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by Ruth Ann Flynn Great Thanks to Christina Pirello for allowing CyberMacro to reprint these three articles on the very important and often silent discussion of osteoporosis. I encourage everyone to get a subscription to Christina Cooks which is where these articles were obtained from. Please also take a look at our current forum discussion on osteoporosis.
Photo by Amanda Stevenson “The results of your dexascan have shown that you have severe osteoporosis. Please call the office immediately so that we can discuss a treatment program’ The word severe was underlined in red to underscore the dire seriousness of the situation. Severe, those six letters with the bright red, jagged line underneath, jumped up at me from the paper. It was not until I had a bad fall, perpetrated by my overly rambunctious chow-golden retriever dog, requiring me to go to the emergency room of the local hospital, that I agreed to have a dexascan. At the hospital they ordered an x-ray of my spine to make sure that I was still intact. The technician who took the x-ray looked at the developed film and said, “You don’t drink any milk, do you?” “Well no,” I replied, “but how can you tell?” Your bones look really thin,” she said. “You better see a doctor about this very soon.” My husband, who is a physician, and my internist, whom I see for a physical every year, had been urging me to get a dexascan for a couple of years. I had always avoided it because of the radiation. Also, since I have always been small boned and on the thin &de, I rather expected that the test results might indicate that I am somewhat below the normal range of bone density for my age. However, I was totally taken aback by this devastating diagnosis. As I sat slumped dejectedly in my desk chair with the ominous letter from my doctor in hand, the first question which came to mind was “How could this happen to me?” a person who has followed the macrobiotic way of life for so many years. According to macrobiotic teaching, osteoporosis is a disease that is caused by an acidic condition brought on from eating too much animal protein and dairy products. Beside fish, there has been absolutely no animal protein or dairy in my diet for many years. Sugar, which is alSO reputed to be one of the causes of bone demineralization, had not been a part of my diet. What could have happened to cause my bones to become so weak? Walking over to the full length mirror, I took a good objective look at myself to see if I looked like I had weak bones. The reflection that I saw was just my same old self. “Strange,” I thought, “I look perfectly fine… little bit on the thin side...but isn’t that supposed to be healthy?” Osteoporosis is called the silent disease. What that means is that your skeletal structure, the formation which holds you all together and keeps you in an upright position, can be steadily dissolving and you will not know it until you suddenly break a bone. If the bones are very weak, a fracture can occur with only minimal trauma. Osteoporosis is a condition in which normally dense bone tissue becomes less dense. When this occurs, the bones have holes and spaces where there was once solid strong bone. Our bones are constantly in a cycle of breaking down and rebuilding. Osteoporosis happens when the buildup of bone does not keep up with the breakdown. At that point, the bones’ protein structure and mineral content are lost. As the condition continues to progress, bone mass becomes lower and lower, the bones becoming more porous, weaker and lighter. With weak bones, the risk of fracture greatly increases. SEEKING MEDICAL ADVICE With feelings of gloom and doom resonating from every pore, I arrived at the office of my doctor. Would she gloat and say “I told you so,” I wondered. Dr. Lillian Cohn, who is my internist, has been urging me to take calcium and vitamin D supplements for years. She also wanted me to take the dexascan test several years ago. My defenses were down; I felt scared and insecure. How could I continue to argue that my macrobiotic diet was providing all the nutrients that I needed? Dr. Cohn was sympathetic and not surprised when I told her that I did not want to take the recommended medicine for my illness. She knows that I have my own health agenda. “You are too young to have so much bone loss,” she says. “You really should take Fosamax or Evista; they will help your bones to stabilize. You are in grave danger of fracturing your spine. Your diet has not worked for you this time.” I sat feeling weak and defeated, staring at the package inserts for the drugs. The models on the literature looked to be about my age, but they were smiling and strong, not, like me, unhappily sitting, fighting back tears, wondering which way to turn. The pharmacological agents which are used to halt the devastation of osteoporosis stop the process of bone demineralization by inhibiting the natural cycle of bone removal (resorption) and formation (remodeling). The drugs create stronger bones by stopping the body’s ability to lose bone mass, and they build up bone mass through the calcium and vitamin D supplements which are also taken. Pretty good deal; the medical establishment has lots of statistics that say these drugs are effective and cut down on the incidence of fracture. Just not good enough for me, who, using macrobiotic thinking, realizes that when you interfere with any metabolic system of the body, you could be in for bigger trouble on a different level. “Would these drugs affect my nervous system?” I wondered. When you chemically trick the body to stop performing one of its main functions, isn’t there a price to be paid? Rather difficult to express this to my doctor, who is sitting with the statistics on her side, worrying that I could possibly spontaneously fracture my spine because of my, here is that word again, severe osteoporosis. I really feel badly for her. She is trying desperately to help me and is frustrated that I will not follow her advice. The road less traveled, which I have always taken, sometimes becomes very rocky. She starts to lose it when I explain that I also do not want to take supplements. “Why in the world not?” she stammers. “What