Alternative Medicines for Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis is a disease that causes bones to become thin and fragile. It can lead to bone fractures, typically in the hips, spine, and wrist. Over a lifetime, bones naturally lose some of their density, but osteoporosis is an exaggeration of this process. Contributing factors may include a hormone deficiency (in women), low-calcium diet, lack of exercise, smoking, and certain medications.

Nutritional Therapy for Osteoporosis

Nutritional therapy, like allopathic medicine, recognizes that getting enough dietary calcium is important in treating and preventing osteoporosis. However, the dietary needs for this condition are more complex than calcium alone. Several nutritional factors either help or hinder the absorption and retention of calcium. It's interesting to note that people in parts of the world where calcium intake is low have some of the lowest rates of osteoporosis. The following factors may play a role in this fact:

Vitamin D, vitamin K, magnesium, and boron are among the nutrients that support healthy bones. (Magnesium is extremely important for keeping calcium in the bones.)So are milk and other dairy products a good thing? While they supply a lot of calcium, they usually also provide saturated fat and high levels of protein. Instead, practitioners of nutritional therapy typically recommend getting calcium from green leafy vegetables, dark-green vegetables, and certain types of beans, as well as other foods, all of which provide little or no protein and fat.

Here's a sample of good calcium sources that are low in protein and fat:

Note: The Recommended Dietary Allowance for calcium for menopausal women is 1000 to 1200 mg, although a practitioner of nutritional therapy may recommend less than that, depending on the woman's typical dietary sources of protein.

Herbal Medicine for Osteoporosis

Several herbs can be beneficial for preventing and treating osteoporosis when combined with a diet and exercise program. Different herbs approach the problem differently; some provide dietary calcium, some regulate the body's use of calcium, and some increase the level of certain hormones in the body. For example, horsetail (silica) is recommended to boost the body's absorption of calcium. Once this plant, which often resembles a horse's tail, is dried, it can be used as a tea or in tincture or capsule form. Other helpful herbs include:

To help prevent osteoporosis an herbalist may prescribe taking powdered horsetail, for example, or may suggest a more comprehensive formula, such as one that also includes alfalfa, black cohosh, wild yam, vitex, and dong quai.

Other Osteoporosis Therapies

For more information on osteoporosis and alternative medicine, see: