Your Bones Are Dying to Tell You Something

0:00 Hi, I'm Bella Dane and this is How to Stop Being a Loser, where I chat about things I'm absolutely not qualified to talk about, but I'm randomly very interested in. I do my best to learn from industry professionals, and based what I share on as much science evidence and real life lessons as possible. Hey y'all! Welcome back to another episode of How to Stop Being a Loser if you couldn't tell. I think in the last episode I was like, this is the hint of what it's going to be about. This is the skeleton that we hired. He is a doctor. Um, he is a qualified professional on the show today who will be teaching us about bone health.

0:41 I wanted to do this episode with an orthopedic surgeon. That was my initial idea because I normally don't talk about topics like this, but I couldn't find one, so it just could be me today. But what an interesting topic. I was actually shocked at how interested I was and how interesting. I think we're all going to find bone health, osteoporosis in general, particularly in women. It's something that so profoundly affects women specifically. And I felt very motivated to change the things about the way that I exercise and my diet. Importance of calcium and those kinds of things. And I hope you guys find it interesting too, because, wow, it's it's much more important than I realize. So today we're talking all about your skeleton bone health. I'm not going

1:25 to get too into the nitty gritty because there's so much there. Although I did find most of it quite interesting. Um, but if you want to look into it more yourself to get more into the details of it, and I'm going to start listing my sources for these episodes so that you know where I'm getting all my information from. Um, and I'll say them at the beginning and the end of each episode. So for this episode, Doctor Andy Galpin, who's a he specializes in human performance and fitness. I love him for anything of this sort of nature. He has a great episode on bone health on his podcast perform is what it's called. Doctor Stacy Simms, who's a great resource for female specific training and nutrition, specifically when it comes to bone and muscle health. And then I did

2:14 there's an there's one analogy I'm using by Doctor Shireen Idris, who's a dermatologist, and then Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic and Bone Health and Osteoporosis. Org okay. So that's where all this information is, is coming from. So let's get into it. So what sort of piqued. My interest in talking about bone health in the first place is that 1 in 2 women over the age of 50 will break a hip due to osteoporosis, which I found quite terrifying. It's not something you think about when you're younger because it doesn't feel like a salient issue. It's not something that you put in the same vein as like, I don't know, maybe the anti-aging of the skin or just other things that we tend to talk about. I feel like bone health is an under discussed topic.

3:02 And when I heard that, and I realized that of the 10 million Americans living with osteoporosis, 8 million of them are women, so 80% are women, which is crazy. Like, that's a crazy, crazy statistic. We see variation in gender and statistics like that, but that's a pretty like crazy one. And I think it made me mad learning about how much more affected and impacted by this disease women are. And I was like, why is that? And is there anything we can do about it? Is it just that we're genetically screwed or other factors that can play into that, that are modifiable? And the answer is yes, there are. So we'll get into that. I would say based this is a statistic from Doctor Andy Galpin. In my own research, 20 to 40% of bone health is lifestyle, which is

3:48 promising. That's like a significant number. So that gave me hope when talking about bone health specifically for women. And if you see me looking down here, it's because I'm looking at my notes that I took. So right now, because of the statistic I just gave about one and two women breaking a hip over the age of 50 due to osteoporosis. That means that your risk of breaking a hip is equal to your combined risk of breast, uterine, and ovarian cancer, which is crazy. Um, I found a lot of information, and I think everyone should check out, especially women, because it does affect us so much more profoundly the Bone Health and Osteoporosis Foundation, bone health and osteoporosis. I got a lot of really interesting statistics from there. So I want to talk namely

4:32 about how this affects women and just give you guys some information about osteoporosis. So osteoporosis is a disease that makes your bones weaker and thinner by reducing bone density, meaning that you have brittle bones. But that doesn't just mean I'm like a little bit weaker. Your bones from osteoporosis can become so brittle that a fall or even a mild stress like bending over or coughing can cause a break. Isn't that crazy? Like I had no idea. This is just not something that I hear talked about a lot. And it makes me sad because I talk about this a lot, about how women are impacted so much more by Alzheimer's disease. 70% of people living with Alzheimer's are women. 1 in 2 women and 1 in 5 women will develop Alzheimer's

