What a year it’s been! Congratulations, we have survived it and hopefully are a bit stronger and wiser for the experience. Clearly what happened in 2020 is nothing anyone could have even remotely imagined, much less predicted, a year ago. Nonetheless, I bravely set forth my new predictions for 2021 fueled by a faith in the nature of life to progress and my tireless desire that each of us enjoy Better Bones and a Better Body, naturally.
1. The winds of change (or is it the gales of change) are in motion. In 2021 an explosion of new science and technology will bring about rapid transformation in many areas, including how we approach bone health.
2. Osteoporosis will be seen as a whole-body issue and bone health will be clearly linked to the health of the entire body. It will finally be recognized that you cannot build bone health without rebalancing and strengthening the entire body.
3. On a more specific level, the obvious bone-muscle link will be declared an official “truth” by the medical authorities. In other words, it will be taught that to build bone one must build muscle. And the assessment of bone strength and fracture risk will be based on muscle strength more than on bone mineral density testing.
4. The disease-inducing “Western diet” will be replaced worldwide by the health-promoting Alkaline Diet as lessons from COVID become clear. Immune-enhancement thru diet, lifestyle, and nutrient supplementation will become a household norm.
5. By the end of 2021 the COVID crisis will have subsided, but things will never return to old “normal.” Many will continue working from home. On-line learning and conferences will not go away, but expand. Shopping on line, door pick-up, and a desire to be outdoors will only accelerate.
6. The link between pharmacological drugs and susceptibility to viral infection and degenerative disease will be firmly established. Today’s “pill for every ill” mentality will fade as individuals take charge of their own health — identifying and correcting the root causes of their health concerns. Nutrition, lifestyle, and natural medicine will become the critical self-healing modalities.
7. Energy medicine, acupuncture, homeopathy, Reiki, healing touch, light and sound therapy, and shamanic healing all will gain wider recognition. The teaching from quantum physics that “everything is energy” will be widely understood.
8. The supreme intelligence of the body will be further decoded and scientists will report that unmet antioxidant needs are one of the unspoken major causes of postmenopausal bone loss. Antioxidant supplementation will be used right along with all the 20 key bone building nutrients.
9. Magnesium will become the nutrient of the year for 2021. Just as the world learned about the importance of vitamin D last year, in the new year magnesium will take center stage. It will be officially recognized that magnesium is more important than calcium for bone health.
10. The current RDAs will be declared the “minimum” nutrient levels needed to prevent outright deficiency disease. A new army of functional medicine experts will establish the optimum, health-promoting intake level of each nutrient.
11. We will have digested many lessons from the COVID pandemic this year. By the end of the year the final lesson will hit home, and it is this . . . there is only one Life, and all of Life is intertwined. Caring for Mother Earth and attending to the well being of everyone worldwide is how we will thrive.