By: Foot & Ankle Center of Iowa
Vitamins and minerals are an important component to a person’s overall health. Most of us do not get an adequate amount of these through our diet so supplements can help to bridge the gap and keep us healthy and strong. At Foot & Ankle Center of Iowa, we believe in supplying the purest and highest quality supplements to our patients. We partner with EBM Medical to be able to provide these conveniently to you in our office. We selected EBM Medical, a medical grade food company, to partner with because their products are “clean” with no sugar, dyes, lactose, gluten, or fillers. This means that you are getting the purest quality of the vitamins and minerals and your body will absorb them the best, resulting in the greatest benefit to you. Here is some information specific to EB-S4, a supplement the team of surgeons at Foot & Ankle Center of Iowa recommends to aid in your healing and prevention of complications from your foot and ankle surgery, especially any surgery involving bones, such as bunion surgery, or a broken bone. In many cases we even recommend this for bone issues that do not require surgery, such as stress fractures.
- EB-S4: Overall musculoskeletal health
- Active ingredients include:
- Calcium Citrate
- Calcium is the primary mineral responsible for bone growth, repair, and minimizing bone loss. It also helps nerve and muscle function.
- Calcium absorption from foods, including dairy and fortified foods is only 30%
- Bone is 64% calcium, and it stores 99% of your body’s calcium
- 7/10 people are thought to be calcium deficient
- With reduced calcium levels, your body will begin to break down bone (osteolysis) to obtain calcium leading to an increased risk for fractures as well as osteoporosis
- Calcium citrate has been found to be the most bioavailable (body absorbs the best) form of calcium.
- Magnesium Bisglycinate
- 50% of people are magnesium deficient
- Magnesium helps the body absorb calcium and vitamin D, therefore is very important for bone density and bone health.
- Vitamin D3
- Vitamin D is synthesized in your skin with sunlight as well as ingested by intake of animal products
- 42% of people are vitamin D deficient
- Vitamin D is needed to help with the absorption of calcium from the intestinal tract and kidney
- With reduced vitamin D levels, calcium absorption is decreased
- Deficiency can lead to an increased risk for fractures as well as osteoporosis
- Zinc Bisglycinate
- 12% of the population are deficient in zinc, however, 40% of elderly can be zinc deficient due to inadequate dietary intake and decreased absorption
- Zinc plays an important role in bone cell production and collagen (soft tissues) production
- It helps to inhibits bone breakdown, however, the amount in your body can decline after surgery.
- Zinc Bisgylcinate is the form that your body absorbs the best
- Calcium Citrate
- Active ingredients include:
The foot and ankle surgeons at Foot & Ankle Center of Iowa recommend EB-S4 for overall bone health, osteoporosis prevention, fracture healing of the foot and ankle, and following foot and ankle surgery, including bunion surgery.
The EB-S4 product has the most important building blocks of bone all in one capsule, which makes taking the supplement more convenient as well. We recommend that all of our patients start taking this at least 7 days prior to their foot or ankle surgery and continue for at least 90 days after surgery. We actually recommend that everyone continues forever for their overall health. You can feel confident in the quality of these products, and after lots of research on supplements, they are the ones that the team of surgeons at Foot & Ankle Center of Iowa use personally as well.