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Thread: Growing bones

  1. #1
    mysh's Avatar
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    Default Growing bones

    Last week I broke a bone in my foot. Now I want to make sure I do everything I can to help regrowing my bone. I've been trying to drink at least one cup of soy milk per day, but I know that the calcium is soy milk is not very bioavailable (less than 20%, making it less bioavailable than cow milk, which lies around 21-22%). So what else can I do? I do try to get some sun at the weekend (living in Florida, that's not difficult), but I really want to know what else I can do to help myself.

    I also got comments from two people that my bone probably broke easier due to my veganism. In principle I consider this to be a rather idiotic statement, as I consume about as much soymilk as I used to consume cow's milk prior to going vegan. On the other hand, I used to eat a lot of cheese, so does anyone think that my vegann diet could have helped weaken my bones? Like I say, I doubt it, but I do want to make sure I'm covering my bases here, and correcting any nutrition mistakes I am currently making!

    Thanks.
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  2. #2
    Kiva Dancer's Avatar
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    Default Re: Growing bones

    Quote mysh
    so does anyone think that my vegann diet could have helped weaken my bones?
    I SERIOUSLY doubt it.

    If anything, it was the dairy that you consumed in past that helped weaken your bones. Problem is, people are so dairy-blind that to them no dairy=weak bones when the exact opposite is true.

    Anyway, bones need more than just calcium to be strong. There's also iron, magnesium, B complex, potassium... bones are quite complex things and they need more than just one nutrient so it's necessary to fuel them with more than just calcium.

    On the nutritional end, make sure your diet is wide and varied with whole foods (don't forget your deep green leafies), make sure that you're not eating processed foods or drinking sodapop cause that stuff does MUCH more harm than good when it comes to your bones.

    Hope your foot heals soon.
    It's vegan, which means it's vegetarian which means there's nothing unheathy in it. -- my guy trying to explain vegan junkfood.

  3. #3
    mysh's Avatar
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    Default Re: Growing bones

    Thanks. Which veggies qualify as deep green leafies, and what do they provide?
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  4. #4
    Kim[ba]'s Avatar
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    Default Re: Growing bones

    Quote mysh
    Thanks. Which veggies qualify as deep green leafies, and what do they provide?
    "The darker the better" is what i've heard as a rule of thumb. Spinach, kale, even brocoli. I know they have folic acid, and I think phosphorus? Also, I've heard good things about apple cider vinegar and bone growth. They even have apple cider vinegar in gelcaps at some health food stores.

    It really is silly though, how people buy into the dairy propoganda, and automatically think that the vegan diet is the cause of everything bad that happens to us. Sometimes I feel like I would rather break my foot that listen to someone lecture me on protein. Then when people asked me how I broke my foot I would say I broke it off in someones ass that was lecturing me on protein.

  5. #5
    mysh's Avatar
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    Default Re: Growing bones

    Quote Kim[ba]
    Sometimes I feel like I would rather break my foot that listen to someone lecture me on protein. Then when people asked me how I broke my foot I would say I broke it off in someones ass that was lecturing me on protein.
    Hehehe.

    The only reason why I don't completely discount the theory, is that I know my calcium intake has decreased. I do know that it requires more than calcium to grow bones, but it does also require the calcium... Either way, I'll take all the above advice, and hope that my daughter stops accidentally kicking or sitting on my break... *sigh*
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  6. #6
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    Default Re: Growing bones

    If you were taking the US RDA for calcium before, and it has decreased since, I don't think you'd be getting too little calcium. The US RDA for calcium is ridiculously high. The WHO (World Health Organization) recommends only 400-500mg a day. The US rda was pushed unbelievably high by dairy industry lobbyists. So, unless you have been getting very very little for years, I doubt it is because of low calcium. How did your foot break that makes you think bone density helped play a part? Maybe it just broke like any normal healthy bone would under too much pressure.

  7. #7
    mysh's Avatar
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    Default Re: Growing bones

    I also suspect that it was just normal pressures - the doctors were entirely unsurprised when they heard how it happened. I just want to make sure that I'm doing everything I can to help myself. And I get extremely annoyed at the omnis saying "it's your vegan lifestyle", so I want to understand what I need. As such, thanks for your info, snivelingchild - that certainly alleviates those worries.
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  8. #8
    l337_v3g4n_1's Avatar
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    Default Re: Growing bones

    how did it break?

    I hope it heals as soon as possible
    People once thought my mother is a nut, but I once thought a nut was my mother! :D

  9. #9
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    Default Re: Growing bones

    My son wanted to practice riding his bike without training wheels, so, being the overprotective parent that I am, I ran alongside him to be able to catch him, which worked out just fine, especially after I had taught him to put his foot down on the ground once he stops to prevent himself from falling over. Well, one time I was running along behind him, and he stopped when I wasn't expecting it, so I had to stop quite quickly, and in doing so stepped on his foot. My wife claims that I broke my foot in my attempt to save his, but if that's the case, it was purely subconscious.

