PROTEIN’S CONNECTION TO OSTEOPOROSIS IN WOMEN

While most protein products are marketed toward men and bodybuilding, the protein problem affects women in many specific ways. These include osteoporosis, hormone deficiency, beauty concerns such as sagging skin and wrinkles, loss of muscle mass, and problems during menopause.

If you believe what commercials say on TV, taking calcium is the solution to osteoporosis—just take it and you’ll be fine. If that doesn’t work, they suggest taking a bis- phosphonate drug. This medication will make your bones look better on a density scan, but in reality, it makes them very fragile. In some cases, the drug even causes a condition called osteonecrosis, in which bone cells die, and the jaw bone disintegrates. Other minor side effects like joint and muscle pain, nausea, heartburn and ulcers have also been reported. A good review of the efficacy of bisphosphonates concludes that there are no proven clinical benefits in postmenopausal women.11 Due to the small potential of benefit and high risk, I do not consider them a worthwhile treatment option.

While increasing calcium intake can be beneficial, if one has a calcium-deficient diet, it’s important to understand that demineralised bone is rubbery like old celery—minerals only stick if a protein matrix is present. Bones are constructed like a 1950s lath and plaster wall; thin lath strips were nailed horizontally across wall studs, and then plaster was spread over them. The lath gave the plaster something to stick to, and created the wall interior. In a similar fashion, bones need a dense matrix of protein as a structural foundation before “overlaying” the calcium. This foundation is collagen, the most abundant structural protein in the body.

Roughly 50 percent of bone by weight is collagen, which is a protein, and osteoporosis occurs when there is a loss of collagen

Roughly 50 percent of bone by weight is collagen, which is a protein, and osteoporosis occurs when there is a loss of collagen. By rebuilding it, you can rebuild bones. Collagen is made of amino acids and other essential components so that the mineral content of bone—mainly calcium and phosphorous—has something to attach to. Other critical elements needed to build bone are: vitamin D, vitamin K, and hormones (thyroid, estrogen, progesterone, DHEA and testosterone). Vitamin B6 and magnesium are also important for proper collagen formation.

Bones must undergo enough stress to stay strong

The other important factor in building bones is targeted exercise—the bones must undergo enough stress to stay strong. Experiments using two simple exercises, deadlifts and squats, have shown great results if coupled with the nutritional advice listed above. With proper instruction from a trained exercise coach or instructor, do three sets of ten repetitions of deadlifts and squats, twice per week to see results. These movements can be done with no weights to start, but as the person gets stronger, weights should be added. This type of resistance training is extremely effective at building bone. In our clinic we have patients do the exercises on a power plate, their bone density improves at an even faster rate. The power plate was developed by NASA for astronauts because while they are in space with no gravity, they are prone to get osteoporosis. By giving their bodies a vibratory stimulus, it encourages their bodies to keep their bone.

Case Study

We often find low serum amino acid levels in women with osteoporosis. When we give these women extra doses of amino acids and treat other factors within their systems that may not be in good shape, their bones re-mineralize. This was the case with Betty, age sixty-eight.

Betty came into the clinic after her regular doctor checked her bone density and confirmed that it was in the osteoporosis range. He told her that she needed to greatly increase her calcium intake, and to begin taking Fosomax (bisphosphonate) medication. She had read reports of the medication’s potential side effects and was seeking another opinion.

After seeing her and running laboratory tests we found the usual deficiencies that we see in this situation: low red blood cell magnesium and selenium, very low vitamin D and iodine, low pancreatic chymotrypsin for protein digestion, low serum essential amino acids, low progesterone and testosterone, bacterial overgrowth in her small intestine with a roundworm parasite, and nearly absent stomach acid. She also had very low levels of estrogen, testosterone, DHEA, and proges- terone. We started a program to address her nutritional and hormonal deficiencies, and to improve her gut, digestion, and absorption. We also began the weight training program described above with a power plate, three times per week. A recheck of her bone density in six months showed vast improvement, and after a year and a half, she was back in the normal range for her age.

This case study shows us that these problems are reversible, and treatment can be administered by a knowledgeable nutritional practitioner. A good doctor knows what to find and fix, and then the body will take over—inherently, it knows what to do. This is health restoration at its best.

Pure Essential Amino Acids in a form that is both 99% UtiliSed (3-6x the protein of other sources with almost no calories) and fully absorbed within 20-30 minutes! 100% vegan and Non-GMO. 

PerfectAmino^® contains the eight essential amino acids the body needs to support and maintain its muscular, skeletal, enzymatic, and hormonal systems. The essential amino acids in PerfectAmino are in the exact proportions needed for maximum utilization by the body.

AMINO ACIDS – THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF PROTEIN

Many people know that protein is essential for optimum health, but most assume they are consuming enough from food. So why the need for an amino acid supplement? The simple answer is that – yes, you do get good quality from foods such as eggs, meat, fish and nuts but much of the protein in food is not converted into body protein – it just makes waste that the body has to get rid of plus extra calories.

Almost everyone is protein deficient without realiSing it – it plays out as a nagging injury that won’t heal in the athlete, or brittle bones in the menopausal women, or constant colds in the child. Protein deficiency is very often something you are aware of, but you just can’t identify and neither does your doctor. Not getting enough protein may mean low hormones, or a low immune system and risk of disease or cancer. So what’s the solution? PerfectAmino is an amino acid supplement that is 99% utiliSed by the body to make protein. No other form of protein comes close!

Text credit Dr. David Minkoff The Search for the perfect protein

PerfectAmino^® Nothing else is utiliSed as well to make protein.

Quality, quality and quality.

The chart illustrates the Amino Acid UtiliSation (AAU™) that PerfectAmino offers, dramatically greater than dietary

• At the low end of the spectrum are branched chain amino acids – only 1% of their content is utiliSed by the body with 99% resulting in waste that your body must then process and eliminate.
• Whey and soy proteins – only 18% or less of their content is utiliSed by the body with 83% leaving as waste.
• Food like meat, fish and poultry fare a bit better with 32% being absorbed and 68% being wasted.
• Eggs are the winners in the food stakes with 48% being utiliSed and 52% converted to waste.
• Now compare those numbers to PerfectAmino – a massive 99% is put to work by the body, with only 1% leaving as waste. NOT ONLY THAT BUT PERFECT AMINO is absorbed by the body within 23 minutes! And there is only 0.4 of a calorie per tablet.