The Bare-bones Truth About Osteoporosis

Today’s almonds have been activated by:

⏰ IN A RUSH?

Today’s 30-Second Summary

If you don’t have time to read the whole email today, here are some key takeaways:

• Osteoporosis is typically preceded by osteopenia, which is the (outwardly asymptomatic) loss of bone density that starts from around the age of 35

  • On average, we lose up to 1% of bone density per year after that

  • The rate of bone density loss climbs after the age 50

  • That climb is even steeper in the case of (untreated) menopause

• Important factors against bone density loss include:

  • Calcium, yes

  • Vitamin D (but don’t overcompensate and take too much, or it has the opposite effect)

  • Magnesium

  • Potassium

  • Collagen (yes, really)

• We didn’t have room to write about it in the main article today (perhaps another day!), but resistance training (which doesn’t have to be weights, it can be bodyweight exercises or the use of resistance bands) is important for keeping bones strong too.

• Today’s sponsor, KURU, are on a mission to eliminate foot pain—and they want you to be next.

  • Fun fact: “kuru” is Esperanto for “run!”

  • Even more fun fact: they have a unique triple-layer system of support, with each layer doing its own specific job, to make them “the world’s most comfortable shoes”

Read on to learn about these things and more…

👀 WATCH AND LEARN

The 3 Best Morning Stretches You Shouldn't Ignore

There are so many important benefits to the body in taking a quick morning stretch. Here are, according to this yoga educator*, the 3 best morning stretches to try and why these should be the ones you choose!

Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!

*Liv, of “LivinLeggings” fame, really excels at explaining quickly, simply, and clearly, how and why various things in our body work they way they do (or don’t). Her videos are always short and really focused on the things that make the biggest difference, so we’ll probably keep featuring her stuff from time to time!

🦴 MAIN FEATURE

The Bare-bones Truth About Osteoporosis

In yesterday’s issue of 10almonds, we asked you “at what age do you think it’s important to start worrying about osteoporosis?”, and here’s the spread of answers you gave us:

At first glance it may seem shocking that a majority of respondents to a poll in a health-focused newsletter think it’ll never be an issue worth worrying about, but in fact this is partly a statistical quirk, because the vote of the strongest “early prevention” crowd was divided between “as a child” and “as a young adult”.

This poll also gave you the option to add a comment with your vote. Many subscribers chose to do so, explaining your choices… But, interestingly, not one single person who voted for “never” had any additional thoughts to add.

We loved reading your replies, by the way, and wish we had room to include them here, because they were very interesting and thought-provoking.

Let’s get to the myths and facts:

Top myth: “you will never need to worry about it; drink a glass of milk and you’ll be fine!”

The body is constantly repairing itself. Its ability to do that declines with age. Until about 35 on average, we can replace bone mineral as quickly as it is lost. After that, we lose it by up to 1% per year, and that rate climbs after 50, and climbs even more steeply for those who go through (untreated) menopause.

Losing 1% per year might not seem like a lot, but if you want to live to 100, there are some unfortunate implications!

About that menopause, by the way… Because declining estrogen levels late in life contribute significantly to osteoporosis, hormone replacement therapy (HRT) may be of value to many for the sake of bone health, never mind the more obvious and commonly-sought benefits.

Learn more: Management of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women: the 2021 position statement of The North American Menopause Society

On the topic of that glass of milk…

• Milk is a great source of calcium, which is useless to the body if you don’t also have good levels of vitamin D and magnesium.

• People’s vitamin D levels tend to directly correlate to the level of sun where they live, if supplementation isn’t undertaken.

• Plant-based milks are usually fortified with vitamin D (and calcium), by the way.

• Most people are deficient in magnesium, because green leafy things don’t form as big a part of most people’s diets as they should.

See also: An update on magnesium and bone health

Next most common myth: “bone health is all about calcium”

We spoke a little above about the importance of vitamin D and magnesium for being able to properly use that. But potassium is also critical:

Read more: The effects of potassium on bone health

While we’re on the topic…

People think of collagen as being for skin health. And it is important for that, but collagen’s benefits (and the negative effects of its absence) go much deeper, to include bone health. We’ve written about this before, so rather than take more space today, we’ll just drop the link:

We Are Such Stuff As Fish Are Made Of

Want to really maximize your bone health?

You might want to check out this well-sourced LiveStrong article:

Bone Health: Best and Worst Foods

(Teaser: leafy greens are in 2nd place, topped by sardines at #1—where do you think milk ranks?)

❤️ OUR SPONSORS MAKE THIS PUBLICATION POSSIBLE

KURU: The World’s Most Comfortable Shoe

KURU are on a mission to eliminate foot pain—and they want you to be next.

All KURU shoes (yes, even their flip-flops!) are engineered with a unique system of three layers of support, each with its own job to do. This unusual approach supports the foot in all the right places, helping to relieve any pain and let you breeze through life with one fewer thing holding you back.

Because of their three-layer approach (contoured, dual-density insole for comfortable arch support whatever your arch is like, patented dynamically responsive middle layer that also carefully hugs and protects your heels, lightweight shock-absorbing cushion at the base), KURU footwear is great for everyone, and/but especially makes a world of difference for anyone with:

• Plantar fasciitis

• Flat feet

• Heel pain

• Heel spurs

• Bunions

Basically: if you have feet, this is a very effective way to look after them!

Click here to take a look at their range of men’s and women’s shoes

🌎 AROUND THE WEB

What’s happening in the health world…

• Blood test for 50 types of cancer could speed up diagnosis

• Eating disorder group pulls chatbot sharing diet advice

• 1000s of early-career NIH researchers forming union for first time

• "Nature’s own Ozempic", called berberine, is all over social media. But does it really help you lose weight?

• Why do some people live to be 100? Intestinal bacteria may hold the answer

More to come tomorrow!

📖 ONE-MINUTE BOOK REVIEW

The Four Pillar Plan: How to Relax, Eat, Move and Sleep Your Way to a Longer, Healthier Life - by Dr. Rangan Chatterjee

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee, a medical doctor, felt frustrated with how many doctors in his field focus on treating the symptoms of disease, rather than the cause. Sometimes, of course, treating the symptom is necessary too! But neglecting the cause is a recipe for long-term woes.

What he does differently is take lifestyle as a foundation, and even that, he does differently than many authors on the topic. How so, you may wonder?

Rather than look first at exercise and diet, he starts with "relax". His rationale is reasonable: diving straight in with marathon training or a whole new diet plan can be unsustainable without this as a foundation to fall back on.

Many sources look first at exercise (because it can be a very simple "prescription") before diet (often more complex)... but how does one exercise well with the wrong fuel in the tank? So Dr. Chatterjee's titular "Four Pillars" come in the following order:

1. Relax

2. Eat

3. Move

4. Sleep

He also goes for "move" rather than "exercise" as the focus here is more on minimizing time spent sitting, and thus involving a lot of much more frequent gentle activities... rather than intensive training programs and the like.

And as for sleep? Yes, that comes last because—no matter how important it is—the other things are easier to directly control. After all, one can improve conditions for sleep, but one cannot simply choose to sleep better! So with the other three things covered first, good sleep is the fourth and final thing to fall into place.

All in all, this is a great book to cut through the catch-22 problem of lifestyle factors negatively impacting each other.

Click here to check out "The 4 Pillar Plan" and start improving your life in the most impactful ways!

Are you ready for the weekend? Is it ready for you? Wishing you the best possible end to the week,

The 10almonds Team