Using Eggshell Calcium for Osteoporosis and Depo Provera Patients

How and Why I'm Using Cheap Eggshell Calcium as a Depo-Provera Patient (who wants to improve and maintain healthy teeth and bones)

About every 3 months when it comes time for me to receive Depo-Provera injections, I become filled with concerns over my dental health. I've been on this medication for 9 years -- since I was 15 years old. Obviously, that possibly puts me at risk for bone loss and osteoporosis, which in turn affects dental health, so I've actively worked towards taking preventative measures over the years.

If you folks have been reading Ribbons and Pearls for long, you're likely aware of my struggles through severe, debilitating IBS, accompanied by endometriosis for most of my teenage life, and in the last 2-3 years, an onset of insane dental issues.

The two stomach related issues caused me even more trouble in the area of my health because 1. my weight got down to 70-something pounds. 2. I was unable to eat a single bite of anything without having severe gastrointestinal and stomach pain that would leave me in bed for days at a time. 

Being sick like that for so many years -- especially since this was occurring during all of my teenage years, the ones that are said to be the most important when it comes to building healthy bones -- left me depleted of vital nutrients, electrolytes, minerals, and deficient in virtually every single vitamin.

I couldn't eat, so I couldn't obtain the nutrients, vitamins, minerals, etc. necessary for good health, or to help fight what felt like a raging alien invading my entire abdominal area (and uterus).

"Just take a multi-vitamin every day,"

"Or drink those Ensure things! Even Pedialyte," people would suggest, on the odd occasion that I did see human life other than my amazing love and two parents. 

Others would say "Gosh, I so wish I could get sick and be skinny without having to do anything!"

Yea, let me tell you, I too wish you could do this and while you're at it, take the problem away from me please! 

You go ahead and take this life of virtual non-existent. Most of my teenage years spent going nowhere but from a bed to the bathroom. Yes, please. Do take this "easy" way to skinny-ness. By all means. Because it's totally worth it. To be so ill that you think you're going to die before you ever get to experience spending time outside the home with your spouse. Never getting to see friends. Often having to call off every event imaginable because heck, who wants to be stuck in a bathroom at someone's fun party, or during a vacation to the beach writhing in pain and having bouts of painful...

Okay!

Let me just stop myself right there.

 I forgot how bitter I could get when I thought back on the times when so many have "envied" my "luck."

I didn't intend to go there at all, so let's just move on. You get the picture -- I was pretty much deathly sick. 

  A few years after living with those problems, I, inevitably, began experiencing dental health issues, which started with a wisdom tooth that broke, then another tooth, which my dentist recommended implants for, but sadly, I ended up getting a root canal instead as the implants would've been completely unaffordable.

I spent an entire year researching, experimenting, and documenting everything I did to improve my dental health right here on Ribbons & Pearls. 

I tried various calcium supplements, herbs, multi-vitamins, expensive supplements that left me in sticker-shock. Just for a simple 1-2 month supply of friggin' calcium!

I finally burned out and simply couldn't afford all the demanding "you absolutely must take this expensive-as-heck cod liver oil, and buy expensive groceries to remineralize your teeth and never touch any conventional foods again..."

Talk about head-spinning.

And while I'm not by any means demeaning the works, suggestions, and recommendations from the many experts who have given such advice (I've seen several people who blog their experiences remineralizing teeth using those methods), as hard as I tried, I simply could not afford to take on such a diet. Or even obtain the cod liver oil, for that shamefully embarrassing matter!

I went in search for "alternatives" to these expensive options. I found out about "eggshell calcium" from other health-bloggers who know far more than I do in the world of nutrients, vitamins, etc. 

So, when my mom made potato salad for Christmas eve, the same week after learning about eggshell calcium, I quickly snatched up her remaining eggshells, dumped em' all in a blender (that was already broken in two places... Now three. Oops!), and went to town.

The blender did not do the job. 

So my perfect nephews and significant other took turns with me crushing them in a bowl using nothing but a spoon (and occasionally experimenting with rigged, materials.)

By late-night, we were so sick of crushing eggshells that none of us could stand to look at them anymore. 

I even placed them in a baggie and went to town hammering down on them to make them more tolerable... or shall I say swallow-able.

It's not that they tasted bad, or at all. It's that not having them blended into a fine powder feels a lot like swallowing tiny glass shards without anything to drink. 

I was certain at one point that the very tiny, but not finely-powdered shells were scraping gashes into my esophagus as I swallowed.

So long story slightly less long and painful: That was the last time I bothered with eggshell calcium. I simply didn't have the proper food processor to turn the suckers into a fine powder, so I gave up.

And then, I went back in for my Depo-Provera shot this week and was reminded of how long I've been on it -- 9 years. I quickly felt the panic re-occur, creeping back up into my mind telling me "you're going to break your bones! You'll have osteoporosis at a young age. F--k the hard work involved and start chowing down on those damn eggshells!"

So, here I am. A full circle I have made and I'm about to attempt this experiment one more time, and hopefully find a cheap way to powder those eggshells so that I can use this super cheap method of getting plenty of calcium everyday.

I know, I should "invest" in a "good food processor," but honestly, that won't be happening just yet. Other things on the list to-get-asap.

However, since I've diligently shared every piece of information -- from oil-pulling, which yes, I do still practice, to eggshell experiments -- regarding ways to improve various health challenges, I decided I'd have to share this too.

This is the study I came across just today, and decided that I'd waste no time getting those eggshells smashed.

To be quick about it, here's a snippet from that study that totally sold me on eggshell calcium for increasing, improving, and just maybe, arresting the bone-density loss that may have already occurred: 

"A positive effect was observed on bone density in animal models of postmenopausal osteoporosis in ovariectomized female rats. In vitro eggshell powder stimulates chondrocyte differentiation and cartilage growth. Clinical studies in postmenopausal women and women with senile osteoporosis showed that eggshell powder reduces pain and osteoresorption and increases mobility and bone density or arrests its loss. The bioavailability of calcium from this source, as tested in piglets, was similar or better than that of food grade purified calcium carbonate. Clinical and experimental studies showed that eggshell powder has positive effects on bone and cartilage and that it is suitable in the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis."

Plus, just one spoon of the powder is said to contain from 800 - 1,000 milligrams of calcium!

*Some recommend taking magnesium with the shells because it may further improve tooth restoration.

*It's also important to try your best to get Vitamins D and C, at least. They go hand-in-hand with calcium, and are required for proper absorption.

If you too are interested in making your own eggshell calcium to consume, then I recommend seeing this informative tutorial-style post on how to do just that, and more on why you may want to.

^*Source: National Institute of Rheumatic Diseases, Piestany, Slovak Republic. Rovenský J¹, Stancíková M, Masaryk P, Svík K, Istok R.