“Osteoporosis; is the eating away of our firm foundation. Bones are the hardest substance in the body. They support and give strength to the body. They are also the most brittle of substances that make up the body. If we see ourselves as having little or no support in the world of a physical or of a metaphysical nature our own foundation is weakened and the structure collapses in upon itself. “
http://www.compassionatedragon.com/metaphysics5.html
“EMOTIONAL BLOCK ~On both a physical and metaphysical level, bones represent support. Bone disorders are invariably linked with a fear of not being sufficiently supported or fear of not sufficiently supporting others. Bone disorders indicate that we don’t feel “solid” enough to take care of our own lives.
…MENTAL BLOCK ~ Bone disorders are a message from your body to acknowledge your own inner strength. Your body is telling you to stabilize yourself, to regain your balance by allowing yourself to experience simple pleasures without guilt. You have everything you need to create a stable life, without having to depend on others for support.” Your Body is Telling You: Love Yourself ~ Lise Bourbeau
The word Osteoporosis literally means porous bones. Bones are our inner scaffolding, a supportive solid structure created to give our bodies form as well as protect our internal organs and works as a frame for our muscles and skin. It is through our bones we strive towards independence and find our place in the world. But in a world that is in a continual state of flux and change, women and men are physically crumpling to the increased pressures and stress that surround them. Many who have been unable to regenerate their energy against the bitterest winds and storms are now being diagnosed with Osteoporosis.
Lise Bourbeau, author of the excellent book, Your Body is Telling You: Love Yourself, also claims that bone disorders that end with “itis” (inflammatory disease) also indicates repressed anger. Anger is a form of energy; the more it builds up, the more necessary it is to release it. Energy can’t be destroyed, so if we don’t release our anger and let it build, it can have damaging effects on the physical body. Repressed anger can cause hypertension, headaches, PMS, heart problems, ulcers and it makes osteoporosis worse. Holding on to anger causes you to “tense up”, putting extra pressure on your joints and muscles. Long-term anger exhausts your life force and energy – it drains energy from the ‘foundation’ of your body.. your bones, muscles, blood vessels, immune system and internal organs..it also destroys your self-esteem and self-worth.
The need to control also creates an aura of stress and tension around ourselves…it drains our energy. Control comes from the need to dominate and perfectionism..it can also come from not trusting others. Control keeps us limited and disconnects us from our creativity, spontaneity, imagination and fun. Control can easily lead to aggression or anger…it can constrict and restrict our energies leading to oppression and depression.
Stress also causes our body to become rigid, tight and inflexible. This in turn causes the muscles, ligaments and tendons to tighten and over time shorten, creating an uneven pull on the skeletal bones of the body. Eventually the tension can build up to a point where it causes pain, inflammation and bone malformation. As energy levels drop from the buildup of toxins, this puts a ‘crimp’ in our circulation of energy, our energy backs up, and the already maxed out immune system weakens and turns on itself. Arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis are autoimmune conditions as well as Diabetes, Multiple Sclerosis, Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and the Epstein-Barr Virus.
Releasing anger takes time and patience. For some people it can take longer but if you work at releasing anger (hitting a pillow, yelling in your car, walking, exercising, etc.) it will reprogram your nervous system and will help to make you less ‘reactive’ to emotional triggers.
From http://www.alive.com/420a2a2.php?subject_bread_cramb=227
“Your immune system is the most complex and critical component of your body’s inherent defence mechanism: a vast network of specialized cells and organs including your liver, lymphatic system, thymus, spleen and bone marrow. Together they share the responsibility of maintaining your resistance to disease.
Immunity is partly inherited and partly shaped by lifestyle. Your ability to ward off disease is determined by the resilience of your natural defences.”
Most of our immune cells originate in the bone marrow, in fact there is a whole cast of characters that make up the immune system and its roots can be traced to the ‘stem cells’ in our bone marrow. When balanced, the immune system cells are able to distinguish what is the “enemy” and what is the “self”.
If you’re really interested in learning all you can about the immune system this site “The Anatomy of the Immune System” is fantastic! If you click “elsewhere” on 1. Bone Marrow, you’ll discover and learn more about the various characters of our stem cells.
Look at it here http://www.microbiologybytes.com/iandi/2b.html
One of the stem cells, the macrophage is the easiest to identify under the microscope. It looks like a dark, horseshoe shaped blob and is rather quite large compared to the other cells of the immune system. If you remember the old Pac Man game then you’ll have a good idea what the macrophage does.
“Monocytes circulate in the peripheral blood prior to emigration into the tissues. Within certain organs they have special names, e.g. in liver they are known as Kupfer cells, in brain as microglia, in kidney as mesangial cells, and in bone as osteoclasts. Elsewhere they are referred to as tissue macrophages”
The macrophage also accumulates in tissues that are injured and inflamed, such as arthritic joints. There its venemous tentacles seek out, surround and destroy its prey. It dines on the bacteria or a clump of viruses that were tied together by your antibodies. Sounds like a horror story involving poisonous spiders, doesn’t it?
As mentioned in the above quote, the macrophage exist in bone as osteroclasts. These are microscopic cells specially designed to nibble, dissolve and breakdown bone. They are similar to the demolition crew in the construction industry. How and why an area is targeted for ‘remodeling’ is still not yet understood…although they are called in when a bone is fractured or broken. What we do know is that the osteoclasts spend a couple of weeks resorbing the bone and when done, mononuclear cells, the cleanup crew pull up and prepare the surface for new bone formation. Then, the osteoblasts take over and start rebuilding. So healthy bones are constantly remodeling themselves. But what happens in the case of osteoporosis or osteopenia? What causes the osteoclasts to continue demolishing?
“In osteoporosis, the net rate of bone resorption exceeds the rate of bone formation, resulting in a decrease in bone mass without a defect in bone mineralization. In women, osteoclast activity is increased because of decreased estrogen after the menopause. (Men with prematurely decreased testosterone may also have increased osteoclast activity.) These changes result in further net loss of bone. The amount of bone available for mechanical support of the skeleton eventually falls below the fracture threshold and one may suffer a fracture with little or no trauma.” From http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=11794
So somehow the osteoclasts become hyperactive and perforate and penetrate too deeply into the bone. These osteoclasts act like hungry termites, gobbling away at the framework of your house, weakning the foundation of your physical being. There are more osteoclasts then osteoblasts and the fewer osteoblasts cannot keep up the demand of rebuilding and recalking the holes in your bone. Your bones become less supportive and more fragile.
Our bones are constantly losing and replacing cells….they are ‘living tissue’ that grow as the body grows. Bones, give our bodies form, protect our internal organs and work as a frame for our muscles and skin. It is our bones that enable our muscles to move, giving motion and life to our physical being.
How do we prevent and/or reverse the cause of bone loss? What makes our bones stay strong and healthy? Is calcium the answer? We’ll be looking at these questions and more in the next article(s) of this blog. Osteoporosis afflicts both men and women. In fact studies indicate that doctors/scientists have not paid enough attention to osteoporosis in men. Perhaps the reason women are catalogued more, is because, they are known to live longer than men.
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