Myths of Osteoporosis

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Misty L. Trepke

http://www..com

 

Myths of Osteoporosis

by Bruce Friedrich

http://www.notmilk.com/calbones.html

 

" The myth that osteoporosis is caused by calcium deficiency was

created to sell dairy products and calcium supplements. There's no

truth to it. American women are among the biggest consumers of

calcium in the world, and they still have one of the highest levels

of osteoporosis in the world. And eating even more dairy products

and calcium supplements is not going to change that fact.

--Dr. John McDougall The McDougall Program for Women (2000)

 

Osteoporosis is a debilitating disease characterized by low bone

mass and deteriorating bone tissue that affects tens of millions of

Americans and causes 1.5 million fractures annually. The annual cost

of treatment totals more than $10 billion. While some people

suffering from osteoporosis experience recurring back pain, loss of

height, and spinal deformities, many don't even know they have the

disease until a bone fracture occurs.

 

According to the National Osteoporosis Foundation, one in two women

over the age of 50, and one in eight men, will experience an

osteoporosis-related fracture.

 

The dairy industry has a powerful hold on the nutrition industry in

this country; it pays huge numbers of dietitians, doctors, and

researchers to push dairy, spending more than $300 million annually,

just at the national level, to retain a market for its products.

 

The dairy industry has infiltrated schools, bought off sports stars,

celebrities, and politicians, pushing all the while an agenda based

on profit, rather than public health.

 

Dr. Walter Willett, a veteran nutrition researcher at the Harvard

School of Public Health, says that calcium consumption " has become

like a religious crusade, " overshadowing true preventive measures

such as physical exercise.

 

To hear the dairy industry tell it, if you consume three glasses of

milk daily, your bones will be stronger, and you can rest safely

knowing that osteoporosis is not in your future.

 

Despite the dairy industry funding study after study to try to prove

its claims, Dr. John McDougall, upon examining all the available

nutritional studies and evidence, concludes:

 

" The primary cause of osteoporosis is the high-protein diet most

Americans consume today. As one leading researcher in this area

said, '[Eating a high-protein diet is like pouring acid rain on your

bones.' "

 

Remarkably enough, if dairy has any effect, both clinical and

population evidence strongly implicate dairy in causing, rather than

preventing, osteoporosis. That the dairy industry would lull

unsuspecting women and children into complacency by telling them,

essentially, drink more milk and your bones will be fine, may make

good business sense, but it does the public a grave disservice.

 

Most of the world's peoples do not consume cow's milk, and yet most

of the world does not experience the high rates of osteoporosis

found in the West. In Asian countries, for example, where

consumption of dairy foods is low (and where women tend to be thin

and small-boned, universally accepted risk factors for

osteoporosis), fracture rates are much lower than they are in the

United States and in Scandinavian countries, where consumption of

dairy products is considerably higher.

 

But don't take our word for it; examine the science for yourself:

One study, funded by the National Dairy Council, involved giving a

group of postmenopausal women three 8-ounce glasses of skim milk per

day for two years and comparing their bones to those of a control

group of women not given the milk.

 

The dairy group consumed 1,400 mg of calcium per day and lost bone

at twice the rate of the control group. According to the

researchers, " This may have been due to the average 30 percent

increase in protein intake during milk supplementation ... The

adverse effect of increases in protein intake on calcium balance has

been reported from several laboratories, including our own " (they

then cite 10 other studies). Says McDougall,

 

" Needless to say, this finding did not reach the six o'clock news. "

After looking at 34 published studies in 16 countries, researchers

at Yale University found that countries with the highest rates of

osteoporosis--including the United States, Sweden, and Finland--are

those in which people consume the most meat, milk, and other animal

foods.

 

This study also showed that African Americans, who consume, on

average, more than 1,000 mg of calcium per day, are nine times more

likely to experience hip fractures than are South African blacks,

whose daily calcium intake is only 196 mg. Says McDougall, " [O]n a

nation-by-nation basis, people who consume the most calcium have the

weakest bones and the highest rates of osteoporosis. ...