5:19 disease in their lifetime. Which is this just malicious neurodegenerative disease that literally eats your brain until you die. I'm laughing because it's so insane. I can't believe it's a real thing. And so hearing that osteoporosis is another one of those crazy statistics that impacts women so much more is wild. I mean, the thought that, you know, a woman getting older and getting impacted by those two sort of, you know, the disease, these diseases that just rot you, whether it's your brain or your bones. It's just something I feel strongly about. I want women to live the best lives we can and maximize and optimize our longevity as best we can. Because when I think about being older, like I think about my mom. My mom is 62

6:04 and she is the youngest looking, healthiest, glowy, most vibrant woman in that age group that I know. And she's very committed and dedicated to her longevity and is committed to not being a victim of these diseases to the best of her ability and optimizing the factors that are manageable. And I just she inspires me so much. And so I want us all to be like that. I want all of us to be in our 70s, and we feel great and we look great and we can, you know, pick up our grandkids and pick up our groceries. And we're not going to break a hip because we cough or bend over. I mean, how tragic is that? And what a scary reality that it's so much more common than maybe we realize or acknowledge. So yeah, I feel really strongly about

6:51 it. I want to be 70 and I want to be hot, and I want to feel vibrant, and I want my skin and muscles to sit on a frame, which is our skeleton that is strong. And I want to be able to do all the things that I do now and not be frail and brittle and losing my mind because I didn't do, you know, everything that I could to make sure that that doesn't happen to me? So that's my there's my thesis of why I think you should care about this. So let's talk a little bit about what.

7:22 Osteoporosis is, what's happening, all of the science behind it. And then we're going to go into some tools of how you can prevent it okay. There's something called. Bone remodeling which is really interesting actually. Within your first year of life, your skeleton will 100% rebuild its entire self. So you have an entirely new skeleton because your bone tissue is re creating itself over and over and over again. And as you become an adult, that's like, you know, 10% a year or something like that. So your the creation of new bone, when the creation of new bone doesn't come up with the loss of old bone, then you lose that sort of bone remodeling. Oh, hi. Mike has decided to join. Come here.

8:12 Uh. So. Yeah, this bone remodeling process slows after your early 20s, which is kind of crazy. And as I've learned, the most vital and critical time for developing bone health is when you're a kid, like puberty especially. And unfortunately, although there are plenty of things we can do in adulthood, they are not nearly as impactful as they would be if you're going through puberty or a teenager. Um, sometime before your early 20s. So if you are before your early 20s and you're watching this, Please take this seriously. This time is more important. It's the biggest chance you have at making sure that your bone is strong and you have that bank, um, while you're while you're younger. I wrote down how likely you are to develop osteoporosis is equal to how much bone mass you

9:05 developed in your youth, which is just crazy to say. So your youth really is so, so, so important for building bone mass. And if you're older, like me, older, 26. It's a good thing if you plan on having kids, you have kids to prioritize and consider. I love how my cat is just. On the desk. You can be here, you're kind of Halloween themed. So you're. Bone.

9:31 I didn't know any of this, which was so interesting. Why your bones are so important and why they matter so much. Why they exist is because they are your body's backup storage of minerals. A lot of different minerals, namely calcium, which we've all probably heard growing up is, oh, you know, get enough calcium in your diet, and drinking milk makes your bones strong. And there's truth to that, for sure. There's a lot of different minerals in your bones, or magnesium and phosphorus and all these things. But say we're going to be primarily talking about calcium, because calcium, I had no idea, is so essential to your body. Without calcium, your muscles aren't able to contract. At. All, including your heart muscles, your structural muscles in your body, and

10:14 your heart muscles. So when you don't have calcium and they're not able to contract, you can't like, use them. And so you can't. Carry out the functions of your body and your heart. Can't pup. So without calcium, your heart will die and you will die. So we need calcium. It's extremely, extremely important. And it's something that the body has prioritized through the skeleton. So that's why your body has given you this amazing structure of your human skeleton to store calcium. So when you aren't eating enough or able to absorb getting enough calcium. Your body is going to start draining it from your bones, so that's where it's all stored. So if you're deficient in calcium, you have insufficient levels of calcium. Your body is going to start extracting it and and taking it

10:58 from your bones and working it through your bloodstream so that your body can keep functioning. So it's like. Yeah. I don't want the calcium and minerals taken from my bones because I might get osteoporosis, but that's better than dying. So that function is prioritized. Isn't that interesting? So Doctor Shireen Idris is one of my favorite dermatologists. I trust her with so many different skin concerns, and I love the way she articulates herself. She's a good one to follow.

