I remain quite afraid of what this disease can do to bones. On the one hand if I progress to WM it appears bone complications are rare (as opposed to MM). I hang out on a WM group and rarely hear people asking about bones or fractures. While a lot of people I know with MM were diagnosed with it via fracture.
That being said, I need to keep my bones strong. Being single, healing from a fracture could be devastating.
So for the moment I am looking into osteoporosis. The good news, I thought, was that I had a DEXA scan last year and all was well. I didn't have osteoporosis or osteopenia. That test measures Bone Mineral Density. But, looking further, BMD has been scientifically determined to mean nothing as to fracture risk. The way I have heard it... BMD measures essentially the calcium in your bones. Sounds like a good deal right? But your bones have a structure to them that underlies the calcium. If that structure is not strong, you can have all the calcium in the world and not have strong bones.
In addition, your DEXA scan is compared to a 28 year old female. But as some doctors have noted, it is not scientifically sound to do that. Our bodies at 28 are primed for childbirth and accordingly have high supply of calcium in case needed for childbirth. Once you are no longer going to have children it lets go of some that supply. They argue that if anything standards should be made with regard to normal for women at age 50, 60, 70 and 80.
Also, this was pretty interesting to me but your blood type can play a role in your risk for fracture. O blood type is the least likely to have fractures. This may be due to the fact that O blood type is less likely have have diabetes. And diabetes is a major factor in fractures.
The shocking but never mentioned biggest thing to destroy bone turns out to be sugar. There are tons of studies showing that sugar destroys bone -- in particular with soft drinks. But also, diabetics have a much higher fracture risk even though many type two have strong bone mineral density. (showing that BMD means nothing to fracture risk).
People say that animal foods destroy your bones. But I think that is faulty thinking. If the bones do need a "structure" for the calcium to sit on... and that structure is made up of things like collagen and protein... it would seem that you need meat. In addition, in the last thirty years we have largely gotten rid of meat, and it hasn't done a body good. Fractures are at a highest point ever and Vegan and Vegetarian diets have shown themselves to increase the risk of fracture. Vegan diet higher risk of fracture It also doesn't make sense from a historical point of view. When we were hunter gatherers we at almost exclusively meat / animal foods. If it could cause the bones to fracture, well, that would have ended us as a species. It also doesn't make sense looking at other animals. Who often do not eat dairy of any kind and do not seem to have their bones melt.
The theory seems to be that acid from animal products will melt the calcium in your bones... but, all of that imho is speculative. There is great debate about our ability to make our body acid or alkaline for very long. Further calcium is just one of the factors that go into bone health. Not 100%... that is outdated thinking.
I saw a theory on Pub med last year that really capture my imagination. It was proposed by scientists and to me makes a lot of sense. It is fact that the countries with more calcium consumption have worse rates of fracture. The theory is that the more calcium that goes into your blood, the more the body must get rid of. Calcium in the blood is tightly controlled. The body can dispose of it via urine but, if there is too much, it must find another place to hide it until it can be removed by urine - so the body stuffs calcium into your bones until it can later be removed. Sound good right? But no. We have bone remodeling cells. Osetoblasts and Osteoclasts. Osteoblasts put the calcium in - Osteoclasts take the calcium out. One problem the process of putting calcium in destroys the osteoblasts -- forever. They are not reproduced like osteoclasts. So if you have been overdosing on calcium for your entire life, you will have drastically reduced the cells that put calcium in your bones.
Finally, I have long had a theory that insulin resistance is, in part, caused by calcium blocking/ gumming up.. insulin receptors in cells. This is my theory but, is seems there is a lot of circumstantial evidence. First, every single thing that reduces calcium in the body also helps insulin resistance -- Vitamin D, Vitamin K2, Magnesium, Apple Cider Vinegar, fasting/ autophagy. In addition, insulin resistance tends to ultimately cause worse glucose control in the blood stream. And what does that end up causing.. bone damage from sugar in the blood stream. It just seems obvious that when you constantly have high levels of calcium in your body, no cofactors, some calcium is going to gum up the works and over years could gum up the insulin receptors on cells - there is absolutely is science showing that excess calcium is associated with insulin resistance. Association of Serum Calcium and Insulin Resistance -- this is just what I could find easily.
