In the 2000 movie Unbreakable, Bruce Willis’s indestructible character was slowly revealed by the actions of Samuel Jackson’s breakable character, who suffers from osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) – a rare, genetic disorder that made his bones extremely fragile. Almost everyone with OI has the all-too-common osteoporosis because they never develop proper bone mass. Such breakable characters experience a lifetime of fragile bones.
Around 10 million Americans have osteoporosis. Almost 34 million more are estimated to have low bone mass, placing them at increased risk for osteoporosis – a disease that makes bones thin and porous. The more porous bones get, the more fragile they become.
If you think of your bones as a bridge that supports your weight throughout a lifetime, you certainly do not want holes to appear in the structure of your bridge. But that is exactly what happens with osteoporosis. And a fall can lead to a debilitating fracture, especially for someone in their senior years. Such an injury can take a very long time to heal, which means long periods of inactivity – a factor that exacerbates the disease.
Risk Factors of Osteoporosis
Being physically inactive, which is a common side effect of the modern lifestyle or perhaps pure laziness, contributes to the onset of osteoporosis. When you are physically active, your bones respond positively to the increased load on their structure by forming new bone. Your arms, legs, and back need physical activity to maintain the strength of their bone structure.
A diet with insufficient amounts of calcium, vitamin D, and other nutrients integral to bone health and the absorption of calcium is an osteoporotic recipe for disaster. A long-term deficiency means that your body has to steal the existing calcium from your bones for muscle contraction, nervous system function, hormone secretion and other functions.
This is why osteoporosis is known as the silent thief. And you don’t even realize it is happening unless you break or fracture a bone or take a bone density test, which indicates whether you have osteoporosis or are at risk of developing this disease. The lower your bone mineral content, the less dense your bones are and therefore more likely to break or fracture.
Other factors include too much caffeine, which is a diuretic that makes you lose more calcium because of more frequent urination. Alcohol is a diuretic as well, but it also has a toxic effect on the liver and may interfere with the absorption of calcium. A smoking habit also reduces your body’s ability to absorb this vital mineral. For women who smoke, this unhealthy habit can put you into menopause as much as five years earlier. Menopause is another factor in bone loss because of the reduced levels of estrogen, which plays an important role in the building and maintaining of bone mass.
The Bone-Building Cycle
Your bones are always under construction. In other words, your skeleton is continually worked on by two types of construction-worker cells. Osteoclasts excavate and remove bone material, and osteoblasts rebuild your bones. Osteoporosis is the result of an imbalance of this workforce: Too many excavators on the job and not enough rebuilders. The rebuilders need accessible calcium to do their job, and your job is to make sure that you are giving your body the building materials that are essential for healthy, strong bones.
Avoiding Fragile Bones
You need absorbable amounts of calcium and the nutrients that assist its absorption on a daily basis. This can come from your diet in foods such as spinach, broccoli, eggs, and low-fat dairy products. But as you age, calcium becomes more difficult to absorb, so you may not be getting enough even though you are eating well.
Everyone that has reached a certain age has heard of the importance of taking a calcium supplement to ensure that you are getting enough of this vital mineral. But the truth is that all calcium supplements are not created equal.
The Physicians’ Desk Reference states it best:
AIM offers the perfect formula for absorbable calcium.
The CalciAIM™ Solution
CalciAIM™ provides three forms of calcium – lactate, gluconate, and carbonate – in a powder that you mix in water for the most absorbable form of calcium. Water dissolves the powder into a solution that essentially digests the mineral for you. But there is much more in the CalciAIM formula to support the absorption of calcium and contribute to the health of your bones and body.
CalciAIM provides magnesium, vitamin D, zinc, and l-lysine, all of which assist with the uptake of calcium. Magnesium is involved in hundreds of biochemical reactions that take place in your body. Zinc is also part of the CalciAIM formula because not getting enough of this mineral can increase the risk of developing osteoporosis. Vitamin D is essential for overall good health and for the prevention of osteoporosis. L-lysine is an amino acid that is involved in the formation of collagen, a protein found in skin, tendons, cartilage, bone, and other connective tissue. Additionally, the powerful antioxidant vitamin C works with l-lysine in the building and maintenance of cartilage – the lining of bone joints.
More Support for Your Bones
Greens and essential fatty acids provide supplemental nutrition that you require to maintain the health of your body and its supporting bone structure.
Alkalinizing green drinks such as AIM BarleyLife® and AIM LeafGreens® are rich plant sources of vitamin K, which is vital for healthy bones.
The omega-3 and -6 essential fatty acids of AIMega® are a daily necessity for good health because they are integral to the structure and functioning of every cell in your body. Furthermore, a 2007 study conducted at the Department of Integrated Biosciences at Penn State University revealed that an increase of dietary omega-3 decreases bone resorption – the process involving the cells that excavate in the bone-building cycle.
Fragile bones can be a rare condition or something that is only seen in the movies. And the proper approach to keeping your bones healthy can go a long way in making them strong and on the way to unbreakable.
AIM for healthy bones
It’s never too late to give your frame a helping hand. Supporting bones, cartilage, teeth, and gums, CalciAIM is a supplemental helping hand for women and men from the ages of 12 on up.
“In April 2009, I had bone density testing. I was showing a significant amount of bone loss and was forewarned that once it begins, bone loss can advance very quickly like a downhill slide (toward osteoporosis). I began taking one scoop of CalciAIM in my AIM Garden Trio® each morning. A year later, I was tested again. I am in normal and above normal ranges. I didn’t change my diet in any way except I added a smoothie with AIM fit ’n fiber® and AIM ProPeas® at least once a day.“
– Linda Charters, AIM receptionist