Inflammation.

I have trouble with inflammation. No doubt because of my lousy diet. (Seriously, this isn’t even a question. I know it’s because of my lousy diet. I should try just eating properly instead of throwing every supplement under the sun at it. But that’s probably not going to happen, so…)

A reader named Teresa sent me a link to a product called BonOlive. [NOTE: I can't find anywhere to actually buy BonOlive, just their website and a page where they collect all your information. But it doesn't seem to be available in stores.] The copy on the website is pretty breathless about all the wondrous things BonOlive is going to do for your bones. So naturally I was skeptical. The claim: olives contain a phytonutrient called oleuropein that reduces inflammation and curbs osteoclastic activity, thereby improving bone density (because the osteoblasts can finally keep up / surpass the osteoclasts.)

I Googled “oleuropein and bone” and found numerous studies (and articles reporting on studies) on oleuropein and its effect on ovariectomized  rats and then in a petrie dish setting on human bone marrow. And… yeah… BonOlive’s claims appear to be legit. Who knew? Hurray.

My next thought was:  well, instead of buying a supplement, why don’t I just eat a bunch of black olives (black olives have more oleuropein than green olives) and/or eat more olive oil? Here’s the problem with that. The rats were fed 50g of olive oil or 0.15mg of oleuropein per kg of body weight. 50g = 4 tablespoons. In order to get the human equivalent of what the rats were eating, I’d have to consume 40 tablespoons of olive oil a day. Strong bones, but clogged arteries. (40 Tablespoons? Wouldn’t that be like drinking a bottle of olive oil a day?)

Supplement it is.

As I said, I don’t know how much BonOlive costs. But when I see a fancy-schmancy website like that with breathless promises, I start to see dollar signs. If I were to guess, I’d say it’s going to be more than $50.00 a bottle.  (I’m guessing. BonOlive people, if I’m wrong, let me know and I’ll correct the figure.) I can’t afford that much for one supplement. Karan sent me this link to a Swanson supplement which contains BonOlive™  It is only $11.99. Cheaper than my LEF Curcumin. (More on that later.)

A trip to vitacost revealed only one supplement if I searched for the term oleuropein, and it was in the $40.00 range. But search for olive leaf and you get tons of supplements, some for as little as $4.69. Here’s the tricky thing:  read the label. It will often say something like “Olive leaf extract, 250 mg” and then parenthetically underneath that “20% oleuropein.”  The $4.69 bottle doesn’t say what percentage of oleuropein it contains, and at only 1.41 grams of olive leaf, it’s not going to do a darn thing for you.

In other words, you’d only be getting 50 mg of oleuropein. Is that enough to be effective?

Betsy!? Our resident math expert? If a rat is eating .15 mg of oleuropein per kilogram of body weight, the equivalent necessary for a 100 pound human being would be…?  A kilogram is roughly half a pound (1 lb = 0.453592 kilograms). So body weight is 45.3592 kilograms.  45.3592 x 0.15 mg = 6.75 mg. So 50 mg of oleuropein would be more than enough, wouldn’t it?

Did I do that right? (ARGH! My brain’s inability to process numbers is truly embarrassing.)

Then there are human studies (on bone marrow) where they talk about doses of 10(-6)M to 10(-4)M being effective. What’s a 10(-6)M?

The Google says “M” is a metric unit denoting a factor of million (10⁶ or 1000000). I don’t know what that means in terms of human dosage. I’m not certain how much it matters.

To recap: it appears that the compounds found in olive oil do in fact reduce inflammation, thereby reducing osteoclastic activity and improving bone density. It appears a supplemental dosage of 250 mg of olive leaf (which contains between 20 and 30 percent oleuropein, 40% in the case of the Swanson vitamin listed above) would be sufficient to effectuate these changes. I was taking curcumin (a/k/a turmeric) for inflammation, but the drawback of that is that if you don’t wash your hands super-well, you end up leaving orange stains all over the place. So I may trade curcumin for the olive leaf. Plus the Swanson with BonOlive is half the price of my Curcumin. Done.

