Lara Pizzorno is the author of “Your Bones: How You Can Prevent Osteoporosis and Have Strong Bones for Life – Naturally” and a member of the American Medical Writers Association with 29 years of experience specializing in bone health.
In this 3 part video series, Lara reveals her personal story (video 1), what she learnt from being diagnosed (video 2) and her latest DEXA scan results (video 3). Watch the video below (or read the transcript provided) and see you in the comments below. 🙂
Hello, my name’s Lara Pizzorno. I’m the author of “Your Bones” and I’m here to share some information with you that I hope will help you and will encourage you to have healthier bones. In this series of videos, I’m sharing my personal story of why I became involved, why I wrote “Your Bones,” what motivates me because several people wrote in and asked that I do so. So, I hope this will be useful for you.
As I mentioned in the last video in this series, I just had my latest DEXA run last week. And I have to tell you I was nervous about it because of all that has happened to me since my last DEXA was run in 2012 and I haven’t had one done since then.
In August of 2012, my smart car was rear-ended by a person who gunned it to get through a red light as it was changing and my little car was totally destroyed. I was hit so hard that I was thrown under the car in front of me and both the front and back ends were completely crushed. Besides lots of bruising, I broke a tooth, over the next year I had several jaw infections, I lost the tooth, I had to have a dental implant.
In over the next eight months, my back began to hurt and it began to hurt more and more. What was happening, which we didn’t understand yet, was that I was developing a fluid-filled cyst between two of my lumbar vertebrae and until we figured that out, which took more than a year, the pain kept getting worse and worse because the cyst was growing and pressing on nerves coming from my spine.
Finally, when I could no longer sit, or stand, or sleep because of the pain, my doctor referred me to an orthopedic specialist who ran an MRI. In a week later, this was in February of 2014, I had back surgery to remove the cyst and I began to heal. But, I had also suffered damage to my left elbow and my abdominal wall. So, eleven months after the back surgery, just this past January, I underwent more surgery to repair my arm and my abdominal wall. And then four days after that surgery, I caught the flu and I was really sick for more than two weeks.
Ten weeks after all of this, just this past week, I had my most recent DEXA run and as I said, I was nervous about it because chronic inflammation triggers the activation of the specialized cells that remove bone; our osteoclasts. So, chronic inflammation promotes bone loss and let me tell you, I’ve had a lot of chronic inflammation these past couple of years.
As I’ve said before, I’m also at genetically very high risk for osteoporosis in great part because I have a vitamin D receptor polymorphism, that I inherited from my family that makes it very hard for me to absorb vitamin D.
Plus, I also have other, vitamin, what they’re called SNPs, single nucleotide polymorphisms. They’re genetic polymorphisms that increase my risk for bone loss. I have a parathyroid hormone polymorphism that translates to my having an overactive parathyroid. So, I’m more likely to produce too much parathyroid hormone and parathyroid hormone in excess promotes bone loss when it is chronically elevated. I have a polymorphism in my body’s production of immune cells. So, I tend to have a stronger and a longer lasting inflammatory response than most people, and thus I have a tendency to be chronically inflamed.
I knew that I was doing everything that I knew how to do to make up for this. I was eating the bone-building diet I talk about in “Your Bones.” I was getting extra weight-bearing exercise as often as I could and I was being very good about taking my Algaecal Plus and the extra vitamin D and extra vitamin K2 that I personally need because of my faulty genetics. But I didn’t know if it would be enough.
I was quite worried, but, in short, yes, my DEXA results were just wonderful.
I am now well within the completely normal range. I am not even the tiniest bit osteopenic.
And given all that’s happened to me since my prior DEXA, that’s just amazing. As you know, a T-score between 1, +1.0 and -1.0 is what is considered normal or healthy. Well, my T-score is now -0.2 which is well within the healthy range and a huge improvement despite all of the above from what it was in 2012. My Z-score is also better than healthy normal which is 0.
Mine is 0.6 and my overall age match score is better than perfect. Perfect is 100% and I’m now clocking in at 106%.
Plus, since 2012, my body fat dropped 3.4% from 26.5% to 23.1%.
If you’ve listened to some of my other videos, the ones on how calcium helps us burn more fat, excrete more fat and not feel hungry for longer, I can tell you personally, these studies are not kidding. It’s really true.
I haven’t changed my already healthy diet, I just made a real effort to consume calcium-rich foods along with AlgaeCal Plus to make sure that I’m getting at least 1200 milligrams of calcium every day.
And if you saw the videos in which I explain that Algaecal Plus is not just calcium, but contains four different kinds of plant dried calcium plus the other 12 known essential bone supporting minerals that the sea algae use to build its bony structure. Plus vitamin D3 and vitamin K2 and magnesium and vitamin C and boron and if you’ve turned in for any of the videos on other really great things that boron does for our bones, you understand that it really takes a nutrient village to build healthy bones.
A whole team of nutrients that AlgaeCal Plus supplies for us.
So, that’s my story. Today, despite my unhappy genetics, despite car accidents, and surgeries and living in Seattle where the rain festival runs from September through August, I am the proud possessor of strong, healthy bones.
And my goal in this life is to end osteoporosis. I know it can be done, both from the science and from my personal experience.
I hope you will join together with me, because I know we can do it. And if I can beat osteoporosis, truly, so can you.
Thanks for tuning in and I hope this information was helpful to you.
To go back and watch videos 1 and videos 2, you can do so here:
Video 1: Lara Shares Her Personal Story
Video 2: What Lara Learnt After Being Diagnosed with Osteopenia
Joan Porterie
August 18, 2016 , 1:20 pmThank you Lara for your very detailed and exciting video! I too have been hypothyroid for about 30 years, and a year ago dx with osteoporosis per Dexa scan. I started AlgqaCal a year ago shortly after this diagnosis and doing much research. I also started Strontium Caltrate 6 mos. ago. Just yesterday, I had a DEXA scan again, a year later, and am awaiting my results. I am optomistic that I should see an improvement since I also had started a better calcium rich diet and exercises.
Do you also take Strontium? If not, why not? The combination is suppose to work well together.
Thanks again for your inspiring story!