11:24 She explained this extremely well and it has stuck with me so much, especially if you are a skincare fanatic like me. She used this analogy okay, if you're a couch, your skeleton and your bones are the frame. Your fat muscles and collagen are the cushions and then your skin is the fabric. Okay. You can do all the skin care in the world, right? We can do retinol. We can intervene with these different skin treatments. We can even do fat transplants now where you can put more fat into your face to make yourself look more plump and full. If you're trying to do all of that on a frame that can't support it, you're going to look like a couch that doesn't have the skeletal structure, the frame support to support all of this shit on it. And

12:13 that's where like sagging and stuff comes from, like, that is crazy. I don't know why I never thought about that. Your skeleton really is the frame. It's your base. And making sure that that is strong because like as you get older, you know, there's only so much you can do. Like your jaw is going to narrow and things like that. Um, and your muscles are going to your, not your muscles, your bones are going to become, you know, more frail, but doing everything we can to maintain the integrity of the strength of your bones, the muscle of your or the. I keep saying muscle because it's so natural for me to say muscle instead of bone, the strength of your bones, so that all of the things sitting on it are supported just in terms of appearance. That really stuck with me, and I

12:55 thought that was such a cool analogy. Was the couch analogy. Um, so yeah, doing everything we can to make sure that our our bones are strong is vital for. That. Collagen muscle in our skin ultimately. So it really does affect your your appearance as well. And not that there's anything wrong with aging, but I don't think anyone is like, oh, I would love to have like.

13:19 Saggy. Skin. Or I would love for the fat and. Muscle to not sit well because I don't have the bone structure to, um, support it. And again, there's only so much we could do about that, but I just thought that was a great analogy that I wanted to include. Okay, so you have low. Calcium either from poor nutrition because you're not getting enough calcium, or maybe you. Are. Actively ingesting enough calcium, but you're not absorbing it. So that could be like a gut health issue. You can find out how your calcium is doing through a blood test, obviously, but sort of hilariously, you might look at your blood test and go, wow, my calcium levels are really high. Like, I must be doing really, really good. So why is my doctor like prescribing me a calcium supplement? The reason

14:03 that the calcium might be significantly high or alarmingly high in the bloodstream is because your body is extracting it from your bones and putting it through your bloodstream because you don't have enough in your bones, because you have low bone mineral density. Isn't that interesting? Everyone's like, oh my God, this is too complicated. So that might. Be a thing to look at if you're curious about it, or if you're older and you want to get your calcium levels checked, it actually wouldn't be you necessarily looking for super low calcium levels, but super high as well. So that's a way to test it to see if you're if you want to look. It provides a look into your bone health. It's not necessarily a way to get like officially diagnosed. But I found that to be super

14:47 interesting. So that's why making sure that you're getting enough calcium from your diet and that your gut health is in good shape so that you're able to absorb it, is so pinnacle for your bone health. I hope you guys are as interested in this as I am, because I feel like I'm like nerding out over here. But it's cool, right? Like, this. Is a cool topic I think. So okay. So like we're talking about calcium absorption how important it is. So yeah you can be eating enough food with calcium in it but making sure that you're absorbing it. So one factor I want to talk about is gut health and making sure that you're able to absorb it, um, a way that you can ensure you're able to absorb calcium is through vitamin D. Vitamin D is a great supplement to take. In

15:31 general, it's so critical to Your brain health like having deficient, being deficient in vitamin D, or having insufficient levels of vitamin D increases your chance of getting dementia by 60%. Like it's crazy. Get sunlight on your fucking retinas and take a vitamin D supplement. It's very difficult to like. I find it's not something to be afraid of taking too much of. I find it's very difficult to take to have like two high levels of vitamin D. I supplement vitamin D and I walk a lot, and my levels still are lower than I would like them to be. So anyway, don't be nervous about taking a vitamin D supplement. Definitely get your levels checked and talk to your doctor, obviously, but it's so worth taking for so many reasons. Same thing with, uh, omega three, which I'm going to

