Superstars of optimal wellness: Down with fractures – up with strong bones

By Barb Jarmoska

Ask anyone what mineral is most important for bone health and the answer is universal. “Calcium!” We’ve all been told that strong bones are made of calcium. Much of that education comes from the dairy industry as a part of their marketing campaign to encourage us to drink more milk.

The fact that American women drink more milk per capita than any other women in the world yet America has one of the highest incidences of osteoporosis in the world shows that dairy foods are not the best way to deliver calcium to your bones. Bone health goes far beyond calcium. Bone is living, dynamic tissue that is constantly being created and broken down. Bones are comprised of an array of minerals in a matrix of protein.

Many calcium supplements ignore the critical need to balance calcium with other minerals and the critical issue of bio-availability. Bio = body. Availability is just what it says. When you take a nutritional supplement, your body must have the ability to make the nutrients available to the cells in your body where they are most needed.

For example, limestone is rich in calcium and works well to fill in eroding banks where it helps counteract acid rain and adjust the pH of the streams. However, sucking on a piece of limestone isn’t going to do much for your bones. Neither is taking a supplement made with calcium carbonate, calcium sulfate or calcium phosphate. Each of these is an inorganic form of the mineral. When you see the word “inorganic,” think rocks and chalk.

When it comes to calcium supplements, a blend of minerals known as Bone-Up is the leading product on the Freshlife shelves. Little wonder. It works. Bone-Up goes way beyond calcium, magnesium and vitamin D (the most common trio of nutrients in a calcium formula). A full range of vitamins and minerals are required for skeletal health, and Bone-Up provides them all along with microcrystalline hydroxyapatite (MCHA), a very bio-available form of calcium.

In 1982, an important calcium supplementation study was conducted on postmenopausal women by the Department of Radiology at the Royal Free Hospital in London. The women were all given an injection of vitamin D3 at the beginning of the 14-month study, then they were divided into three groups. One group took no calcium. A second group took 1,000 mgs daily of calcium gluconate. The third group took 1,000 mgs daily of calcium in the MCHA form used in Bone-Up. At the conclusion of the study there was “no change” in the bone status of the unsupplemented and gluconate group. However, the group taking calcium as MCHA showed “significant increase in bone thickness.”

Check the fine print on the back of your calcium bottle. If you’re using a carbonate, phosphate or gluconate, there may far less calcium going to your bones than you think. If your calcium supplement is lacking in vitamin D3, your bones could be lacking in density. If your formula lacks magnesium, your electrolytes could be out of balance, increasing your risk of heart problems and kidney stones. If your calcium formula doesn’t provide boron, the calcium may not stay in your bones as long.

Formulating a solid, bio-available, full-spectrum bone-building supplement goes way beyond pairing inexpensive, inorganic calcium with a couple hundred IUs vitamin D. When you think bone health, think Bone-Up, our No. 1 bone density formula: 1,000 mgs of calcium; 1,000 IUs of vitamin D3; 500 mgs of magnesium; 1514 mgs protein; the companion minerals zinc, copper, manganese and boron as well as the vitamins for bone health, folic acid, C, B12, K1, K2 and D3. Bone-Up is available in easy-to-swallow capsules or vegetarian tablets. At age 10 or age 90, Bone-Up can help you build stronger bones.