    So now I have a so-called Jones Fracture (fifth metatarsal on outside of left foot, halfway between toes and heel, is cracked almost all the way through at the "head" of the bone) - this is allegedly an injury that is common in joggers and other active types. The irony there is that I am more of a couch potato rather than an active type
    Last edited by mysh; Apr 12th, 2005 at 12:33 AM. Reason: sp
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  10. #10
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    Default Re: Growing bones

    Hi Mysh. I'm sorry to hear about your injury. I remember when you first joined the forum you said that you were in the process of going vegan. Could it be possible that in only a few months your bones lost enough calcium for them to become brittle?

  11. #11
    gertvegan's Avatar
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    Default Re: Growing bones

    Quote mysh
    I am more of a couch potato rather than an active type
    Active people tend to keep calcium in their bones, while sedentary people lose calcium according to www.strongbones.org.

    Hope it gets better soon mysh.

  12. #12
    cedartree cedarblue's Avatar
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    Default Re: Growing bones

    tried skele-gro??

    (you will need to have watched harry potter and the chamber of secrets to be in the know!)

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    Default Re: Growing bones

    Mineral water may help. It has calcium and other minerals. In my country you can get one type of it, which has more than 500mg/l of calcium.
    Being in sun is very important too.

  14. #14
    mysh's Avatar
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    Default Re: Growing bones

    John - I've actually been appian-vegetarian (only honey) since January 2004, and total vegetarian since I guess June or July 2004. My "in the process of going vegan" comment back then referred to the honey and that I still had leather shoes, belt, etc., so it was the lifestyle part that was (and to some degree still is) "in the process".

    Anyway, I don't give any credence to the "it broke cos you don't drink milk" theory, but I'm never so sure... What I mean with that is: I went through 30 years of my life as an omni, so I knew that that diet was ok for me (for sufficiently small values of "ok"), but now that I've changed to a vegan diet I have no personal experience to know that my diet is appropriate/adequate. I know perfectly well that a correct vegan diet is appropriate and adequate, but how do I know whether mine is correct enough? I know no vegans in real life; I have no vegan role models from whom I can learn through observation. So that is why I asked this (obviously) rather stupid question - I want to make sure I'm not messing this up, and I want the correct responses for stupid omni comments...

    And thanks for all the further suggestions!
    No Gods, No Masters.

  15. #15

    Default Re: Growing bones

    Quote cedarblue
    tried skele-gro??

    (you will need to have watched harry potter and the chamber of secrets to be in the know!)
    or read it! (the american version anyway, not sure about the UK one.)
    I'll never understand why they have "american" and "english" versions. why change the author's words to "american" if we can understand english? I'd rather read the UK versions, but they're hard to find here. (sorry for the hijack)
    Overgrow the government!

  16. #16
    mysh's Avatar
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    Default Re: Growing bones

    I just read this thread on cow milk, and came to the realisation that my excessive dairy consumption is significantly more likely to account for my broken foot! And for the doctors' complete lack of surprise - they must be used to weak bones after all the good work of the dairy board...
    No Gods, No Masters.

  17. #17
    Kiva Dancer's Avatar
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    Default Re: Growing bones

    *nods* pretty sad, eh?

    And in US, we're fed CONSTANTLY about how dairy is good for strong bones.

    But the thing that's supposed to "strengthen" bones are the one that weaken them the most.

    I'm not one for conspiracy theories, but it does make a person wonder, eh (especialy with all those "bone strenghtening" pill adverts we're seeing as of late)?

    eta: how's your foot doing?
    It's vegan, which means it's vegetarian which means there's nothing unheathy in it. -- my guy trying to explain vegan junkfood.

  18. #18
    mysh's Avatar
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    Default Re: Growing bones

    Quote Kiva Dancer
    eta: how's your foot doing?
    It feels fine - a bit stiff, and sometimes itches a bit where the break was. I go back for another X-Ray on Tuesday, 3rd of May. Then we'll see how bad I've been...
    No Gods, No Masters.

  19. #19
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    Default Re: Growing bones

    It's been a while, but I figured I should give a final update. I went back to the doctor at the very end of May or beginning of June for the final X-Ray. The bone had almost completely regrown, with only a little notch that hadn't filled in yet.

    I asked the nurse practitioner whether that was the standard healing rate, or maybe a little bit slow, and she said that the 3 months I took to get to that stage are actually quite fast for that kind of a break. She said that most patients tend to take more like 6 months to a year, and some never heal. (The break was at a location in the foot that experiences very little blood flow, which is why it takes so very long to heal).

    I guess my vegan diet (in which I did nothing significant to ensure extra calcium, except have a glass of soy milk per day in the first month) is in no way, shape, or form lacking in calcium or vitamin D (living in Florida helps with the latter). So the omnis with their stupid comments can stick that in their pipes and smoke it! Ha! (Was that a little too aggressive? )
    No Gods, No Masters.

  20. #20
    John's Avatar
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    Default Re: Growing bones

    I'm glad to hear that your foot is better.

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