16:24 include in here for bone health specifically, but vitamin D, something I would take whether you're concerned about your bone health or not. And it's really important for calcium absorption. There's vitamin D receptors in your bones. Um, also. What's so funny is when you see, I never knew this. I never noticed this. But you probably seen how milk and breakfast cereals are fortified with vitamin D. That's actually why they're fortified with vitamin D, because they're so important for calcium absorption. And so they started fortifying milk and cereals with vitamin D so that you have stronger balance, which is why that whole strong bone milk and those kinds of things, um, were combined. And because dairy is a good source of calcium and

17:08 that funny. Okay. So I talked a little bit about bone remodeling. Um, so that is the lifelong continuous process where mature bone tissue is broken down and replaced with new bone tissue. Talked about how you're in your first year of life. You replace your entire skeleton. Then when you get to adulthood, it's like 5 to 10% a year. So when it comes to osteoporosis, We want to. The two main things. Is. Preventing low mode. Low bone mineral density. So we want to make sure that we have enough minerals, calcium absorption and getting out of calcium in our diets that our bones can store that. And then they don't have to drain it later on because we're deficient. As I just explained, that process, that's the biggest thing

17:56 is the mineral component. We also want to talk about bone remodeling. So those are two really important things when it comes to osteoporosis. We're talking about low and low bone mineral density and bone remodeling. And the different interventions we can do for low turnover to much breakdown. Okay. So as I said if we want to do that we have to challenge our bones. The best way to challenge your bones is three different things. But first thing we're gonna talk about is weight training and resistance exercise, especially in your puberty and teen years. I cannot emphasize this enough how critical it is for your short and long term bone health. And again, I'm 26, so this doesn't apply to me, but it

18:44 is really good for me to know, you know, with my kids or if you are younger or you have a younger sibling or you have kids. The myth that like weight training, stunts growth is like that. That myth needs to be killed. It is so vital and so important in terms of the short and long term bone health of your child or or you as a younger person to get them active in puberty and in their teen years. Like I cannot express that enough. 90% of studies show a positive association with being active and bone mineral density in kids. It's so. So so so so. Important. Like you're banking away all of that when you were young. And that process slows in your early 20s, which is crazy.

19:38 Um, so yeah, strength training is really important. Making sure your kids are active and when you're younger, making sure that they're doing all of those things is really, really important. When you get to your 20s, still incredibly important just in a little bit of a different way. And we need to be more specific about the way that we go about it. So as I said, strength training is the most important thing. Load bearing, weight bearing exercises. Lifting heavy ass weights is pinnacle to bone health. Okay. It's it's important for so many things like I've talked about how great load bearing exercises for your brain, for your muscles, for your mood, all of those things, specifically weight training heavily, specifically like 80% of

20:21 your one repetition max, but bone health to bone health specifically for this episode. Same, same rules apply. The interesting thing about bone health specifically is it's actually not the load that matters. It's the change in load that matters. Your bones really like you to switch it up, okay? Like they really like you to try different shit, do different things. They love progressive overload because they need to be stimulated and challenged in like new and different ways. So that's why you going to the gym. Maybe you are lifting heavy, but if it's not challenging you and you're not engaging in that progressive overload of increasing your weight consistently, you're actually not getting that osteogenesis, which is crazy. So like if you're

21:08 someone who maybe you don't lift heavy in the gym. No, no, no, this is a better analogy. You don't lift at all. Let's just say you don't lift weights at all. You've been a cardio girly for your whole life. Or you walk and you've you've never picked up weight in your life. If you start going to pick up weights, that affect actually will occur. But if you're already someone who lifts weights and this is good for me because I've always thought, oh, I need to lift heavy, you need to lift heavy. You do need to lift heavy. But for your bone health specifically, you need to lift heavier. Like consistently. Like for the rest of your life, you need to progressively overload, um, the weight that you're bearing, which is wild. So that's what's really going to stimulate bone growth is

