Thinning Skin Signals Bone Loss

By Dr. John Neustadt

As far back as 1919, it was recognized that skin changes are often warning signs of what’s happening inside your body. A Journal of the American Medical Association article at the time called skin “a mirror of internal medicine” because changes occurring to organs inside your body appear on your skin.¹  

Here are some examples. Liver cirrhosis shows up as broken skin capillaries and redness on the palms of your hands. Irritable bowel disease causes malabsorption and vitamin A deficiency, which then causes solid, raised nodules on your skin called papules. About 75% of obese adults develop acanthosis nigricans—small, dark, raised skin thickening on the neck, armpits, and groin that indicates insulin resistance and diabetes.² 

Skin and bone collagen 

Skin changes also warn you of thinning bones. This connection was first made in 1963.³ Fundamentally, skin and bone are linked by their high amounts of collagen. Skin collagen is required for healthy skin elasticity, tone, hydration, and overall skin health. Collagen gives bones its ultimate strength and provides the scaffolding that binds minerals.^4-7 

 Skin and bones are primarily composed of Type I collagen.^8,9 Collagen is so strong that even the smallest building blocks of collagen are five to ten times stronger than steel.¹⁰ 

Skin is about 80% collagen, and the non-mineral portion of bone contains about 90% collagen.^11,12 When you have less collagen, bone becomes brittle and weak, and your skin thins, wrinkles, and sags.  Taking a collagen supplement has been shown to promote skin health and improve bone mineral density.^13,14

Thinning skin and bone loss

When collagen damage happens in one area of your body, you can assume it’s also happening elsewhere. This explains why decreased skin and bone collagen often occur together. 

For example, take glucocorticoids. This is one of the many categories of drugs that destroy bone. Glucocorticoid medications include prednisone, dexamethasone, and prednisolone. They powerfully suppress inflammation and modulate the immune system. Because they destroy collagen, skin loses elasticity, thins, and easily tears.¹⁵ Damage to bone collagen by these drugs leads to lower bone mineral density, weaker bones, and fractures. ^16,17  

Similarly, when estrogen decreases with menopause, skin and bone changes occur. Low estrogen accelerates many skin changes, including dryness, thinning, more visible wrinkles, and problems with wound healing.¹⁸ Estrogen helps bones by activating genes that increase bone formation and collagen production, decrease bone loss, and reduce inflammation.¹⁹ Estrogen for bone health is so essential that the most significant decrease in bone density occurs when estrogen declines with menopause and for the ten years after.²⁰

Bone testing options

If your skin is thinning and you’re wondering if you’re also losing bone collagen, the best test is the c-telopeptide (CTX). When collagen breaks down, protein fragments are released. One of these is CTX. It can be measured in the urine and serum (the liquid part of the blood). 

High levels of CTX indicate that bone collagen is being lost and bones are weakening.^21,22 A 2000 study followed 435 women ages 31-89 for an average of five years. The highest CTX results were associated with weaker, frailer bones. If someone also had low bone mineral density and low levels of estrogen, their bone health was even worse.²³

You should also take a bone mineral density test to determine whether you are losing bone minerals. 

Decrease CTX and improve bone density

If your CTX is high, or you want to promote healthy bone density and maintain strong bones, collagen peptides and the nutrients in NBI’s Osteo-K line of products (MK4, calcium, and vitamin D3) have been shown to reduce CTX, improve bone density and maintain strong bones. 

In a study of 51 postmenopausal women, CTX was decreased by taking five grams of collagen peptides daily, plus calcium and vitamin D3, for three months. CTX decreased almost four times more in people taking collagen, plus calcium and vitamin D3, compared to people only taking calcium and vitamin D3. In those women taking collagen, CTX decreased 11.4% compared to 3.5% in the control group. This implies that significantly less bone was breaking down when taking collagen.²⁴

In another study, women took 45 mg of MK4, plus vitamin D3 and calcium daily for three months. Their CTX was tested before they started the nutrients and at the end of the study. The researchers found that taking the supplements significantly decreased their CTX.²⁵ These studies show that Collagen, MK4, Vitamin D, and calcium support bone health. 

“Strong Bones.” Guaranteed.

Strong bones require healthy amounts of collagen and minerals, especially calcium. As I discuss in my book, Fracture-Proof Your Bones, taking the proper nutrients can tip the balance back in your favor, promote healthy bone density, and maintain strong bones. MK4 and vitamin D3 have synergistic effects that work to enhance bone health. 

The research is convincing, and since NBI’s first bone support product was introduced in 2007, customers’ results have been so impressive, that NBI offers a “Strong Bones” Guarantee. When you take one of our MK4+D3 products, we guarantee your bone density will improve within six months. But more importantly, we guarantee that you’ll have strong bones. Therefore, if you break a bone, we’ll refund the money for all qualifying purchases between your bone density tests.

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