Thank you, Teresa!

Drug by implanted microchip?

Not sure how I feel about this. Emmie sent me a link to an article in Medical News Today, but the New York  Times also has something on it. They’ve developed this implantable microchip and use it to deliver doses of Forteo over a 9 month period (as opposed to going to the doctor for injections.) Not sure what the advantages are other than that it saves you having to inject yourself with a needle daily, so patients are more likely to be compliant with medication (since they won’t have any choice in the matter.) A computer tells the chip when to release the dose of medication.

“The chip can be programmed to release the drugs on a schedule or activated by an operator using a computer when the patient is present. It uses the same frequency that all medical electronics use for communication.

Teriparatide [Forteo] is a particularly difficult drug to administer — daily injections are required — and this makes patient compliance an issue. The implanted chip may help eliminate the problem.”

They say they need two more years to study the device before it will be available for sale. The cost per year for your computer-chip generated medication? $10,000 to $12,000. Will it be covered by insurance? I don’t know.

Westminster Dog Show Rebuffs Shelter Dogs.

You guys know I’m an animal fanatic, right? So this got my dander up. Pedigree, who has those wonderful, heartbreaking, grab your tissues commercials that encourage people to adopt shelter animals, has been replaced as a corporate sponsor for the Westminster Dog Show because Westminster feels Pedigree’s message to adopt animals (that aren’t purebred) is not an image Westminster wants to project.  So they replaced Pedigree with Purina.

A friend of mine’s response to that was very apropos:

 It’s as if the Metropolitan Museum of Art refused the sponsorship of Crayola crayons because they advocated in “inferior” artwork.

If this makes you as angry as it does me, feel free to contact David Frei, the Director of Communications for Westminster, and let him know how you feel:  (212) 213-3212 or email him at david@westminsterkennelclub.org. The important thing isn’t to get Westminster to bring back Pedigree as a sponsor.  The important thing is to get Westminster to realize the power of public attitude toward shelter dogs.

Exciting (possible) Alzheimer’s treatment in development.

Case Western University has developed a new Alzheimer’s drug that clears amyloid plaque from the brains of mice. Good news: it works. Bad news: it hasn’t been tested on human’s yet. At least not for Alzheimer’s. You see, it’s an already-in-use cancer drug:  Bexarotene. (Is that the one that causes bone loss?) From an article in Scientific American:

Landreth, the lead researcher on the study, did not hype the results. He acknowledged that bexarotene rapidly cleared the toxic amyloid peptides and seemed to improve cognition in mice. But he also emphasized  that rodents differ from humans—and that examining whether the drug can eliminate amyloid in a small human trial must be demonstrated now before moving forward to a larger test to ascertain whether cognition improves as well. In our story last Thursday, Landreth cautioned:

“Don’t try this at home because we don’t know what dose to give, we don’t know how frequently to give it, and there are a few nuances to its administration. So one shouldn’t be prescribing it off-label.”

It is also unclear whether a drug like bexarotene, even if it were a success for patients in the early stages of the disease, would work later as the pathology progresses and nerve cells start to perish.

They think the drug trials will proceed fairly quickly because the drug has already been in use for 13 years for cancer treatment. It’s exciting. CNN is a little more breathless with anticipation about it (in that hype-y news way) than Scientific American.

Well, hit me over the head and call me shorty.

I was walking today (and it was entirely too blustery and windy), feeling very blah. I’ve been feeling very blah a lot lately. And it suddenly struck me that I’m a little depressed. I’m not sure why. I shouldn’t be. Nothing is really wrong. I’m normally a little depressed around the holidays – I really hate the holidays. But it usually passes after New Years. I can’t quite figure what’s up. Is it just the pending 5-0? That seems utterly ridiculous. My job has been pretty stressful, but that’s nothing new.

I just feel kind of empty. Like I don’t know what’s next and I don’t have the energy to figure it out.

On my walk, I did have a passing thought that these doldrums are probably nothing that a day or two of gardening wouldn’t cure. But that’s two months off still. I guess I just feel cut off from things. From people. Maybe from myself?

