Naturopathic Physician and Integrative Medical Expert Dr. John Neustadt joins me on this episode to discuss bone health and how to mitigate the risk of osteoporosis as we age.
A woman's risk for an osteoporosis fracture is greater than her combined risk for breast, uterine, and ovarian cancer, but it doesn’t get nearly enough attention. I’m joined by Dr. John Neustadt, Naturopathic Physician and Integrative Medical Expert, to discuss what we can do to help maintain and improve bone density as we age.
As we lose mobility, our vitality absolutely diminishes. The conventional healthcare model focuses almost exclusively on bone density testing, which measures calcium and other minerals in your bones to predict the likelihood of a fracture. John highlights the limitations of these tests and suggests we shift our focus to modifiable risk factors like diet, functional movement, and supplementation.
In our conversation, John shares advice for anyone who feels overwhelmed with their osteoporosis diagnosis and the options for improving bone health. He also expands on the benefits of calcium and vitamin D supplementation, as well as what to look out for when experimenting with different protocols.
Listen in to learn more about bone health and how to decrease your risk for osteoporosis.
If you are enjoying these conversations, please subscribe and spread the love by leaving a review and sharing it with your friends.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, or on your favorite podcast platform.
Topics Covered:
Resources Mentioned:
Connect with Dr. John Neustadt:
Get in Touch:
Special offers:
Credit:
Dana Frost 00:07
Welcome to Vitally You, a podcast created to introduce you to the tools that will be your roadmap for feeling younger while growing older. I'm your host Dana Frost, a wellness expert, life coach and energy medicine practitioner. Here's what you can expect conversations about vitality from the inside out with guest experts in the field of health, culture and spirituality, and solo episodes along the way from me where I do deep dives into the topics of aging, heart intelligence, energy, medicine, and your innate capacity to heal. If you want to feel younger, while growing older, this is the place for you.
Dana Frost 00:52
Hi, everyone. Welcome to this week's episode of the Vitally You Podcast. I'm Dana Frost, your host coming to you from Miami Beach. Hey, how's everyone doing this week, I just took a few days to enjoy my friends. So I'm feeling refreshed. Having lived in different countries on different continents. The people I love tend to be scattered and they are really special to me. And so I don't get to see them very often. And it's really important that when I have this opportunity, I set aside time and I'm really feeling thankful. And I'm also thankful that you're here the Vitally You listening community is growing. And that's because you're tuning in, and thank you.
Dana Frost 01:34
This week's episode is vitally important to your health as you age, so please perk up. Dr. John Newstart is with us. He's here to talk about bone health and osteoporosis. 80% of people who have osteoporosis are women, and our risk of osteoporosis is greater than our risk of cancer. Dr. nustep dials in to how we can mitigate the risk and how we need to be thinking about bone health. I'm really excited to bring John's work forward because we really need this education. I learned things in when I was talking to him. If we're going to feel younger, while growing older we have to be we have to have a strategy for bone health. Dr. New stat is the founder and president of nutritional biochemistry Incorporated. He earned his naturopathic medical degree from baster University, where he was awarded the Founders Award for academic and clinical excellence. He has published hundreds of articles and authored for health and wellness books. His recent book, fracture proof your bones a comprehensive guide to osteoporosis is a number one Amazon best selling book. After having the opportunity to talk with John, I was not surprised to learn that he was awarded the best doctor in his community. Okay, before we get started, I want to thank lifewave stem cell therapy patches for sponsoring the vital EU podcast, stem cell therapy and listen to this in the form of a simple patch that is non invasive, affordable, and activates your body's own stem cell activity is cutting age reverse aging technology. If you want to learn more about this, I have a link in the show notes. So join me in welcoming Dr. Newstar. To the show. Dr. New stat Welcome to the show. I'm really excited to have this conversation with you today.
Dr. John Neustadt 03:38
Thank you. I'm excited to spend some time and please call me John.