 

Only in those places where calcium and protein are eaten in

relatively high quantities does a deficiency of bone calcium exist,

due to an excess of animal protein. "

 

Harvard University's landmark Nurses Health Study, which followed

78,000 women over a 12-year period, found that the women who

consumed the most calcium from dairy foods broke more bones than

those who rarely drank milk. Summarizing this study, the Lunar

Osteoporosis Update (November 1997) explained: " This increased risk

of hip fracture was associated with dairy calcium … If this were any

agent other than milk, which has been so aggressively marketed by

dairy interests, it undoubtedly would be considered a major risk

factor. "

 

A National Institutes of Health study out of the University of

California, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

(2001), found that;

 

" Women who ate most of their protein from animal sources had three

times the rate of bone loss and 3.7 times the rate of hip fractures

of women who ate most of their protein from vegetable sources. " Even

though the researchers adjusted " for everything we could think of

that might otherwise explain the relationship … it didn't change the

results. "

 

The study's conclusion: " [A]n increase in vegetable protein intake

and a decrease in animal protein intake may decrease bone loss and

the risk of hip fracture. "

 

Another study published in the American Journal of Clinical

Nutrition (2000) looked at all aspects of diet and bone health and

found that high consumption of fruits and vegetables positively

affect bone health and that dairy consumption did not. Such findings

do not surprise nutritional researchers:

 

According to Dr. Neal Barnard, author of Turn Off the Fat Genes

(2001) and several other books on diet and health, the calcium

absorption from vegetables is as good as or better than that from

milk.

 

Calcium absorption from milk is approximately 30 percent, while

figures for broccoli, Brussels sprouts, mustard greens, turnip

greens, kale, and some other leafy green vegetables range between 40

percent and 64 percent.

 

After reviewing studies on the link between protein intake and

urinary calcium loss, nutritional researcher Robert P. Heaney found

that as consumption of protein increases, so does the amount of

calcium lost in the urine (Journal of the American Dietetic

Association, 1993): " This effect has been documented in several

different study designs for more than 70 years, " he writes,

adding, " [T]he net effect is such that if protein intake is doubled

without changing intake of other nutrients, urinary calcium content

increases by about 50 percent. "

 

Researchers from the University of Sydney and Westmead Hospital

discovered that consumption of dairy foods, especially early in

life, increases the risk of hip fractures in old age (American

Journal of Epidemiology, 1994).

 

Finally, an analysis of all research conducted since 1985, published

in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2000), concluded:

 

" If dairy food intakes confer bone health, one might expect this to

have been apparent from the 57 outcomes, which included randomized,

controlled trials and longitudinal cohort studies involving 645,000

person-years. "

 

The researchers go on to lament that " there have been few carefully

designed studies of the effects of dairy foods on bone health, " and

then to conclude with typical scientific reserve that:

 

" The body of scientific evidence appears inadequate to support a

recommendation for daily intake of dairy foods to promote bone

health in the general U.S. population. "

 

What we do know is that osteoporosis rates decline markedly as body

weight, exercise, and caloric intake rise. Corroborating the

researchers' lament about bad studies, only three studies have

factored caloric intake into the analysis; two of them found no

correlation between dairy intake and osteoporosis.

 

The other found a positive link; that is, the more milk consumed,

the higher the fracture risk (Harvard Nurses Study, see above).

 

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2000) study cited above

argued that since we know for certain that total caloric intake and

body weight are positively associated with bone mass, such factors

are " particularly important " in any study of osteoporosis and bone

mass.

 

Is the dairy industry ignoring these factors by design in its

clinical studies, perhaps because dairy consumers tend to be heavier

and to consume more calories than those consuming fewer (or no)

dairy products?

 

It is remarkable that the dairy industry can't get the results it's

looking for, since dairy consumption does tend to make people

heavier. Even though dairy researchers ignore this factor, most

studies still show no relationship, and some indicate that milk

causes osteoporosis.

 

If the tendencies of those who consume more dairy to be heavier and

to consume more calories were accounted for, would the studies

indicating no link show, in fact, that dairy intake causes

osteoporosis, like the Harvard School of Public Health study?

 

That would bring clinical analysis into line with the population

analysis, which clearly states that increased dairy consumption is

linked to increased risk for osteoporosis.

 

So what can I do for strong bones?

 

Osteoporosis is a horrible disease, and although the evidence is

strong that dairy consumption doesn't prevent it, simply eliminating

dairy products does not ensure that it won't afflict you. And if,

like most people who consume no meat or dairy, you are slender, you

should be sure to put some thought (and effort) into keeping your

bones healthy.

 

What the evidence does dictate as useful for strong bones is:

 

* Getting enough vitamin D (if you don't spend any time in the sun,

be sure to take a supplement or eat fortified foods).