21:48 constantly, continuously altering the homeostasis of your, um, weight training exercise. So continuing to challenge your bones is what is going to help that bone remodeling process and your bone mineral density, which is just so fun to me. I just thought that was such a fun fact. Progressive overload. So yeah, static repetitive loading is just not great for osteogenesis. It's just it's not doing enough. And so you going to the gym and lifting like five, 10 pounds every single class that you do or every single. And it's not about five, 10 pounds, but whatever, whatever weight you consistently lift. If you're lifting 5 pounds, lift heavier please. But, um, unless you're in a sculpt class or something. Because, holy god, I went to a heated Pilates class

22:38 like a week ago. It was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. I had two sevens, two sevens, and I had to put them down. Anyways, I'm getting off track, but see, like, different exercises are great for so many different things. Like walking is incredible for you, incredible for you, but it's not incredible for your bones. You know what I mean? Um, stretching is so amazing for you, but it's not necessarily incredible for your bones. It's great for, you know, mobility and all these different things. So I want to say, if you're not doing progressive overload right now, it's not that you're doing nothing. Like all exercise has so many different benefits, whether it's for your skin, your mood, your brain, your muscles, your joints, your flexibility, your balance, your

23:22 coordination balance is a great thing in general, because if the reason why you're going to break a hip is because you're going to fall, and you do all of these balance coordination, like weird things in your classes where you're challenging your balance and you're challenging your coordination, like through yoga or, um, you know, something, you this kind of uniquely challenging like that, that would be great because now you're preventing the fall in the first place.

23:49 So yeah, maybe you have more brittle bones, but you're not going to break a bone if you're not going to fall. You know what I mean? So any kind of exercise is good. I'm just getting into the specific like, um, science that we have about bone bone health and specific. So don't think that I'm saying don't ever lift 5 pounds or don't ever lift 3 pounds. I love non weighted exercise. I love heated classes where I'm only using, you know, 3 to 5 pounds. But you need to be incorporating if you want to prioritize your bone health and not get Osteoporosis and break a hip because you you coughed or bent over. This is something to also prioritize. The next thing which I found this really fascinating, I had no idea. Is actually impact dependent things. So doing things

24:37 like jumping, interacting with the floor and a hard surface with your feet or tennis. A lot of the studies done on this specific kind of training for bone health was done in tennis players, and you might be thinking, oh my God, it's a little like tennis ball. There's no weight there. It's actually not about the weight. It's about the bang. It's about the swinging and the hitting of the ball and the impact of that force. So tumbling is really great. Thank God I did tumbling when I was younger, and I'm so grateful that I did that because that impact, that shock of your bones and the impact of the that explosive thing from things like tumbling or, um, I'll get into the study in a second, where they had older people do chin ups and then

25:24 drop and hit the floor. That kind of impact training, you know, pulling on things, really aggressive, sort of pulling impact things. I could even see maybe like boxing if the surface was hard enough. So like you getting on a trampoline is not the same kind of impact because that surface is moving. And so we want your bones to be shocked by the impact and have that like, hit. You know what I mean? So maybe that could be something to look at. I'm trying to think of anything else. Um. Yeah. Like box jumping. Jumping up and down. Tumbling is so good. Maybe like push ups where you, like, pull yourself up and then you go back down and you, that impact of the ground with your hand, you guys kind of get the point. So

26:12 really aggressive thing. So progressive overload and then impact dependent exercise is really really great jumping and things like that. So this was really interesting. There was something called the lift more Clinical trials, which was conducted in, oh, I don't know if it's conducted and or published in 2017. So prioritize clinical trials. We had very little evidence that strength training was okay for people with osteoporosis. So people that already had osteoporosis, we were like, well, we don't want to put them in the gym. Like, what if they break? Like, what if they fall apart?

26:44 And this woman, I want to look up her name because she deserves credit for this. This was like the sickest thing ever. A groundbreaking Australian study led by Doctor Belinda Beck that flipped the traditional medical advice for managing osteoporosis on its head. And girl, it did. I mean, we didn't have anything before this. Like, we just thought, okay, you get osteoporosis. Like, sorry, that sucks. And now we know there's like legitimate interventions that we can do.

27:15 So what they did it was really interesting. You should look this up if you're bored. They had two groups. Low versus high impact exercise. The high impact exercise group they did five by five. So five sets of five reps at 85% of their one repetition max. So lifting weights that are 85% of their one repetition max at least.

