Bone density recovery

I was just watching this documentary called Man vs. Wild—or maybe it was one of those science ones—where they mentioned that our bones basically replace themselves every seven years or so. It got me thinking... if your current bone health is totally trashed because of a bad diet—you know, all that sugar and processed stuff—does that mean if you actually stop eating all that junk, your bones would eventually become "normal" again once the cycle completes? Just curious how that works out...

Harold Adams7 said:I was watching this Man vs. Wild documentary where they mentioned that our bones essentially regenerate every seven years. It got me wondering—if our bone health hasn't been compromised by a bad diet—like too much sugar—does that mean if we just stop eating all that junk, our bones would eventually return to a "normal" state after enough time passes?

Basically, even before that... if you're talking about osteoporosis, you really have to balance your calcium intake with magnesium. Taking calcium alone can actually do more harm than good...

Douglas Fowler said:Basically, even before all that... if we're talking about osteoporosis, you really have to balance your calcium intake with magnesium. Just slamming calcium without the magnesium—well, you might actually be doing more harm than good at that point.

Oh, I wasn't actually thinking about osteoporosis specifically! It's just that I have a massive sweet tooth—like, a serious addiction—so I started getting a little worried about my bone health... you know how it is. And regarding what you mentioned about the calcium and magnesium balance, were you talking about those fizzy effervescent tablets or something else entirely? I mean, can't bones just... rebuild themselves naturally without needing all those supplements?...

Harold Adams7 said:I wasn't actually thinking about osteoporosis. It's just that I eat way too much sugar—so I got a bit worried about my bone density. Regarding what you said about calcium and magnesium... were you talking about those effervescent tablets or something else? Can't bones just regenerate on their own without all those supplements?

Well, bones are made of calcium. If you aren't getting enough calcium and magnesium—which is necessary to actually get that calcium into your bones and teeth—it’s a bit like asking if you can build a house without bricks, wood, or whatever else... you need the raw materials. Even if you stopped eating entirely, you'd die. By skipping calcium and magnesium, you're essentially starving your bones. Of course, you still need other nutrients too.

If you want to go the fizzy tablet route, go for it. Personally, I don't think they're the best option... Magnesium chloride is usually the way to go.

Thanks for getting back to me! And yeah, you're totally right—you definitely need to be getting enough calcium in your diet. I actually spent a little bit of time falling down a Google rabbit hole earlier and stumbled upon this handy little chart http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/librar.../Table-7-3.gif... thought it might be useful for everyone here!