslane.

 

Avocado:

As one reputed vegetable source of vitamin D, avocados can help the body

turn calcium into bone. Some people shun avocadoes because they are

fairly high in fat, but if you eat a generally low-fat vegetarian diet,

I don’t see much harm in them, especially if you’re at risk for

osteoporosis. I suggest mashing an avocado into nonfat organic cottage

cheese or organic yogurt so you get your calcium and some vitamin D at

the same time. Avocadoes are also rich in heart healthy vitamin E.

 

Soybean:

(Glycine max) and other beans)

Vegetarian and Japanese women have a lower incidence of osteoporosis and

fractures than Western or meat-eating women. The reason, according to

James Anderson, M.D. of the University of Kentucky College of medicine

in Lexington, appears to be that Western diet meat-eaters *excrete* more

calcium in their urine.

 

Beans are a good source of protein, but they cause less calcium loss in

the urine than meat. In addition, soybeans and other beans contain

genistein, a plant estrogen (phytoestrogen) that acts like the female

sex hormone in the body.

Pharmaceutical estrogen replacement increases the risk of breast cancer.

Genistein from beans has never shown to increase cancer risk, and I’d be

willing to bet that a diet rich in beans would strengthen bone and

prevent heart disease as well as or equally as well as, estrogen pills.

 

 

Horsetail:

French research suggests that silicon helps prevent osteoporosis and can

be used to treat bone fractures.

 

Horsetail is among the richest plant

sources of this mineral, in the form of the compound monosilicic acid,

which the body can readily use.

Aging and low estrogen levels decrease the body’s ability to absorb

silicon. Some people recommend up to nine 350 mg capsules daily.

If you’re advised to use horsetail tea, add a teaspoon of pure natural

cane sugar to the water along with the dried herb.The sugar will pull

more silicon out of the plant.

Bring it to a boil, then let it simmer for about three hours. Strain out

the leaves, then let the tea cool before drinking.

 

Parsley:

That dark green garnish, which is so often thrown away, instead of

eaten, is generously endowed with boron. It would take about three

ounces of dried parsley to provide the three mgs deemed that is useful

in osteoporosis. That’s more than most people want to consume, but every

sprig helps.

In my database, parsley is also among the highest food sources of

fluorine, another bone strengthener. Freshen your breath, while you save

your bones by routinely eating every sprig of parsley garnish on your

plate in restaurants.

 

I have nothing against calcium supplements but I firmly believe that

everyone should get as much calcium as possible from their foods. It’s

not only possible to do this, it’s better for your bones, because the

mineral strength of bone depends on more than calcium.

 

If calcium requirements really were four fold higher, pre-historic

infants would never have been able to grow up, and ultimately, to have

children. If we really need cows' milk, man could never have existed.

 

Why ?

 

Because we have already been on this planet for millions of years. And

we have only consumed milk for a maximum of 0.01 million years. This

means that we did not drink a single drop of milk from other animals in

more than 99% of human existence; in our entire development from ape to

modern human being, we never drank, nor needed animals' milk.

 

1.6 million years ago there were already humans well over 6 feet tall

(39), with apparently strong bones.

 

 

 

Some argue that our prehistoric diet contained more calcium, but that is simply

not true.

Phosphorus is important, but you also need magnesium, boron, zinc,

vitamin D and vitamin A.

You can get all of these nutrients in supplements, but I prefer to get

them the way Nature intended—packaged all together in food!

 

Lower in animal protein, vegetarian diets are associated with significantly

higher BMD(bone mineral density)! And because our natural plant foods, on the

average, contain about as much

calcium as mother's milk, it is absolutely impossible that these natural

foods contain too little calcium.

 

Calcium in mg / 100 g

 

226 Hazelnuts

 

140 Organic Egg yolk

 

132 Brazil nuts

 

96 Olives, Extra-Virgin Olive oil and green olives

 

87 Walnuts

 

54 Figs

 

44 Black berries

 

40 Raspberries

 

20 Coconut

 

18 Grapes

 

16 Apricot

 

16 Pineapple

 

14 Plum

 

13 Salmon

12 Mackerel

 

11 Watermelon

 

10 Avocado

 

9 Banana

 

6 Muskmelon

 

 

Exercise

 

If osteoporosis was about a lack of exercise, all healthy but physical

inactive people would have osteoporosis, which is not the case. That is

why bone-loss with age cannot be explained by declining physical

activity levels.Exercise causes microfractures which stimulates the osteoblasts

to

increase their activity. Logically, then exercise also increases the

death rate of osteoblasts. (excessive exercise is detrimental)

 

 

Taken from:

 

“Healing Power of Herbs” with Dr. John Heinerman

“Aging Without Growing Old” with Judy Lindbergh McFarland

“Nature’s Miracle Tonics” with Laurel Dewey,

“The Humorous Herbalist”- Ms. Dewey’s column appears in newspapers and

magazines nationwide.

 

JoAnn Guest

 

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