I think I need to find my next big passion. Argh. Friends had to put their dog to sleep Wednesday. It was one of my dog’s friends. Could that be it? Maybe I just need a vacation?

We just got the DVDs for Season 2 of Downton Abbey. Maybe that will cheer me up! But right now? Ugh. Blue on blue.

Anticipation.

Ruby waiting for more cinnamon ducks to fly out of the oven.

My dog cracks me up. Hubby and I made these cinnamon duck cookies. (The cookies are shaped like ducks, no ducks are harmed during the baking or making of them. They’re essentially a butter cookie with a sprinkling of cinnamon on top.) While taking the first batch off the cookie sheet, one cookie fell on the floor. I waited for the cookie to cool and then gave it to the dog.

The dog then parked herself in front of the oven waiting for more delicious, cinnamon goodness to come out.

Now that I think about it, why am I making fun of her for that? It’s pretty much what my husband and I did as well.

Breast cancer drug found to cause significant bone loss.

Its name is Exemestane (also known as Aromasin). The drug is already widely used to prevent recurrence of breast cancer. But they’ve been looking into using it as a preventative. (I’m guessing that if there’s a family history of breast cancer, perhaps they were thinking of prescribing this drug to woman at high risk for developing breast cancer in hopes of keeping them from getting breast cancer. The article says it reduces the risk of getting breast cancer by 65 percent.)

Tamoxifen and raloxifene are already approved for breast cancer prevention, but blood clots are one of the big side effects from those two drugs.

Dr. Angela M. Cheung, the lead investigator of the new study, said its findings should not discourage women at high risk of getting breast cancer from considering the drug. From the article in The New York Times:

“Sometimes the options are, ‘Should I take my breasts out, or should I take a medication such as this?’ ” said Dr. Cheung, who is director of the osteoporosis program at University Health Network in Toronto.

The new study is actually a more detailed evaluation of bone quality in 351 of the 4,560 postmenopausal women participating in the study published in June. The women were evaluated by a relatively new technique called high-resolution peripheral quantitative CT. After about two years, the researchers found, those who were taking exemestane had an average 6.1 percent decline in the bone mineral density in the wrist, compared with 1.8 percent in decline for women getting a placebo.“

I’ve talked on here before about high-resolution peripheral quantitative CT (or QCT) before. It is a much more accurate way to measure bone density (especially for people with smaller bones) because it’s a three-dimensional measurement. So that 6.1 percent decline is… real. But beyond declining bone quantity, it seems that the quality also suffers:

“The exemestane users also had more evidence of a weakening of bone structure. That suggested that conventional bone density tests may not be able to detect all the damage caused by the drug, the researchers said.”

What a choice! Door #1 has cancer, door #2 has blood clots, door #3 has weak bones. I suppose when doing the math, one thing to consider might be how are you bones before the drugs and how long are you expected to be on them? Is it for life? Or five years? The drug works by inhibiting aromatase which in turn lowers estrogen levels (mystery solved on why it reduces bone density.) How much is 6.1 percent loss? I think it depends on the g/cm2 measurements, but to give you a rough idea, my gain of 0.20 points in my hips translated to a 3.7% gain. My gain of .20 points in my overall-spine translated to a 7% gain. So it could be a little  (o.20 points) or it could be a lot-ish (.40 points.)  If you only had to be on the drug a couple of years, for an overall bone density loss of .40 points on your DEXA, that doesn’t seem like that much of a tradeoff. But long term? I don’t know.

One last advantage of the Hyperwear.

… and then I’ll stop, I promise. Perhaps you all remember the Sinaki study and that simple spinal extension exercise that was found to reduce fracture rates by 300%? Because the Hyperwear weights actually extend to the chest and upper back, and because the weights are so thin, you can wear it while doing your “Sinaki move,” meaning you can use your weight vest in a way that is beneficial to your spine. In my V-Max vest, the bulk of the weights make it impossible for me to lay on my stomach, and the lower position of the weights on the back mean that by the time I’ve lifted my chest off the floor, I’m not “lifting” any of the weights at all. They’re positioned too low. If I can wrestle my hubby into making another video, I’ll try to show you what I mean.