Dana Frost 03:43
Okay, John. So you know what really attracted me to have you as a guest is this is your book, fracture proof your bones. And I know that women my age, most of our most of the vital you community most are women. And I know that there's a lot of concern for women as they enter menopause in terms of bone density, and it's you know, something that always comes up with the when they have their yearly physical. And yet the doctors aren't really sharing with them some of the things that they can do to prevent bone loss. And so, I would love for you just to start speaking into, how should women be thinking about osteoporosis?
Dr. John Neustadt 04:31
That's a great question. They should start thinking about osteoporosis, first of all, as something that isn't just starting. Once they hit menopause, it can start many decades before even in their 40s There are a lot of things that can contribute to and cause osteoporosis and increase fracture risk. Unfortunately, many of those things doctors aren't screening for most People aren't getting screened for osteoporosis, and there are no symptoms. It's a silent disease, as the bones get weaker and weaker over time, and then suddenly, you know, it just you break a bone. And for many people, that's when they're finally given a bone density test and diagnosed with osteoporosis after the fact, it is so common that every 30 seconds, somebody around the world with osteoporosis breaks a bone. And if you have osteoporosis and you fracture a hip, there's up to a 36% chance that you're going to be dead within six months. And even those who survived that first year, about half of them never returned to their full pre fracture level of mobility and pain free lifestyle that they had before. And 20% require ongoing care. Not only that a woman's risk for an osteoporosis fracture is greater than our combined risk for breast, uterine and ovarian cancer. So it is a lot more deadly, a lot more common than I think a lot of people think there's no pink ribbon that people wear around like breast cancer month. But osteoporosis in our bone health is second only to cardiovascular disease globally as a health concern.
Dr. John Neustadt 06:21
In fact, with osteoporosis, it causes more days spent in the hospital than other conditions like heart attacks, and diabetes. So it's important to have this on your radar. And I'm excited to be able to share today, what are some very some common risks that people can modify modifiable risk factors, and they can do and what also can people do to help maintain bone strength and improve their bone density, increase the strength of their bones, what's in their control what they can do internally, to make sure that they are as healthy and vital, as long as they can be for all the years that we have on this earth, I think what is what we all want is to be have that vitality have that, that ability to pick up our loved ones and, and play and walk and exercise and enjoy all the things that we love.
Dana Frost 07:14
I love the use of that, because one of my motivating factors is I watched my dad and his mother who was a very My dear grandmother growing up and I was very close to her. And both of them did not age well and died prematurely because of diabetes and obesity. And one of my motivating factors is I want to be down on the ground with grandchildren, I became a grandmother this past year. And you know, I mean, I still have I think many more years to live, but I can bend down, I can stand up, I can be on the ground for hours at a time, I can sit cross legged and but I had to, you know, I can remember 10 years ago, a little more than 10 years ago, in 2011. When I had a health crisis, I wasn't as agile. I wasn't unhealthy per se in my body. But I wasn't as agile as I am. Now because I started, I started moving my body in ways that made it feel like it was normal to get down on the ground to stand back up to pick up objects to put them down, not not just working out, but like functionally using my body on a daily basis. And I think that as we lose, this is just my observation and my family and with other people. As we lose mobility, our vitality absolutely diminishes.
08:39
It does. And but fortunately like yourself, as you notice, there's a lot of things that that we can do. It's interesting, everybody, everybody has a story. Everybody has a background, I never thought that I would become an expert in bone health and osteoporosis. And now I'm lecturing at medical conferences and my books out and you know, I'm doing this podcast interview sharing what I've learned to try and help people because about, you know, 20 years ago, 18 years ago now, my mother in law who has osteoporosis, it was she her bone density was going up, she was taking Fosamax working with her medical doctor, I was helping her from an integrative perspective, you know, her bone density was going up. So her doctor was happy. She was happy, I was happy. We all thought she was protected. And then she tripped on a throw rug, fell and broke her hip. And I thought to myself, what is wrong here? Something's wrong with this, this picture on paper. She looked like she was doing great. And so I started diving a bit more into the research. And what I discovered shocked me that the conventional medical systems approach of primarily focus in fact almost exclusively focused on bone density is wrong bone density test is only as helpful as it can predict a fracture, because really, it's breaking a bone. That is the most dangerous thing with osteoporosis.
Dr. John Neustadt 10:08
A bone density test result is just a number on a piece of paper. So it's only as helpful as it can predict whether somebody has a fracture. And we've known since the 1990s, that a bone density test predicts less than 50% of people who will go on to have a fracture. And in fact, a study from 2008 came out and showed that for women with osteoporosis, it only predicts 42% of women with osteoporosis, who will break a bone and only 21% of men. So it's not that specific. It's not that sensitive. In fact, there are position statements by medical organizations out there that said that I've concluded correctly, that fracture risk depends on factors largely other than bone density, it's just one piece of a larger puzzle. And so I as I am looking at the research and finding all these studies, clinical trials, epidemiological data, showing what people can do, what are things that reduce people's fracture risk, and actually grow stronger bones and help maintain bone strength.
Dr. John Neustadt 11:14
And so that's the emphasis of my my book fracture proof your bones is walking people through creating their own action plan, their holistic plan. And one of the first things I like to say to people, when they come to me with their bone density test result, a new diagnosis, and they're, they're anxious, they're stressed, and rightly so it's a scary diagnosis is I recommend, and I ask them, just take a breath, take a breath, this is not an emergency, there is time to educate yourself to learn the options and put a plan together. And so that's what I love helping people to realize and helping people to do, as well as the first thing that we want to do. From my point of view, besides just telling them, you're putting the bone density test in perspective, to help people to sort of understand better what they're looking at, is to identify are there things in their life that is destroying bone, that increasing the risk for osteoporosis, one of the most common things that I find is medications. There is a long list of medications out there that we know in the literature in the research destroys bones and increase osteoporosis risk.
Dr. John Neustadt 12:31
And there was a study that was done a few years ago that looked at women who had a fracture, and they looked at the medications for the months they were taking before the fractures and after the fracture. And what they found is that there was no net improvement in the number of medications that doctors were prescribing them for, that created osteoporosis and increased fracture risk. So one of the most common ones it's prescribed, or the antidepressants, anything that's, that increases serotonin, select US serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or selective serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors like Prozac or duloxetine, those increase fracture risk, they damage bones and create osteoporosis, the increased risk of fracture looking there have been multiple studies done on this, we expect now, long women taking them for one to five years, that for every 19 women taking them, we expect there to be potentially one fracture that's created as well, one studies conclusion was another study was a little bit higher, you know, one fracture for every 48 you know, depending on how they're looking at the data, but but the fact of the matter is, this is not on most clinicians, radars and the general public also.
Dr. John Neustadt 13:48
And so that's important because there are maybe integrative ways natural ways if people are on an antidepressant to deal with that you're working with a naturopathic doctor or functional medicine doctor, to begin to, to, to get off of those medications or change to a safer one if they need to be on there like the tri cyclic antidepressants, those are not considered those are considered bone safe acid blocking medications, like proton pump inhibitors, people are on them for years and the FDA never approved them for years of continuous use, then we know that now after four years of use, it's it's associated with up to 60% increase in hip fracture risk. So looking at medications is important.
Dr. John Neustadt 14:33
Looking at also you know, in terms of what people can do, diet is fundamental because the the Western diet that a lot of people in the US follow is anti bone. It's also anti heart it's also anti blood sugar control, and on its anti brain it increases the risk the the Western diet, the conventional what many people feel On the US with high in processed foods high in red meats, high unpackage foods and increases the risk for osteoporosis and fractures in dementia and Parkinson's disease and diabetes. And the list just to heart disease, the list just goes on and on and on. And what we know that the Mediterranean dietary pattern, which is a plant forward diet, which is you know, high in lean protein, like chicken and fish, very low and packaged and processed foods, that's associated with up to 20%, decrease risk of, of osteoporosis.
Dr. John Neustadt 15:37
And within that we know, you know, there's certain nutrients that that are protective, that have very powerful bone building, and health promoting effects. So diet is important. And regardless of who I'm talking to, I always look at the the amount of protein people are taking in because even when they say to me, I'm happy, my diets great. And they talk about how much they the many vegetables they eat. Most people even despite the Keto high protein diet craze that exists right now are not getting enough protein for their bones. One of the reasons why bones away a bone density test is not a great predictor of fractures is because it only looks at the mineral component of bone. But bone is a tissue and all tissues are made up of different things. It's not just the minerals, if it were only minerals, it would be like a column of chalk, it'd be brittle, and it would just crumble. Inside of the bone is collagen type one collagen, specifically 80% of type one collagen is in bone.