 

* Eliminating animal protein (for a variety of reasons, animal

protein causes severe bone deterioration).

 

* Limiting alcohol consumption (alcohol is toxic to the cells that

form bones and inhibits the absorption of calcium).

 

* Limiting salt intake (sodium leaches calcium out of the bones)

 

* Not smoking (studies have shown that women who smoke one pack of

cigarettes a day have 5 to 10 percent less bone density at menopause

than nonsmokers).

 

* Getting plenty of exercise. Studies have concluded that physical

exercise is the key to building strong bones (more important than

any other factor). For example, a study published in the British

Medical Journal, which followed 1,400 men and women over a 15-year

period, found that exercise may be the best protection against hip

fractures and that " reduced intake of dietary calcium does not seem

to be a risk factor. "

 

And Penn State University researchers found that bone density is

significantly affected by how much exercise girls get during their

teen years, when 40 to 50 percent of their skeletal mass is

developed. Consistent with previous research, the Penn State study,

which was published in Pediatrics (2000), the journal of the

American Academy of Pediatrics, showed that calcium intake, which

ranged from 500 to 1,500 mg per day, has no lasting effect on bone

health.

 

" We (had) hypothesized that increased calcium intake would result in

better adolescent bone gain. Needless to say, we were surprised to

find our hypothesis refuted, " one researcher explained.

 

Conclusion:

 

Drinking milk builds dairy producers' profits, but as the above

studies show, it's more likely to harm your bones than to help them.

And dairy foods are linked to all sorts of other problems, including

obesity, heart disease and cancer (including breast cancer and

prostate cancer) and are likely to be contaminated with trace levels

of antibiotics, hormones, and other chemicals, including dioxin, one

of the most toxic substances known to humans (The Washington Post

reported that " the latest EPA study concludes that people who

consume even small amounts of dioxin in fatty foods and dairy

products face a cancer risk of 1 in 100.

 

They may also develop other problems, such as attention disorder,

learning disabilities, susceptibility to infections and liver

disorders " (April 12, 2001).

 

Of course, calcium is an essential mineral, and it is possible to

have a calcium deficiency. According to Dr. Neal Barnard, president

of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine:

 

" Milk, in particular, is poor insurance against bone breaks ... the

healthiest calcium sources are green leafy vegetables and

legumes ... You don't need to eat huge servings of vegetables or

beans to get enough calcium, but do include both in your regular

menu planning. If you are looking for extra calcium, fortified

orange, apple, or grapefruit juices are good choices. "

 

It makes no more sense for humans to consume the mother's milk of

cows than for us to consume the mother's milk of rats, cats, dogs,

giraffes, or any other mammal. Nature created human mother's milk

for baby humans, cow mother's milk for baby cows, and so on.

 

The late Dr. Benjamin Spock, in Baby and Child Care (the United

States' best selling book, other than the Bible, over the past 50

years), after recommending that no one consume cow's milk and

cataloging a host of ills associated with milk consumption (heart

disease, cancer, obesity, antibiotic residue, iron deficiency,

asthma, ear infections, skin conditions, stomach aches, bloating,

and diarrhea), concludes:

 

" In nature, animals do not drink milk after infancy, and that is the

normal pattern for humans, too. ...Children stay in better calcium

balance when their protein comes from plant sources. "

 

Dr. Spock recommends human mother's milk for baby humans, as nature

intended.

 

" It is hard to turn on the television without hearing commercials

suggesting that milk promotes strong bones. The commercials do not

point out that only 30 percent of milk's calcium is absorbed by the

body or that osteoporosis is common among milk drinkers. Nor do they

help you correct the real causes of bone loss. "

--Dr. Neal Barnard

 

Says Dr. T. Colin Campbell, the world's leading epidemiological

researcher in the field of diet and health,

 

" The dairy folks, ever since the 1920s, have been enormously

successful in cultivating an environment within virtually all

segments of our society--from research and education to public

relations and politics--to have us believing that cow's milk and its

products are manna from heaven. ... Make no mistake about it; the

dairy industry has been virtually in total control of any and all

public health information that ever rises to the level of public

scrutiny. "

 

" The association between the intake of animal protein and fracture

rates appears to be as strong as the association between cigarette

smoking and lung cancer. "

--Dr. T. Colin Campbell

_________________

 

JoAnn Guest

mrsjo-

DietaryTi-

www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Genes