It is easy to forget about the complex structure of bones which supports your entire body. A simple fall and snap, then we remember the importance of our bones. It is especially important to make the effort to support bone health as we age. As a woman reaching menopause, you will lose more bone at this time of your life, than at any other time.
First, realize that bones art not stagnant. Bones continually break down and rebuild. You don’t have the same bones for a lifetime. As we age, it is easy for our bones to break down faster than they repair. This is where we need to intervene with the best nutrients to support the building of strong bones.
What supports strong bones? Good nutrition, real food that isn’t devoid of minerals. In other words, eat your vegetables! Leafy greens like Chinese cabbage, bok choy, kale, nettle, and dandelion are good sources of calcium. Beans, nuts, and seeds also contain calcium. These are better assimilated if soaked or ground first. Raw, fresh farm, dairy is high in calcium. However, most of the dairy available has little nutrition left after all the processing required for it to last on a shelf. It becomes a dead food, with little to offer in nutrition except the synthetic vitamins that are “added” back into it. Don’t rely on store bought dairy to provide the calcium you need.
Is your diet making your body too acidic? The pH of your body is regulated as a matter of life and death. Eating lots of refined junk food; drinking alcohol, coffee, or sodas to excess; and eating too much sugar or protein will make you acidic. The body will rescue you, by actually taking minerals out of your bones to alkalinize the body. Make sure you are eating the minerals you need to keep your body in balance.
Calcium is the main mineral needed by the bones. However, you don’t want to get your calcium from rocks. Would you put a piece of coral or oyster shell in your mouth and eat it? Just because it is powdered into a capsule, doesn’t make it assimilated by the body. We are meant to get our minerals from the plants…they get them from the soil or rocks. So, before you take that huge calcium vitamin pill, check its source. Is it originating from rocks or plants? One of the best sources for absorbable calcium is red mineral algae from the sea. We carry three different (hard to find) plant-based calcium formulas in the shop. Stop in to find the best one for you.
Herbs to consider, which are high in minerals include: nettles, dandelion leaf, oat straw, red clover, alfalfa, horsetail, kelp, and red raspberry. I like to take them daily, in a super infused tea. Nettles are one of the most bioavailable sources of calcium available! It helps alkalize the body with magnesium, potassium, and iron. Oat straw has three times the mineral content of oatmeal. It is high in calcium, magnesium, and silica. Red clover contains phytoestrogens and minerals which discourage the loss of bone, while encouraging new growth. Consider this for that menopausal time of life. Horsetail contains more silica than any other herb. Silica enhances bone density and flexibility. It is particularly useful for connective tissue health and for hair, skin, and nails.
Vitamin D is right next to Calcium on the list of things needed to build strong bones. You can take vitamin D supplements and get out in the sunshine daily. Other sources include liver, cod liver oil, pasture-raised eggs, pork, shellfish, or fish.
Weight-bearing exercise is helpful to keep your bones healthy. Get moving: even gentle chair yoga and walking counts! Your own body weight helps to keep those bones healthy.
Broken bones or stress fractures? Along with the above calcium, minerals, and vitamin D; I recommend Dr. Christopher’s Tissue and Bone Formula. We have it available in capsules and as oil to use externally. Applied faithfully, we have seen this formula speed up the healing process.
Be proactive in caring for your bones: after all, you won’t go anywhere without them!
Super-infused Nutrition in a Tea
Make a blend using equal parts of each dried herb. Add 1 Tbs of the blend to 1 pint of hot water. Let it steep overnight. Strain, drink hot or cold.
Calendula flowers are lovely in tea. Soothing, anti-inflammatory, and antiseptic for wounds or digestive issues. A well-known tonic herb for healing skin, lymph, and liver. High in vitamin A. Caution during pregnancy, for possible emmenagogue effects.
Horsetail or shave grass is high in iron, silicon, vitamin A, magnesium, manganese, chromium, calcium, potassium, and more. It is bland, slightly sweet, cooling, and drying. Horsetail is an excellent source of minerals for the hair, skin, nails, bones, cartilage, and tissues of the body. It also tones the urinary system with its astringent, antibacterial, and diuretic action.
Nettles or stinging nettle is incredible medicine to help relieve arthritic pain or allergy symptoms. The plant leaf is lined with stingers that highly irritate the skin when touched, but stimulates a histamine reaction due to a high quercetin content. This combats the allergy symptoms of itchy eyes, runny nose, and sneezing. Nettles contain calcium, potassium, silica, phosphorus, iron, vitamins D & K. Use caution and protective covering when harvesting!
Oat straw or milky oat is sweet, nutritious, and moistening. The oat grain provides protein, but the plant offers magnesium, potassium, chromium, silicon, manganese, zinc, and vitamins A &B. This daily tonic offers serious nervous system support for anxiety, restlessness, and exhaustion.
Red raspberry leaf contains iron, manganese, niacin, selenium, vitamins A & C, and calcium. It is a well-known uterine tonic used to help with excessive bleeding and to prepare the uterus for birth. Caution – it should not be used in the first trimester of pregnancy. It is a wonderful tea for fevers and flu, and can be enjoyed by children.
Rose hips, the fruit of the rose, appears after the flowers die. Astringent, anti-inflammatory, and heart supportive; they provide antioxidants, vitamin C, quercetin, and collagen.