Dr. John Neustadt 16:39
And collagen is a protein. And that's what gives bone its ultimate strength and flexibility. But there are 100 280 to 200 additional proteins in bone, doing their jobs. And so making sure you're having a protein the US RDA for protein of 0.8 to 1.2 grams per kilogram body weight per day is insufficient as people age to to maintain muscle mass. And I would say to maintain bone health as well. So there's a whole chapter on diet, calculating how much protein I have people you really look at for two days, how much protein are they getting, and how much should they be getting, so they know where their target is and how to start increasing it to hit hit that because if also you don't have enough protein and you're losing muscle mass, which happens often as we age are at an increased risk for falling 95% of fractures occur because somebody falls so anything we can do to prevent falling necessarily reduces the risks of fractures and other fall related injuries and I I love practical things.
Dr. John Neustadt 17:53
I love things that are simple to implement. Not everything is easy to implement. But I like taking these these concepts. One of the my pet peeves with medicine is that we wrap all this language and these these ideas in such complicated Latin root words. And you know, as I'm going through it, you're translating it into common language people can can understand and as I'm trying to understand and look at all these these concepts is really not complicated. You don't necessarily even have to go to the gym and pump iron in terms of simple solutions, I teach in the book about the stork exercise, you know, just standing on one leg while you brush your teeth. And then that's about a minute you know, for the bottom teeth and then switch to the top teeth, that's another minute on the other leg.
Dr. John Neustadt 18:39
And that little bit you know, increasing some balance, you know, working a little bit of the core muscles, what we do during the days is cumulative, like you talked about, you know, getting moving around bending certain ways, you know, maybe parking further away in the in the parking lot so you're getting more steps in your there are ways to work health. And that includes diet into your daily lives, that becomes habits that becomes a lifestyle that becomes easier. And that's building bone and feeding your bones because bone also is not just minerals and proteins. It's doesn't it's not just a structural component of your body. There's a functional component of bone as well it produces our red and white blood cells. It produces our white blood cells for our immune system to stay strong, our red blood cells to transport oxygen throughout the body, our platelets for healthy blood clotting all is produced inside of the bone.
Dr. John Neustadt 19:39
And so focusing on what we can do to nourish the bone is necessarily going to help our bodies flourish in all aspects of our health because that Mediterranean style diet that exercise, it's also good for immune system. It's good for reducing diabetes risk, heart disease risk, you know and on and on and on.
Dana Frost 20:00
Yeah, there are so many important points that you made. John, and I'm so glad that we're having this conversation, I think that we tend to want to complicate our health. And in reality, it can be so very simple. Something you said about, you know, when somebody comes into you, and they're triggered by a diagnosis, and you said, Let's just calm down, breathe, you know, let's create a plan. This is figure out Audible, I remember reading a review about you. And I don't remember if it was on your podcast, or on your website that one of your patients said, he has done more to help me than any other doctor in my life. And I think that, you know, this is one, I bring this up, because it's one of the this, seeing who we're with, and who were treating and seeing that person, you know, for who they are, and meeting them where they are, and bringing some calm to the situation.
Dana Frost 21:05
It's really such a, it's such a gift, and it's so necessary. And in the medical world today, it's so rushed, and hurried, and most people have, you know, 15 minutes with their practicing doctor, once a year, you know, and, and so I just am appreciating your approach. And I wanted to say that I think that it's just so important and missing a missing component for people today.
Dr. John Neustadt 21:35
Oh, thank you for for saying that. And I do remember that that quote and that person, it's an honor for me, it's a life's passion for me to continue to learn and continue to share that into to help people and demystify not just bone health and osteoporosis. But you know, anybody who's subscribed to my newsletter on my website, there's, you know, blogs, and I'm writing continually, and I'm still writing blogs, because I love the research process. I'm not hiring that out for somebody to do that. Do that research.