In the meantime, more photos. With the Sinaki move, you can position your arms in any number of ways to increase the difficulty.

In the move, you start on your stomach, a towel folded under your hips (to keep them from digging into the floor.)

Be sure to think of lengthening the spine before you lift. Helps avoid "crunching" in the lower back.

Then press your hips into the floor, contract the abdominal muscles and lengthening the spine, lift the chest, being careful to keep the neck/head in line with the spine. The temptation is to crane the neck back in an attempt to lift the torso higher. One way to avoid craning the neck is to stack the palms underneath your forehead and press your forehead into the back of your hands. The closer your hands/arms are to your body, the easier it is to lift the chest. So this is probably the easiest version of this move.

The next step up would be to hold your arms (bent at the elbows) to your side. You’ll look like a giant “W”. Squeeze the shoulder blades together as you lift.

My chin may be tucked in too much...

The next level of difficulty would be extending the arms overhead. (You can also do one arm at a time, alternating the arm that’s extended each time you lift the chest.)

I'm extending both arms, but you can do one at a time.

This is one area where Hyperwear has a definite mechanical advantage. Oh — and by the way — someone on Inspire said something about the weights being on the breast, and how being hit in the breast causes breast cancer. WRONG!

If you are one of those people who didn’t get the memo that a hit or trauma to the breast does not cause breast cancer, please let me now disabuse you of that notion. It is an urban myth, a wives tale, a total fallacy. The only thing that is true about a “hit to the breast” is that it is helluhpainful.

Hyperwear worn beneath clothing.

Finally, pictures of the Hyperwear beneath clothing. NOTE: I, for one, do not recommend attempting to wear your fully-loaded weight vest to work for the duration of an 8-hour workday if you have osteoporosis. The weight vest is a fitness tool. As with all fitness tools, I think they need to be used mindfully. In other words, you need to be aware at all times that you have that weight vest on and you need to move accordingly. If you slap it on and head to work, suppose the copier runs out of paper. And your boss wants copies now, now, NOW! You’re going to bend over to fill the lowest drawer, and you’re going to forget you have on the vest and SNAP there goes your spine or here comes a herniated disc. I believe your workout should be your workout. I’m not crazy about mixing your workout into work. Unless you’re talking about taking the stairs instead of the elevator or parking your car very far away from the door, or walking to work instead of driving your car. I’m all for that. But doing things like wearing ankle weights or a weight vest while you’re cleaning the house or at your office. I think that’s a recipe for disaster. Wearing a weight vest on your lunch hour walk? That’s okay. Desirable even. Full-time weight vest? I don’t know… although… having said all that… wearing a weight vest to work is something I would totally do if I worked at an office. But you gotta remember I am (and always have been) a very physically active person. I lift weights three days a week, do yoga seven days a week, still haul firewood, shovel my drive.  I’m one big, osteoporosis “DON’T.”

I had my husband take a bunch of shots of the weight vest under different kinds of clothes. The biggest issue of going stealth is that most ladies’ clothing has a somewhat lower neckline. You’re going to have to get all French-i-fied and learn how to get creative with scarves.

If anyone has trouble viewing the slideshow and the comments under the photos, let me know and I can bust it out into individual photos.

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Below is a video of the vest in motion. I borrowed a friends’ Hyperwear vest so you could see the size of the logo, since it bugs Spunky so much. It doesn’t really bother me. Almost all exercise gear comes with a logo. I’m kinda used to it. There are all kinds of self-snarking body comments I could make… like pay no attention to my yoga form (I was just trying to show you how the vest moves in the side-to-side plane without really focusing on form – also, you probably shouldn’t do yoga in a weight vest if you have osteo) One thing I forgot to mention about the V-Max vest:  every piece of trash and pet fur in my car trunk gets stuck to that velcro. So it always looks pretty filthy.

weight vest

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