Saturated Fats and Osteoporosis

The past couple of weeks there has been a great deal of conversation with my patients about Calcium supplements and Osteoporosis. The big question was: "How can I have good blood levels and still have Osteopenia or have Osteoporosis?" and "I take a calcium supplement and I still have Osteopenia, why?" The answer is: You are not getting enough good saturated fats in your diet.

The problem is: With the big push to lower cholesterol the past 20 years or so we have seen a big rise in Osteoporosis, Obesity, Heart disease, Cancer, and Diabetes to name a few. The problem with a low all-fats diet is that most of the population replaced fat with carbohydrate and activity with TV, computer, and couch. The important thing to remember is excess carbohydrates, especially the ones that come in a box, a bag and are given to you through your car window are converted very quickly into fat for storage.

The solution is: More activity of any kind and good wholesome foods. These include the obvious fruits and vegetables, some good meat and good fats with Coconut oil and Olive oil leading the way and, the dreaded childhood oil, Cod liver oil. The first two should be used with every meal and healthy snack and the third as a daily supplement. The misguided hype against Coconut oil is that it is a saturated fat and all saturated fats are bad. These same well educated people do not know or just don't tell us that Coconut oil is a medium chain fatty acid not a long chain fatty acid which means it breaks down and gets into your body as energy fast, like a carbohydrate, but because it is a fat it doesn't raise your insulin levels like a carbohydrate. Don't forget that all of your cells, including your brain, use the big word phospholipids(fat in normal conversation) to make their cell walls. That's right, to have strong cell walls we need fat, especially saturated fat. So what does a no fat diet do? It gives you weak, unhealthy cell walls which give you weak, unhealthy cells which give you a weak, unhealthy you.

This takes us back to the Osteoporosis concern. Your bone cells need saturated fats too. To keep this simple, you need 4 things to have healthy bones.
1. Good Calcium- calcium lactate and calcium citrate are the best, the others aren't worth talking about.
2. Good stomach acid/HCL- this breaks down the calcium so that your body can use it, anything that prevents or lowers stomach acid also lowers your calcium levels. Most people with stomach indigestion already produce to little stomach acid and the food just sits and this backs up as reflux. It is to little stomach acid not to much.
3. Good vitamin D levels- this moves the calcium out of your intestines into your blood stream giving you good serum/blood levels.
And the final step:
4. Good saturated fats (like the ones found in Coconut oil)- these fats move the calcium out of you blood into the bone and other cells for use.

That is how good saturated fats can help you prevent Osteoporosis and a whole host of other cell related diseases. It also helps with hunger and food cravings too.

The death of "D"

The D in this case is not vitamin D it is Heavy D the American rapper who died on 11/8/11 at the age of 44. Unlike many other successful entertainers Heavy D maintained a clean image and even though I was sad to hear of his death I was glad to hear that it was not due to drugs, alcohol or violence like so many other entertainers. Although dying from a pulmonary embolism sounds like a "that's to bad" or "there was nothing that could have been done" it is easily preventable when you know how it develops.

Keeping it simple: a thrombus is a type of blood cell called a platelet that adheres or sticks together at a tear in the inner, endothelial, lining of the blood vessel. These platelets are also called thrombocytes hence the name thrombus when they clump together on the exposed collagen. Remember collagen is on the outside of the endothelial lining, inner wall, of the blood vessel. This means that if your blood vessels are healthy and strong no thrombus develops to break off and no death by cardio or pulmonary embolism when the thrombus gets stuck in a smaller vessel.

Platelets or thrombocytes adhere to collagen fibers, this is prevented by the inner endothelial lining of your blood vessels. As long as your inner, endothelial lining is intact platelets and collagen do not meet and no thrombus develops. When the lining is disrupted by injury or pathological change, platelets stick to the exposed collagen fibers. This starts a negative cascade and every platelet that now comes by becomes sticky forming a clot or thrombus. As more platelets get stuck the clot becomes bigger, the blood vessel becomes blocked and this is a thrombus or Deep Vein Thrombosis(DVT). This can cause a thrombosis at the site or break off and float around, called an embolism, until it gets stuck somewhere else usually in a small vessel in the heart or lungs causing a cardio or pulmonary thrombosis and death.

The simple math is this: Simple carbohydrates/junk food and junk drinks=Blood vessel irritation=Blood vessel inflammation=Blood vessel tearing=Platelets sticking/clotting=Blood vessel blockage=Thrombosis=Death.

The way to prevent this is as simple as adding more fruits and vegetables to your day, these protect your blood vessels, and avoid the packaged and processed bagged and boxed food. Also, if they handed it to you through the window you can bet it can kill you.