Is Osteoporosis the modern day scurvy?

Why you need to know about Vitamin C

There is a lot of misinformation regarding what osteoporosis is and how it is treated. Leaving many people who have been diagnosed feeling confused, fearful and not knowing what to do about it. In this article, I will highlight a not often mentioned connection between the most famous of all the vitamins, Vitamin C, and osteoporosis.

The first thing a GP will suggest when treating people with osteoporosis is to take calcium and vitamin d supplements. However, even though calcium levels are very low in osteoporotic bone, increasing the calcium intake through supplementation does not improve osteoporotic bone health.

One hypothesis regarding the nature of osteoporosis is that it is, in fact, scurvy of the bones. By increasing vitamin C levels and restoring the balance of antioxidants, the bones are able to regenerate and create a strong healthy new structure. Vitamin C intake can therefore, potentially help reverse osteoporosis.

What have antioxidants got to do with bone structure?

Antioxidants protect against oxidation. Oxidation in the bones or anywhere in the body is not a good idea. So if you are deficient in antioxidants, your bones are going to suffer because of the increased amount of oxidative stress that affects them.

But what does that mean for my bones?

Put it this way, if you set fire to a nice solid piece of wood, the fire causes the wood to burn and the wood turns to ash.

This burning process is basically a bit like what oxidative stress is.

You can look at antioxidants as little firefighters putting out fires in your bones. Look at it like this, your body is your house. The frame of the house is your bones. The frame of your house needs to be strong.

Let the framework catch fire and your house is turned into a pile of ash. All that wood gone up in a puff of smoke. See all that smoke? That’s like the calcium leaving your bones.

So what is the first thing you’re going to do if your house is on fire?

Yep, you’re going to call the firefighters, your heroes, those antioxidants to the rescue to put that fire out!

Once the smoke has gone all you see is a pile of ash. But the pile of ash is not there because all the smoke has blown away. Bone (wood) does not become osteoporotic (ash) because of a lack of calcium (smoke).

Oxidative stress (like the fire) causes osteoporotic bones which results in a calcium deficiency. Calcium deficiency is the effect of oxidation not the cause of it.

You can’t put the smoke back into the ashes and expect your house to be rebuilt. And this is the case with trying to restore bone mass with calcium supplementation. You can’t build back bones with calcium.

If you want to read a detailed account of antioxidants and osteoporosis, I would recommend checking out the book  by Thomas E Levy. Death by Calcium. (But before you go off and google it, finish reading this post as the book is one of my inspirations for writing this!)

Why can’t you build back bone structure with calcium?

Because, according to Thomas E Levy,  osteoporosis is caused by a deficiency of antioxidants. The calcium deficiency in the bones is the result of the lack of antioxidants in the body.

We are concerned here with osteoporosis, but it has also been shown that oxidative stress is associated with the symptoms of any disease. This is why it is so important to get a good supply of antioxidants in your diet. Eating an antioxidant rich diet is necessary if you don’t want reactions from oxidation creating those infamous ‘free radicals’ that damage your bones. Don’t give them a chance to do their damage and you’ll have less clearing up to do after them in the long run!

So the question is, how do we decrease or eliminate oxidative stress?

Unfortunately, just taking more antioxidants is not the answer.

We need to get all Sherlock Holmes about it. We need to find the culprit that caused the oxidative stress to occur in the first place. Then we can eliminate it and regain harmony inside our system as a whole.

Eating foods (or taking additional supplements if necessary) with a variety of different antioxidant nutrients is especially important to get the little firefighters dispatched out to all affected tissues, organs and cellular structures.

Enter Super Firefighter VITAMIN C…

The mightiest fire fighting antioxidant of them all! Vitamin C is the mightiest because of its size. No, it’s not the biggest, strongest nor the most muscular of antioxidants.  It is, in fact, very small. And its mighty smallness means it is able to reach the cells that other antioxidants can’t reach by themselves.

But not only that. Vitamin C also has the power, the unique power, to regenerate other antioxidants when they have sacrificed their electrons to reduce the fires of oxidation in your body, becoming themselves oxidised. Vitamin C gets to action and rescues these oxidised antioxidants!

What standard bone density tests don’t tell you!

Take enough calcium supplements to increase your calcium levels and the bone density test will show your bones to have increased in mass or density. So that’s a good thing right?

Yes it would be a great result. But. Always a but. But, if the density appears to have increased only as a result of calcium intake then unfortunately this is not such a good thing as it would appear.

The added mass of the calcium may look good on the scans but calcium doesn’t increase the structural strength of the bone matrix. Slapping on a bit of make up doesn’t get rid of wrinkles! (But that’s another rabbit hole we won’t go down today!)

Just like “make-uping” over wrinkles makes you look younger, the appearance of increased mass caused by calcium intake in bone scans is just as cosmetic!

Especially true considering all bone density scans are comparing your bones to the bones of a young woman in the prime of her life! (Stay tuned for a new post on the absurdity of this test!)

So even though increasing calcium intake may make the scan results look better,  the chances of a fracture however, remain the same. And the goal of any treatment for osteoporosis is supposed to decrease fracture risk.