Dana Frost 22:07
Yeah. So why why, you know, when you said that Osteoporosis is a higher risk than all of these other conditions that get a lot of our attention and a lot of research money. Why do you think that is that I didn't realize that I didn't know that it was a higher risk than breast cancer, even though if I, if I sat down and really thought about it, you know, maybe I would come to that conclusion. Why do you think that that is that it's not, you know, garnering the attention that it really deserves?
Dr. John Neustadt 22:39
That's a great question. I I've never asked myself that question. And nobody's asked that question to me. So I'm not really sure. I don't know. Hopefully, I'm doing my part, though, to raise awareness.
Dana Frost 22:52
So you need a microphone often, because the squeaky wheel gets the attention. And so this is good just to keep highlighting the conversation. So I want to go back to your mother in law, because it sounds like she's still alive. Yep. And so what were some of the things that you as you, you know, you started researching, what were some of the lifestyle changes that she implemented? You know, obviously, she's still living. So I don't know how long ago that was, but you've written a book since then. So I'm assuming it was at least a decade ago.
Dr. John Neustadt 23:24
Yeah, that was about 2006. I believe. 2008? Maybe? So right, right around then what she's done, and she's 93. Now. So and she gives she look, she still has osteo paralysis. But you know, some of the things that we talked to her about are some of the things that I've already mentioned, you know, what can she do to improve her diet, you know, movement, and as she's gotten older, she's done less and less. But, you know, she was walking consistently, is one of the things that that I did is I created a product to help her because it didn't didn't exist. It was looking at nutrients and specific nutrients that had been shown to not just, you know, promote and boost bone density, but maintain strong bones as indicated by reduce fractures in clinical trials.
Dr. John Neustadt 24:19
There is there are only four nutrients actually, that are in dietary supplements that meet both of those criteria. And one of those is a form of vitamin K two called MK four, in the amount of 45 milligrams per day, that while not approved by the US, FDA to diagnose, treat, prevent or cure any disease. It's a nutrient. It is powerful at promoting health, not just with bones, but all nutrients in the body, at least everyone I'm aware of is used by the body's biochemistry for different processes. So there are different types of vitamin K molecules. It's actually a category Vitamin K is not just one molecule in MK the MK four form of vitamin K two is what actually accumulates in our tissues throughout the body. So, bone brain, kidneys, testes, breasts intestines, the oh and on and on. And in the bones, it promotes a healthy collagen production.
Dr. John Neustadt 25:22
It modulates inflammatory molecules in the body to help promote healthy inflammation balance and chronic inflammation destroys bones, it increases has been shown to increase bone density in clinical trials, there have been over 28 clinical trials on looking at mk 445 milligrams a day. But more importantly, it boosts it maintain strong bones as indicated by over 70% fewer fractures in clinical trial volunteers. So it didn't exist back then in a dietary supplement in that dose. So I combined with calcium and vitamin D, so I created it. I love creating solutions. So that's why my you know, I have a dietary supplement company and Bi It was created because I couldn't find the dose and combination of nutrients shown in clinical trials that I needed to help my patients. And so I created the solutions to provide that.
Dr. John Neustadt 26:19
And so I created the product osteo k, and then now there's a variation osteo K minis, and she she takes that every day. And that's I think one of the better things, including my multivitamin. But that's you know, at 93. As she's done less and less, I think that's probably one of the most important things for helping her maintain her, her bone health. And she's had some falls since then. And she's, you know, her balance is not great. She's 93. But but God loves her, she's still trudging along, she's coming over in a few days for Mother's Day, which is going to be which is going to be great. She lives here near us. So with her it I think the conclusion with her or what I really want your listeners to understand it's about meeting people where they're at.
Dr. John Neustadt 27:08
So it can be overwhelming with these diagnosis and with all the options. So if you can only do one thing, if you're feeling like I can't, I'm not exercising, I'm an exercise in yours that feels overwhelming. Oh, my diet is horrible. I don't want to change my diet that feels overwhelming, oh, I just don't want to take supplements, or your whatever it is, you know, in my book or discreet, you know, chapters on all of these and other topics of things people knew just pick one, just start somewhere. You know, it took decades and decades for people to get in whatever physical condition they're in.
