A couple of good resources for you:

The Heart Scan Blog – Dr. Davis has great – thought-provoking information on his blog regularly: http://heartscanblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/case-against-vitamin-d2.html

Vitamin D Council – also great information! See http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/

I rely heavily on http://www.pubmed.com to read current clinical data that is coming out.

Knowing how to balance your supplementation requires a good, thorough blood work-up – making sure that your labs include calcium, magnesium, PTH, Vitamin D 25 Hydroxy, all of your K levels. Having a good, knowledgeable endocrinologist on your team is invaluable, as well.

I’m assuming your doc read the literature that your serum calcium and PTH need to be in good ranges before beginning the biophosphonates!

Many blessings,

dina

Best to you!
-Dawn

Since the focus of my post was on foods that help osteoporosis, I intentionally did not get into supplements much, but excellent food sources of Vitamin K2 include natto, eggs, and chicken, with natto (fermented soybeans) being the best source.

Congratulations on healing yourself of osteoporosis; that is truly wonderful and inspiring!

Important clarification:

“If you take blood thinners, it is especially important to eat foods rich in Vitamin K, as these drugs deplete it from your body.”

Actually, if you are on coumadin or warfarin for managing health conditions one of the strongest warnings you will hear from your health care practitioner is to AVOID foods high in Vitamin K. It can cause potentially fatal side effects due to the clotting factors involved. These drugs are used to manage serious – life threatening – conditions. I work in health care – but have also had five instances of blood clots in my lifetime. It’s very important to use GREAT caution when on blood thinners!

Also – if you haven’t yet – a foray into investigating Vitamin K2 may be in order. It’s a wonderful find and very, very helpful to those of us who are fighting our way back from osteoporosis and avoiding biophosphonates along the way.

I also think it’s really important to point out that the TYPE of calcium you consume (citrate is clearly preferential if you have bone demineralization going on), how it’s balanced in ratio to magnesium, and Vitamin D3 – have everything to do with what kind of success one will have with fighting osteoporosis.

I’m passionate on this subject – largely due to the fact that in my mid-30′s I was dignosed with osteoporosis. It is vitally important to balance the dietary needs and requirements as well as appropriate vitamin and mineral supplementation if one is going to have success in the war. I’m happy to report that I have gone from being soundly in osteoporosis to having improved to osteopenia – and am trending toward healthier bone health with each round of labs.

Blessings,

dina

Cheers,
~KristenM
(AKA FoodRenegade)