HUMAN DISEASES REDEFINED

© 2008/2010:Dr. V.M.Palaniappan


72. Osteoporosis

Bones are made up of calcium. When the calcium dissolves away from the bones, pores form on them. This weakens the bone, and as a result, they can break very easily. This is often found among the elderly people, especially among the menopaused women.

If a person eats too much of protein, during the process of its breakdown, some sulphur containing amino acids are formed. Such acids can dissolve some of the calcium from the bone surface (Lennon et al, 1966; Lemann et al, 1979, Breslau et al, 1988) and release it into the blood. It is said that this can weaken the bones in people.

In my opinion, this process may not significantly form pores, and hence, may not weaken the bones. Therefore, this cannot be the sole cause for osteoporosis. Reduced consumption of calcium, for example, 300 mg/day in some Asian and African countries has resulted in normal bone development (Nicholls and Nimalasuriya, 1939; Hegsted et al, 1952; Malm, 1958)..

So, inadequate calcium intake also does not seem to affect the skeletal system in any way. In other words, osteoporosis may not occur because of calcium shortage in foods.

If so, what else could cause this disease, especially in women who are menopausing?

While the aetiology for the occurrence of osteoporosis still remains obscure to many, I have traced the cause for the problem. Let me give an analogy here, so that understanding the exact phenomenon of this disease will become much easier.

Let me give you a piece of stone that weighs 1 kg to hold in your hands. You can do it at ease. Let me give you 5 kg of the same. You can hold it. If I add another 20 kg, you can still hold it but with some difficulty. What would you do if I added another 100 kg, making it to a total of 126 kgs.? You would drop off the whole lot of 126 kgs.

The question is, why should you drop all the 126, when in fact you can hold the 26 kgs?

The brain functions in the same manner. When a person gathers either less or the required optimum quantity of calcium, the brain allows all of them to be absorbed and utilised.

The brain tends to allow some more of it. However, when far too much of calcium accumulation or retention beyond tolerance limit of the body happens, the brain sheds off all the calcium, including that which is needed for the upkeep of the skeletal system*. This results in the formation of pores in the bones, and we call it osteoporosis.

(* This appears to be similar to the total withdrawal of insulin production in the case of type-1 insulin dependent diabetes mellitus. Here, when a person takes normal amount of sugar, equally normal amount of insulin secretes.

When the sugar uptake is increased, the insulin secretion also increases. When the sugar input increases to an unbearable level, then the brain totally withdraws the insulin production, giving rise to the type-1 disease.

Another case of identical brain behaviour seems to occur in connection with the total withdrawal of thyroxin when the person consumes intolerable quantity of iodine, often through the artificially enriched (iodised) salt intake.)

A continuous secretion of (probably) lactic acid in the body may be responsible for the removal of calcium from the bones.

Let us see what happens in the case of a woman. Why should she develop osteoporosis?

Every woman keeps on accumulating calcium through the food she ingests, and that gives her some amount of weight increase, and her face, breasts, etc. start looking a bit ‘filled’ or plump.

At monthly intervals, when she menstruates, a substantial quantity of calcium gets lost in the discharge. This makes her lose some amount of her weight, and her face and eyes become ‘sunken’, and her breasts tend to become a bit soft. All soft tissues in her body too may become tender.

After the menses, as days pass by, her body becomes ‘filled’ again, only to lose it during the next menses. Thus, it goes on and on until the woman stops menstruating.
With the onset of menopause, when she stops menstruating, the regular and repeated loss of calcium does not occur any more. Instead of it, the calcium accumulation keeps on going without any check.

Such a non-stop calcium increase makes the woman put on plenty of weight. Her face becomes increasingly swollen, breasts become firm and huge, and all parts of her body, especially wherever there is soft tissues, become enlarged (i.e., hypertrophy occurs).

This process will go on until such time when the body cannot stand any more addition.

In other words, when the calcium accumulation goes beyond the tolerance limit, or threshold point of the body, the brain activates the removal of the calcium from all parts of the body, especially the skeletal system and the teeth, by secreting some acid substances, in this case, it could be the lactic acid, as pointed out earlier.

This results in the formation of pores all over the bones, weakening them to the point of making them break.

Thus, osteoporosis gets established.

Practically all health advocates, for want of this know-ledge, and also on the assumption that the loss of calcium is due to some ageing process or cessation of oestrogen production, administer stronger doses of calcium to replace the lost quantity.

This forms a mockery of the brain’s function. Upon such an increased input, the brain tries to speed up the process of losing it from the body, and as a result, the woman tends to lose her teeth, develops hunch back, suffers unbearable pain, and dies much sooner.

This proves that calcium treatment to menopaused women should be considered a misadventure that warrants an immediate reconsideration by the medical faculty.

See Hyperacidosis, Menopause, and Obesity.