Dr. John Neustadt 27:41
Now, this is a long term process. In fact, I recommend people don't do major changes in their lives overnight, you know, changing directions, 180 degrees for people tends not to be sustainable, that just start somewhere because the research is clear. And there's a blog, I recall the four pillars of health, you know, you're looking at a diet and exercise and sleep in if you just work on one domain, where things are you start improving. And the research is clear that you tend people tend then to do other positive actions as well. And you get this building effect where this feed forward where you start to just become more motivated, and start to do better things for yourself. So just start somewhere.
Dana Frost 28:28
Yeah, years ago, that idea of being successful at one thing, choose one thing and do that one thing and make the goal so attainable, that it's impossible to not meet the goal. And when when that happens, then then you have a an up leveling of your energy and you feel proud that you accomplish that. And then you're oh, what's the next thing? Okay, oh, what's the next thing and, and it gets you moving in the right direction. I think that that's a really important point. And thank you for bringing that up.
Dr. John Neustadt 29:01
Here's one thing that I think is is really attainable for most people. There's a chapter in my book called connectivity. And I've never seen that in any other bone health or osteoporosis book, but the research is clear that human connection reduces all cause mortality, that's death from any cause, including osteoporosis. And in fact, people with you know, friends, you know, healthy social support networks, it's called when they fracture heal faster from from a broken bone with osteoporosis. And the research shows that you know, How many friends do you have to have? Is it what's the optimal you to six, eight? Well, the optimal actually is three. So it's not even a ton. But it's not just having people it's reaching out and doing something, connecting with them. So if you haven't done that, you know, pick up the phone, send a text, go for a walk, connect with the people in your lives, who support you.
Dana Frost 29:58
That's so important and I'm glad Have you brought that point up to I do want to, um, we're nearing the end. But I actually really want you to speak into calcium because that supplementation is very confusing to most people. And I would love to have your opinion on calcium supplementation while I have you here.
Dr. John Neustadt 30:17
Great question, I get that a lot. Though calcium and vitamin D, the combination of the two, not separately, have been shown to reduce fractures by about 18 to 20%. That's when that MK four molecules added on or that we get even additional are additive additive benefits. But with calcium and vitamin D, it's important not to get too much. So I like people to test their vitamin D levels and supplement appropriately. The vitamin D levels between 33 and 44, called nanograms per milliliter that's how its measured in the blood that's associated with the maximum fracture reduction. Now there are people who recommend a higher level of vitamin D up to you know, 50 or 60, for more immune boosting benefits or immune support benefits, but for bare bones, you're you're looking at at at that range.
Dr. John Neustadt 31:17
Interestingly enough, lower than that even as low as nine 910 11 is associated with improvements of bone density, but not reductions in fracture. So it goes back to that story about how bone density test is not a great predictor of fractures is that you know, 30 or 30 to three to 44 I think it's 30 to 44 nanograms per milliliter for fracture reduction. With calcium, you know, again, it's a calcium and vitamin D combination that people really want. But you want to make sure that you're you're taking a safe amount. So the the bone health and osteopathic position statements of the bone health and Osteoporosis Foundation and the American Society for Preventive Cardiology is that taking getting up to the tolerable limit, as set by the safe limit as set by the National Academies of medicine, of 2000 to 2500 Total milligrams per day is considered safe.
Dr. John Neustadt 32:12
The average American woman consumes about 800 milligrams of calcium in her diet, the recommendation the US recommended daily amount for calcium is 1200 to 1500 milligrams per per day. So to get up to that 1200 to 1500 milligrams per day, you're taking a calcium supplement that maybe has 400 milligrams a day is sufficient for most people getting one then, you know, a lot of people would take 1000 milligrams today, per day, there have been multiple studies that have looked at this, and there's continuing research, but studies that have looked at a consider up to 1000 milligrams per day in men to be safe. And there was no association and a large data set that was looked at based on the world with the Women's Health Initiative years ago. And they were they supplemented they continued the study and they supplemented with calcium, there was not an association with calcium supplementation and cardiovascular disease or cardiac events, you know, heart attacks that that sort of thing. So but but to get the Make sure there's your there's really no known benefit above about 1200 milligrams per day for for bones. So that's my take on calcium and vitamin D.