is wrong with taking calcium and vitamin D?” she asks. “You cannot get enough of these nutrients in your diet; you are acting very foolishly.” I weakly agree that I will at least consider that option. I think of trying to explain that the macrobiotic view of supplements is that if we continually feed our bodies with readily available nutrients in pill form, the body becomes lazy and loses the ability to absorb nutrients from food and can become more and more deficient, even though nutritious foods are being eaten. I change my mind; my bravado about macrobiotics is at a low ebb. I have been diagnosed with a serious degenerative disease; grandstanding seems inappropriate right now. THE MACROBIOTIC CONSULTATION Denny Waxman took one look at the x-ray of my spine and said “You had better act quickly or there will be nothing left of you. You will just disappear.” Oh great, I thought, the doctors are right and everyone is in agreement that I am one big weak mess. Denny said that I could cure myself with the macrobiotic diet but that it would take time, perhaps a year and a half. Not so bad, if it works, I thought. One year and a half to get back to my old fighting form. Not so bad. After I received my dietary recommendations, I realized that my intuition about how to alter my diet for my condition had been wrong. I had started to load up on a lot of calcium containing foods like sea vegetables and sesame seeds. I ate so much broccoli that I swore I must look like a broccoli stalk myself. Denny said that osteoporosis is a yang condition. “You have to relax the organs of your body so that they can begin to absorb the nutrition that you are taking in,” he advised. “Don’t think calcium, just think of good strong nourishment at this time.” Denny stressed the importance of good eating habits. “The bones like regularity and they dislike chaos and stress. You have to be a good macrobiotic now and you will get better,” he said. When I asked him about taking supplements just until I was out of danger of having a fracture, he told me that calcium pills would harden my condition and make me worse. CONVERSATION WITH MICHIO KUSHI In preparation for this article, Michio Kushi agreed to a telephone interview on the subject of osteoporosis. Beside myself, there are two long-term macrobiotic leaders who also have this condition, as well as some other people in the macrobiotic community. One of the leaders has suffered multiple fractures to the lumbar spine and the other has too much pain to even walk up a flight of stairs. I was anxious to hear Michio’s viewpoint. Michio was very busy, so I cut to the chase fast. “Why are long-time macrobiotic people getting this disease?” I asked. “Because they are eating in too narrow a way,” he said quickly. People must have a lot of flexibility in their diet. Think of the macrobiotic diet not in terms of the old Ohsawa diets # 6 and 7 but in a new, wider International way. The Mediterranean diet is also part of the new macrobiotic way of eating.” I quickly reflect on my way of eating. I have enjoyed good health for a long time, so I more or less have gotten into the habit of eating whatever pleases me within the framework of the macrobiotic diet. We go out to restaurants a lot, and I always order the healthiest food on the menu, but I hove not for many years really concentrated on making sure that I was eating in a balanced way. Michio said that osteoporosis was generally not caused because of absorption problems but was brought on by an unbalanced diet which was mineral deficient. He said that it could be cured with the macrobiotic diet if the practice is very good and that it is necessary to seek guidance from a counselor so that the dietary choices are correct for the particular person. He said that if a person is very sick with the disease and tries to cure himself with the diet he might not get better. “In four months there will be improvement in the bone density, if you are doing everything just right. If you want to do weight-bearing exercises to help bone growth, make sure that you use light weights,” he emphasized. When he said that he did not have objections to using calcium supplements for a short while, from two weeks to six months, and that drug therapy can be safely used for 2 weeks to three months, my brain began to flood with confusion. All the medical advice that I had received from my internist and subsequently from an osteoporosis specialist had been consistent. The macrobiotic opinions differed in respect to the use of supplements and drugs and also in regard to what was the cause of osteoporosis. The ball was in my court in respect to choosing the best treatment for myself. Should I take the supplements and the drugs until I am stronger or just stick to the dietary path which I have thus far taken? The
whole process of
handling a
chronic illness
such as osteoporosis
is challenging and
requires that you
spend some time
studying the options
which are available
and understanding
what the medical
tests are actually
indicating. For
instance, the dexascan
test results are
based comparatively
on the bone density
of a 30-year-old
woman. This is the
age when bones are
at their optimum
density; after that
it is all downhill,
bone-density-
wise. No matter
what age you are
when you take the
test, your bone
density is measured
against that 30-year-old
model. So a reading
which is slightly
lower than this
standard should
not cause you to
panic. As we get
older, we simply
lose a percentage
of our bone mass.
However, a reading
which, like mine,
was way below the
norm, is cause for
concern and must
be taken very seriously. Turnips
and Tops Rinse
one bunch of turnips
and their greens.
Finely chop the
turnips and the
tops. Place them
in a pot (roots
under the greens).
Add a small amount
of water and a pinch
of sea salt. Cover
and steam for a
few minutes. Add
a few drops of shoyu
and simmer for 1
minute. Hiziki
with Vegetables 1/2
package hiziki Rinse
the hiziki and soak
it for about 10
minutes. Discard
the soaking water.
Put the hiziki into
a pot with the cup
of spring water.
Bring to a boil
and simmer with
the lid on for about
1/2 hour. Autumn 2001 Christina Cooks |
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