By treating only the physical symptoms to cure an illness or by trying to prevent it, targeting only the symptoms, we will very likely neither cure it nor prevent it. This knowledge is not new, but in regard to osteoporosis no current therapeutic approach is taking it to heart. Neither the diagnosis nor the therapy of osteoporosis are attempting significantly more than damage control. Prevention is a mere lip service to the «customer» because the courage to really beat this disease is nowhere to be found.

But then, based on the slender body of knowledge available today, how could it be any different. None of the traditional concepts of bone remodeling are conclusive and therefore none of the therapeutic approaches based upon them can be convincing. On the other hand, the commercial interests involved have no incentive to change the lucrative status quo of osteoporosis prevention by «crop dusting» women with estrogen.

This is the background on which the author developed his Program for Preventing and Healing of Osteoporosis. This program teaches the reader (intentionally never called «patient») to develop an intimate relationship with his/her body and especially with her bones. S/he will learn to experience the body as a partner with whom s/he can communicate -- without medical jargon as a prerequisite. To this end, along with a nutritional approach, avoiding stress and guilt, a program of movement and exercise is developed which is to be understood as a practical and equitable communication with the body. This in turn is built into a focussed therapy of relaxation and visualisation.

The amazing aspect of this program for preventing and healing osteoporosis is that is uses three methods which are not at all new. In combination, however, they produce sensational results: The development of an informed and responsible body consciousness, of sane and self-loving nutritional habits and most importantly, movement and exercise as a way to communicate. To prepare for this communcation, the author explains how bone lives, how and when the loss of bone mass really occurs, and he describes in detail the three columns of their program. Finally, women get to tell their stories, women who themselves experienced such a fundamental change. «My body is no longer foreign territory, no longer a mere burden,» tells a woman who only half a year ago felt paralyzed, caught between the fear of cancerogenic estrogens and the threat of premature invalidity. «Today, I like my body and I think it likes me, too. My daily exercises I do because they give me joy and make me feel alive. By now, I have almost forgotten that I originally learned them as part of an osteoporosis prevention program.»

This «Revolution in the Therapy and Prevention of Osteoporosis» is based on a . . . 

REVOLUTION IN THE UNDERSTANDING

. . . of the endocrinal system:

Systems of hormonal regulation are subject to influences of the central nervous system, of the psyche, and of daily rhythms. These are known facts, but when it comes to human bone metabolism they seem to be largely ignored. In relation to the bone, daily rhythms are especially significant because of an increased nocturnal absorption of bone tissue. This in turn creates an inevitable connection to other events in the body which are subject to rhythms of day and night or light and dark, predominantly, the production of serotonine and melatonine and syndromes like winter depression. There can be no doubt, moods like doom or cheer on life and love must have a ruling influence not only on vegetative functions (blood pressure, breathing, pulse etc.) but also on bone metabolism and bone resorption. 

It is also a proven fact that one and the same level of a hormonal substance shows a different effect depending on whether it is the body’s «original» or if it has been substituted. An example is thyreoid hormone. A serum thyroxin identical to the natural level ravages bones mass -- but only when it has been substituted.

Interleukin-I is a similar case. It is produced within the immune system and within the ovaries. It stimulates proteolytic agents (collagenases) and therefore serves as one of the main drives of the immune system (to «digest» antigens). A secondary purpose of these collagenases is to dissolve the bone tissue matrix. Exessive amounts of interleukin-I are suppressed by estradiol produced in the ovaries. This is the reason estrogens are being hailed guardians of the bone mass. If, however, estrogens are substituted after the ovaries have ceased their hormonal production (menopause), the interleukin is suppresed without compensation by the original interleukin from the ovaries. Consequently, the immune system will slowly but surely get weakened.

. . . of the gender-specific difference in bone mass loss:

Based on the known and undisputed facts that

1. bone remodeling takes place on the surfaces of the bone,
2. the spongiosa contains by far the largest portion of the bone surface,
3. the blood cell producing bone marrow lies within the spongiosa, and
4. women run an increased risk of developing osteoporosis once their menstruation has ceased and the demand for increased blood production has thus ended,

1. at least one of the gender-specific differences in bone metabolism is to be found in the higher percentage of spongiosa in female bones and 
2. the increased risk of women for developing osteoporosis must be attributed to the impoverished nutrition of the spongiosa after the menopause (due to the decreased demand for production of new blood cells). 

Traditional models of bone remodeling were based on the notion of 4 steps (1. activation of osteoclast precursors; 2. resorption; 3. reversal; 4. rebuilding) and on so-called BMU’s, that is teams, in which osteoclasts and osteoblasts work together at a fixed ratio. These two models, however, could only coexist in the idealistic world of perfect harmony. As soon as we look for an explanation for a disbalance between resorption and apposition (i.e. a loss of bone mass ð osteoporosis) these models crash. Even inventing the new term «de-coupling» (of osteoclasts from osteoblasts) could not convincingly save the old model. How could it be any different if even different biopsy techniques can produce diametrically opposite results. 

The missing step was to separate the construction of the bone matrix tissue from its mineralisation. Traditionally, both were attributed to the osteoblasts within step 4. But only by splitting up this step and reassigning responsibility to two different entities osteoporosis can be explained and made transparent.

. . . of diagnosis and patient history:

Alienation from ones own body is the underlying cause of osteoporosis. To recognize this means no finger pointing, as it is so popular in new-age psychology and medicine. Instead, the facts discovered in taking the patient history can become a key for diagnosis as well as therapy: «How would I react if I were my own body and had to function for a boss with so little self worth?» or «Does it make sense to become strong for someone who’s going to give up on himself sooner or later anyway?»

REVOLUTION in THERAPY and PREVENTION

This approach makes exercise and specific load inducement into a sustainable means of communication, integrating and including bone cells into the body system as a whole. As individuals, each of us can be part of this communication provided we commit ourselves to an equitable partnership with our body.

Specifically, this means that, by using two known and undisputed processes (formation of callouses & remodeling) even in places where a structural loss of bone tissue has occured, such damage can first be repaired and then brought up to its best possible structural quality.