Dr. Gundry Reveals The Truth About Osteoporosis / Osteopenia Symptoms

Today we're going to talk about the symptoms of osteopenia and osteoporosis and what you should do about it. First of all, let's be clear. Osteopenia and osteoporosis are all the same thing. I'll give you an example. When I see a patient with insulin resistance and elevated insulin levels and a moderately elevated hemoglobin A1c, I could diagnose them correctly as pre-diabetic. But I always jokingly say, calling you a pre-diabetic is like telling a woman she's a little bit pregnant. And it always elicits a joke and laugh because there's no such thing as being a little bit pregnant. And quite frankly, there's no such thing as a difference between osteopenia and osteoporosis. The underlying cause is exactly the same thing. Now before we start, make sure you like, share, and subscribe to this channel because this information is useful not only to you but to your loved ones. And what I'm going to tell you about what I do is what I do in my practice. And it's based on seeing patients for the last 25 years in my practice. And you should know I continue to see patients six days a week. So this is based on my opinion. If my opinions are useful to you, please ask your healthcare provider what they think about what I'm recommending. Now sadly, both osteopenia and osteoporosis are often asymptomatic until a fracture occurs. So when a fracture occurs, whether it's in a hip, whether it's in a vertebral body, whether it's sudden back pain, slow loss of height, a stooped posture, or what's called a Dowinger's hump, that kind of curvature, these occur more easily than expected. So these are symptoms that can correlate with both osteopenia and osteoporosis. Now fractures are rather obvious, but these are often fractures that occur after a minor event. They often can be unusual in location or severity. We'll see somebody who just kind of trips and, you know, kinks their back. And lo and behold, they go to the emergency room and they find that they've crushed one side of their vertebra. These are the little parts of the spine that hold you erect. Other times you will be chewing on something and all of a sudden feel a sudden pain in your jaw. And you say, oh my gosh, I cracked a tooth. And in fact, you cracked your jaw. Now back pain can be common in osteoarthritis. It can be common in rheumatoid arthritis. It can be common in lupus arthritis. But persistent and chronic back pain should be investigated looking for a vertebral compression fracture. Now I mentioned loss of height. We all tend to get shorter over time. Gravity eventually wins. But these gradual reductions in height often come from these asymptomatic compression fracture. Now general bone discomfort or tenderness can be a symptom of osteopenia, although this is far less common than other signs of osteopenia and osteoporosis. Now Google MD lists a bunch of uncommon osteopenia and osteoporosis symptoms. Chronic fatigue. I'm sorry, I have never seen chronic fatigue as a symptom of osteoporosis. Chronic fatigue is actually caused by the same thing that causes osteoporosis, but they really shouldn't be equated. Now balance problems. Now issues with balance really aren't directly related to osteopenia or osteoporosis, but it could be a combination of the weakened bones affecting overall stability. Or even more important, a compressed disc and a compressed vertebral body can actually be causing spinal stenosis, which is the cause of the balance problem. But it's not directly part of the symptoms of osteoporosis. Now sudden changes in posture, like one day you stand up straight and the next day you're crooked, that's once again a possible compression fracture that you did not feel. So you just didn't kink your back, you didn't have a muscle spasm. This needs an x-ray to look whether you have that or not. Now Google MD says unusual swelling in joints. I have absolutely never seen this in 25 years as a symptom of osteopenia or osteoporosis. Could it happen? Potentially. Muscle weakness. I have never seen this in 25 years as a symptom of osteopenia. On the other hand, since bone density is dependent upon muscle pulling actively on bone, if you're not exercising, if you're not using your muscles, then it's not the osteoporosis causing the muscle weakness, it's the muscles not being used that are associated with causing osteoporosis. There's a difference. Now, how do you know or why were you told you had osteopenia or osteoporosis? Quite frankly, in the modern age after DEXA scans were invented, bone density scans, this actually created an entire new industry of we now have a machine that can look at bone density. We didn't have a machine that looked at bone density before. Gee, this is a cool machine. What can we do with this machine? Well, isn't it interesting that about the same time that these DEXA scans were developed, an entire class of pharmaceutical drugs that were developed that could make bone grow, that could stimulate osteoblasts and prevent osteoclasts. For a minute of being nerd, there's essentially two bone cells that are constantly at work opposing each other. There are osteoblasts that actually make bone and simultaneously there are osteoclasts. Think of them as Pac-Man. They'll go around and literally eat bone. Now, there is a balance between those guys making bone and the guys eating bone. And your bone is constantly being remodeled. So, they're always in action. When these class of drugs were developed, you could tell the osteoclast, the Pac-Man, to not work. And miraculously, your osteoblasts would continuously build bone. Problem solved. So, you now have a machine that can diagnose your bone density. You now have a class of drugs that can improve bone density. Huh. There's now an entire industry devoted to utilizing those machines and utilizing those drugs. It's a match made in heaven. But hold on for a minute. You probably know that your bone density is compared to the bone density of a 30-year-old woman as the standard. So, guess what? Most of you watching are not a 30-year-old woman. We actually don't have a standard for what an 80-year-old woman's bones are supposed to be. For that matter, a 60-year-old or a 50-year-old woman. We're always comparing you to the gold standard of a 30-year-old. As we describe it, we set up a paper tiger to knock it down. And it's no wonder that so many people have been told, based on this modern technology, that they have osteopenia or osteoporosis. Now, so what? These drugs, first of all, carry a huge number of warnings, side effects. Make no mistake about it. They make bone. But what's becoming increasingly clear is that this delicate balance between bone formation and bone destruction is there for a really good purpose. It's actually the density of bone has nothing to do with the strength of the bone. And so, these new drugs make brittle bones. And if you notice on the warning label or on the commercial, that there is a risk of sudden fracture. In fact, I have two patients who, while standing doing nothing, spontaneously fractured their hip. I have a number of patients who spontaneously fractured their jaw while chewing on these drugs. All of the dental implant surgeons in my two practices in Santa Barbara and Palm Springs will not do a dental implant on a woman on these bone-building drugs for at least six months after she's off of the drugs. Now, wait a minute. That makes no sense. You're making stronger bones. Wouldn't you want to be on these drugs so the dental implant surgeon can put that implant in? The problem is, that bone is actually weaker and they want these drugs out of your system before they put the dental implant in. Isn't that curious? So, the evidence is that lipopolysaccharides from leaky gut are the cause of osteoporosis. And I won't say any more about that today, except I'll give you a classic example of a woman marathon runner in her mid-40s who had osteoporosis. Can you imagine a woman marathon runner with osteoporosis? And she used weighted backpacks. Lo and behold, that woman is now in her mid-70s. She doesn't have osteoporosis anymore and she doesn't run marathons anymore. Now, you're probably saying, oh, it was the marathons that caused her osteoporosis and she doesn't run anymore, so now she doesn't have it. Nope. It was her marathon runner diet that caused her osteoporosis. She was a carboholic. Her diet consisted of popcorn and potato chips and corn chips and pasta. When we took away her marathon runner's diet and put her on the plant paradox diet, lo and behold, her leaky gut sealed and miraculously, her osteoporosis went away. How do I know that? I've talked about this before. That was my wife, Penny. If I see it in my own family, I've seen it over and over again in my own patients. And the reversal of osteopenia and osteoporosis is all about what you eat, not about taking these drugs.