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A New Way to Strengthen Your Bones In the New Year
By Richard Passwater, Jr. Collagen makes up about 30% of bone. Many bone researchers now believe that the quantity and quality of your bone collagen actually determines about 80% of your bone's total strength. The National Institutes of Health's new public awareness campaign explains, "Bone is dynamic living tissue…made mostly of collagen, a protein that provides a soft framework, and calcium phosphate, a mineral that adds strength and hardens the framework. This combination of collagen and calcium makes bone both flexible and strong, which in turn helps bone withstand stress." Bone collagen fibers serve two roles in bone. First, they form bone's flexible framework, giving it the ability to withstand stress. Bone researchers refer to this as "toughness." The more collagen, the greater ability the bone has to bend without breaking. In addition, bone collagen serves as a template, or the "binding sites" for bone minerals such as calcium and phosphorous. More collagen fibers create more places for calcium and other minerals to bind to. Collagen is remarkably strong. Pound for pound, it's as strong as iron. The problem with collagen is that its production generally peaks at about 21 years of age. To make matters worse, a variety of compounds accelerate collagen loss. One such compound is homocysteine, often referred to as the "anti-collagen amino acid" because it damages existing collagen and suppresses new collagen production. High homocysteine levels are associated with higher bone-fracture rates and lower bone-mineral density. The good news is that a very encouraging clinical study showed that reducing homocysteine levels resulted in a significant reduction in hip fractures. Folic acid and B vitamins are required to reduce homocysteine. Generating and protecting bone collagen are very exciting areas of modern bone research. One example is a year-long human clinical study performed at the University of London's St. Thomas Hospital on a group of women with osteopenia (low bone density, but not quite osteoporosis). This study, published in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, demonstrated that adding cholinestabilized orthosilicic acid (ch-OSA) to a standard calcium and vitamin D supplement regiment increased the production of bone collagen 15% (measured as P1NP) and Bone Mineral Density (BMD) at the critical hip region, as compared to 2% compared to in the group taking just the calcium and vitamin D supplements. Better known as BioSil®, ch-OSA, is a uniquely effective nutrient complex, clinically proven to activate the biological pathways that produce new collagen. It works by activating enzymes your body naturally uses to make collagen. This same clinically proven ch-OSA dose is now available in the BioSil® Bone Collagenizer Matrix™ along with a team of complementary, but often overlooked, bone nutrients including vitamins B12 and vitamin K2, as well as inositol. Choline and vitamin B12 help neutralize bonedestroying homocysteine. In addition, they are required to make bone-building osteoblast cells. Osteoblast cells also need vitamin B12 to build new bone. Vitamin K2 activates calcium-binding proteins responsible for transporting calcium into bones. And perhaps more importantly, vitamin K2 also protects veins and arteries from unwanted calcification. BioSil's new Bone Collagenizer Matrix™ is the perfect companion to all calcium and vitamin-D-rich diet or supplements to obtain strong and flexible bones. |
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