Vitamin D has been touted as the new wonder pill for everything from osteoporosis to cancer prevention to dementia! If you live up north, it’s safe to say you should be taking at least 1,000 IU/day when you shun the sun.  Next time you have blood work, have your D level tested.  Riding shotgun with D3 and magnesium should be K2, the hot new player on the bone-building front. Vitamin D3 helps us absorb calcium and K2 makes sure that the calcium gets bound to our bones.  That’s important because we don’t want the calcium showing up in our blood vessels or our heart – add these co-factors and some fish oil to send the calcium to the bones.  Bone Solid, a unique calcium/C/D/K blend by Country Life, is on the leading edge or add Nutrilite’s 2000 IU “D3 plus K2” to your existing calcium supplement.  People on blood-thinning meds should not take Vitamin K2. Ladies, the long-term on the biophosphinate bone meds is showing some brittle bones susceptible to fracture, so get your calcium co-factors together instead!

Bad news fellow carb lovers – studies suggest that too many grain foods lead to bone and muscle loss by creating an acid load in the body.  Kidney function declines as we age, so the body can’t easily handle the extra acid load created by bread, rice, and, sadly, rolled oats.  Fruits and vegetables neutralize the high-acid foods, especially raisins, apricots, bananas, kiwi fruit, spinach and zucchini, so be sure and throw some raisins in your oatmeal and jack up the produce consumption.  Lean protein like chicken, turkey, and cottage cheese have other benefits but are also high in acid, so don’t go crazy with those either.  Bottom line for bones = fruits, vegetables & most beans, not grains and proteins.  Researchers are studying the use of potassium bicarbonate to alkalinize the body and results have been good in bone turnover and muscle retention.  Sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) has too much calcium-leaching salt for most over-50’s to use for this purpose.