Dana Frost 33:26
Okay, and are there different forms of calcium supplementation, John?
Dr. John Neustadt 33:30
so most of the studies have been done with calcium carbonate, which is very poorly absorbed. But yes, there are lots of different companies out there marketing, calcium supplements, there's, you know, calcium hydroxy apatite, there's, you know, coral calcium, and there's calcium citrate, lots of different calcium, there's no indication that one form of calcium is better than another for maintaining strong bones or even for for promoting healthy bone density. You'll see on the marketing of a lot of these companies, they'll talk about, oh, our product, you know, calcium supplement it improved bone density in a clinical trial.
Dr. John Neustadt 34:04
And so people are like, Oh, I gotta have that. I gotta have that. But it's important. And I teach us in the book, there's one fundamental question, it's very simple when it comes to bone health, is what you're recommending, or has what you're recommending, been shown to reduce fractures to actually maintain strong bones as indicated by reducing fractures, not just improving number on a test, you have clinical trials that that show that and that's the same with medications is the medication that I'm being recommended hasn't been shown in my diagnosis in with my medicals hasn't been shown to reduce fractures. And so that's there's a whole chapter on medications where I go through that as well. I've settled on using calcium citrate in my osteo Okay, and osteo came in these products because it can still be the calcium can still be absorbed even when people have lower stomach acid.
Dr. John Neustadt 34:55
So what happens as people get older, the amount of stomach acid they produce tends to decrease And then if they're on obviously an acid blocking medication, or if they're autoimmune diseases, those can also all decrease the amount of stomach acid. So calcium carbonate requires quite a bit of stomach acid and very low pH in order to take that calcium. So all minerals don't come by themselves, they're packaged with something else. And it's a carrier there. So with calcium carbonate, the carriers a carbon molecule attached to calcium. And so that has to break apart in order for your body to absorb the calcium actually get through the intestines and into your bloodstream. And you require stomach acid, a low pH, calcium citrate doesn't require that low pH. And so even when people when they're there have, they're not producing as much stomach acid, they still are able to access that calcium and absorb it.
Dana Frost 35:48
That's really interesting. I'm so glad that I asked you to talk about that. Because this is going to be really helpful and, and really just sounds like everybody needs to read your book, including myself, I'm going to get it. We need to be obviously educated about our bone health and how to strategically take care of our bones on a day on a daily basis, instead of waiting until we feel traumatized by a diagnosis.
Dr. John Neustadt 36:14
I agree. I hope everybody hears that message and really takes it to heart.
Dana Frost 36:19
Yeah. Okay, so I have one question I asked all my guests at the close of the show. And that is, what does feeling younger, while growing older mean to you?
Dr. John Neustadt 36:29
Oh, I love that. Feeling younger, while growing older means to me that I'm excited about the years and the time that I have left, that I'm doing what I love, that I'm surrounded by people that I love, and I'm doing meaningful work, that excites me that lights me up. And then I'm contributing to the larger society because what I know to be true, the more we give, I have a real abundance mentality. The more that we contribute, the more that we give to our communities in our society, the richer our lives are. And so not only through my professional work, but through my volunteer work with my friends. You know, it's about participating in the life that I've got.
Dana Frost 37:17
I love that. John, thank you so much. That was precious is the word that comes to mind. I don't know why. But it comes back to being connected and keeping ourselves open to the people in our intimate community to the people in community when we walk out our door. And yeah, thank you so much. Thank you for being a guest this week.
Dr. John Neustadt 37:39
Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
Dana Frost 37:41
Thank you for joining us this week on the Vitally You podcast. Don't forget your gift from John in the show notes. I would love to see new reviews this week. If you haven't left a review and you are enjoying the podcast. Please leave a review be sure to hit subscribe and download and as always, I am streaming love from my heart to yours.