What evidence is there to suggest that osteoporosis is caused by scurvy?

Whilst there is little evidence to show that supplementing with calcium increases healthy strong bone structure or reduced risks of fracture. There is, on the other hand, evidence to suggest that supplementing with Vitamin C in the treatment of osteoporosis helps significantly improve healthy bone density as seen on bone density tests. As well as reducing the likelihood of osteoporosis related fractures.

So how does Vitamin C increase bone density in osteoporotic bones?

Research has shown that Vitamin C is crucial in the formation of collagen in bones. That fine mesh of bone that looks like honeycomb? That’s the collagen framework that forms the structure of your bones to which minerals like calcium can incorporate around. In fact, the bone structure is formed of 90% collagen. It’s like the scaffold holding it all together. It’s called the matrix.  Welcome to the matrix, Neo

Vitamin C also has the amazing role of regulating the formation of the cells that make up cartilage and collagen as well as having a major role in the stem cell function in bone cell construction. Vitamin C works on the bones by reducing inflammation in the bones too.

Whilst Vitamin K, Vitamin D, magnesium, essential fatty acids and hormones like estrogen and testosterone as well as thyroid activity help in the reversal of osteoporosis, they do it by helping reduce bone loss.

Vitamin C, however, works by assisting the building of new bone by reducing bone resorption and increasing bone synthesis. Amongst other jobs it performs to create healthy bodies for us, Vitamin C is right in there making sure our bones are properly functioning and forming strong flexible healthy structures that will last our entire lifetimes…and beyond…

Scurvy and osteoporosis – are they connected?

The question that needs to be asked is, does Scurvy cause osteoporosis? Or put another way, Is osteoporosis a symptom of scurvy? Or even, dare I suggest, Is osteoporosis the modern day scurvy?

When I consider the condition of scurvy I automatically think of the old days when sailors got scurvy aboard their ships and died at sea. I think of it as one of those diseases of the past. But is it?

There is a growing body of research that suggests that osteoporosis is in fact related to if not caused by scurvy. Scurvy in turn, is caused by a lack of Vitamin C.

In fact, just look at the early symptoms of scurvy: feeling tired, sore legs and arms, feeling weak, dental problems especially bleeding gums, even curly hair! Wait! What? You mean my randomly curling hair, madly misbehaving in a world of its own like it’s on medusa’s head is actually a sign of scurvy?  WTF! Give me an orange now!!

If you are a dog or a camel you do not need to worry about scurvy. Most animals actually produce their own vitamin C inside their bodies. Humans, however, can’t. Lucky us. This is why we have to eat our fruit and vegetables. Which is the upside of not producing our own vitamin C I guess!

And would you believe this! It’s not that we don’t possess the ability to make our own Vitamin C, no, no, it could be possible to except… we lack an enzyme L-gulonolactone oxidase necessary for the synthesis of vitamin C in our bodies. But here’s the thing, we still have the gene for L-gulonolactone oxidase BUT it has been switched off by a DNA mutation! Typical!

The really great thing about the fact that we can’t produce our own Vitamin C is that we have an excuse to eat lots of really tasty stuff.

Lucky for us you can’t overdose on vitamin C so eat away on all the good stuff…. And if you feel you really need to get a supplement to start with, make sure it’s the right kind of Vitamin C.

What’s the right kind of Vitamin C?

The kind that makes your bones grow. But that can wait for the next article. In the meantime whilst you’re waiting for me to write it, start with the list of edibles I mentioned. Click on the subscribe button and I’ll send you an email letting you know when it’s written!

I would really appreciate hearing your thoughts on the issue of vitamin C and its role in bone health and osteoporosis. So, if after your own investigations you find anything that may help enlighten others to the connection, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me by email at info@osteonaut.com or by leaving a comment below this article.

I am not a doctor so if you need medical advice I would recommend seeing your own doctor or chiropractor or whomever it is that you go to for advice pertaining to your own body. That said, the content in this article is for informational purposes only and based on what I have experienced, researched, read, or listened to. You may agree with the findings expressed or you may not, that is ok. But, as long as both you and I continue to do our own investigations we should manage to uncover why and how and what it is we are dealing with.

Thank you for dropping by this virtual land of osteonaut.com and don’t forget to check out the other posts on here.

Oh and before you go please click the subscribe button to follow this blog of bones if you haven’t already and I’ll email you when the next post is done.

References

Carpenter KJ. The History of Scurvy and Vitamin C. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press; 1986

Hart A, Cota A, Makhdom A, and Harvey E,J. The Role of Vitamin C in orthopedic trauma and bone health.  The American Journal of Orthopedics. July 2015, 306-311.

Levy T E. Death by Calcium: Proof of the Toxic Effects of Dairy and Calcium Supplements. Medfox Publishing LLC, 2013.

Pathak D. Vitamin C protects, maintains healthy bone mass. Baylor College of Medicine, Viewed  5th April 2017.

<https://www.bcm.edu/news/bones-joints-and-muscles/vitamin-c-protects-maintains-healthy-bones>

Seibel M J, Robins S P, Bilezikian J P. Dynamics of Bone and Cartilage Metabolism: Principles and Clinical Applications. Academic Press; 2006