Osteoporosisis a silent disease in which the bones become fragile and are easily broken. In our country alone, it is considered a major health threat especially in older adults. While women are four times more likely to develop osteoporosis, men also suffer from this dreaded disease.
Arthritis, a different ailment but with similar associated symptoms, is a term often used to mean any disorder that affects joints. Symptoms generally include joint pain and stiffness. Other symptoms may include redness, warmth, swelling, and decreased range of motion of the affected joints. People suffering from arthritis feel that it is a one-way street. They can’t open a jar, or shake someone’s hands without getting that terrible grinding pain in their joints. This is called an autoimmune reaction where the body is making antibodies that attack the joint, hence the pain, the stiffness and the swelling.
Now, most people know that osteoporosis is a disease caused by a lack of calcium as there is no shortage of advertisements to tell us this but the question I wish to address here is this. Why are we losing calcium?
The Harvard Nurses’ Health study has shown that the more milk women drink, the less benefit they get. The women who drank the most milk in this study had no benefit whatsoever from the standpoint of reducing osteoporosis, arthritis or fracture. People think that they are deficient in calcium; that they need medications or that it’s just a natural product of aging but it is really not.
Researches have also shown that countries who take in the highest levels of dairy products have the highest levels of osteoporosis and those with the least intake have the least amount of osteoporosis. Why is this so? It must be the high consumption on protein that is the problem!
Many doctors also cite a diet high in protein as one of the main culprits of arthritis. The body can process the uric acid of only a very small amount of meat every day which is about 4 ounces. Excessive intake of about 25 ounces of meat a day provides the body with so much uric acid it cannot eliminate. It then crystallizes and, like a broken glass, it tends to settle in the joints, actually shredding the cartilage.
So what does consuming animal products (protein) have to do with calcium deficiency in the bones?
First, we have to look at what is causing the body to lose calcium by examining the delicate acid/alkaline balance in the pH of our body. On the pH scale, 7.0 is neutral. Everything above 7.0 is alkaline and everything below 7.0 is acidic.
When we consume fruits and vegetables, it leaves an alkaline ash, keeping the pH in the normal range but when we consume animal food products and junk foods, they leave an acidic residue. (Soft drinks have a pH of about 2.5-3.0. Very acidic!). When you consume large amounts of these foods, you are creating a relative acidic pH in your blood so, to keep you alive, the body must neutralize this pH as it is designed to run in an alkaline environment. In order to do that, the body seeks out the most alkaline substance in greatest quantity within you – calcium! – and leeches it from the bones and teeth in order to maintain the vital alkaline pH in the blood of around 7.35. Mission accomplished! You are still alive but continuous consumption of high protein and junk-food diet on a daily basis will promote this leeching of calcium out of the bones and teeth, ultimately lead to osteoporosis and arthritis.
How do we solve this?
Biological research has shown that the initial trigger of these processes in some people is food such as dairy products, meat, junk foods, etc. When a person takes these foods out of their diet even for a temporary time (3-4 weeks), symptoms begin to improve.
We have seen wonderful results with just a simple change of diet. When junk foods are eliminated from our diet, we do away with some of the main causes of arthritis. The solution lies in getting rid of the arthritis and osteoporosis triggers.
A lot of people would rather just take pills and continue their lifestyle but you cannot keep creating a problem and then try to take something to undo it. It just doesn’t work that way. People taking fistfuls of painkillers don’t need them as much and for many folks, their diseases are pretty much far gone.
We have often been programmed to think it is never our fault; we are taught to fear germs and bacteria and we are told our physical ailments are in our genes but are they really? I have seen individuals and patients whose ailments improved tremendously with better diets so was it in the genes? Or was it in the diet?
It is a huge question and the answer will either put responsibility for your health in your hands today (literally in the knife and fork you wield) or in the hands of a surgeon tomorrow who will wield whatever instruments of treatment he/she was taught to trust. The first and foremost choice we must make if we want get well is to stop doing what created the problem. Stop putting into your body food products that clog up your system and compromise your immune system while providing no fiber or real nutrition. Stop depending on beverages which rattle your nerves while depleting your body’s calcium.
Once you have made the decision to stop this internal injury, take positive steps to putting in foods that will rebuild your body. Begin eating whole foods, seeds, raw fruits and vegetables and their juices. Learn new ways to prepare and cook your foods. Drink lots of water and exercise. These will help to decrease the inflammation and pain almost immediately and, over time, get rid of toxins left in the body.