27:40 Meaning the max you can do with perfect form, whatever that weight is. You're. Okay, how do I explain this? So if you can do a deadlift and your max for doing that one time, your one repetition max with perfect form is 100 pounds. That's the max you're going to do for this one. That's that's the heaviest. You can do it with perfect form. One time lifting 85% of that to 85 pounds would be 85% of your one repetition max. So that's what I'm referring to. Which fun fact if you want the neural effects of lifting heavy. Um, they say you should lift 70 to 80% of your one repetition max. So there's something there to lift heavy. That's why everyone says lift heavy. It's why I'm telling you. Lift heavy. So five by five. So they did, like

28:30 back squats. Um, deadlifts. And they did, I don't know, five different exercises, just five reps, 85% of their one repetition max, which is fucking heavy. Just twice a week for 30 minutes versus the low impact group which should walking and lunges. And they didn't go above seven kilograms or no, three kilograms, which I believe is 7 pounds. I don't really know the conversion, 6.6 pounds.

28:55 Um, shockingly and not shockingly, because we've already been talking about it. But the high Impact group, High Intensity Impact group beat out the low intensity impact group by literally every single metric, like Every single metric and like significantly increased bone mineral density. And I think it was by like 4 to 7%, which is so, so, so high. That doesn't sound like a lot. But in the language, in the vernacular that we're speaking within, that's really fucking high. But another thing is multi-directional exercise.

29:33 Really. Like you need to like, challenge what you what you're doing. You doing the same. My mom always told me this too. You have to shock the body and obviously in a safe way. And there's nuance to all this, and there's caveats to all of us doing it in a supervised, safe way, never overdoing it, but genuinely like you have to shock your body doing multidirectional exercise, total body roll, rotating like pulling different things. Um, and having that, you know, your bone needs that stimulus. You have to leave your comfort zone for the bone growth to be stimulated. So doing things that you don't normally do, um, just go nuts, basically, like you got to go crazy.

30:12 You got to be fucking jump roping and jumping up and down and tumbling, lifting heavy like, you gotta do it all, like find a class, so I do. Um, training, mate, 2 to 3 times a week. And it's where I do all of that stuff at one time. Like, I make sure that I'm lifting really, really heavy. But we're also doing, like, jumping things and sprints and interval sprint training is the third thing that I was going to say that's proven to be really positively impactful, positively impactful for for bone health. So figure out a way where you can do that. And like I just do, I knock it out all in one class. And then I mix in like heated sculpt and Pilates and things like that for mobility work, which is super, super important just for different things. My

31:00 flexibility and um, yeah, those kinds of things. But your brain needs that challenge. It needs that switch up. And so you're doing the same workout every single day with the same weight, not doing any jumping, tumbling, rotating, multi-directional, those sort of things. Your bones are not getting the stimulation that they need to, um, grow. So yeah.

31:25 And doing it as frequently as possible. So like, you know, I do it 2 to 3 days a week. That's plenty. But if you can do it seven days a week, that's awesome. So it just depends on how much how frequently you're willing to do it. But ask yourself how many days of that can you give me? Can you do. And then and then do it. So another thing we talked about is so those are sort of the interventions that you can take in terms of fitness. I talked about how important it is to be getting out of calcium, calcium absorption and a little bit how to do that with like vitamin D circling back getting more calcium. I mentioned briefly like a calcium supplement.

32:05 Actually getting enough calcium in your diet is not terribly difficult, like 800 to 1000mg of calcium is plenty. And then once you get to like over 50, I want to say it increases a little bit to like 1200 or 1500mg a day. Um, adding a supplement doesn't seem to do a lot if you're hitting that metric, which shouldn't be that difficult to do if you are like a child or you have a kid that's not, you know, wanting to eat health, you're having issues with their diet and nutrition, or you are someone who is like, malnourished. Like whether you don't have the resources, access to be eating a nutritionally sufficient diet, maybe you're dealing with some kind of eating disorder or whatever the case may be, then definitely a calcium supplement would be

32:52 helpful and you can get more calcium from things like yogurt, dairy, dark leafy greens, canned salmon, and sardines with the bones, which I know sounds crazy. I talk about how much I love, love, love, Love. Canned sardines, canned salmon, tinned fish like that in general. Like really fatty fish high in omega threes, especially with the bones in it. Which I know that sounds disgusting, but you'd be shocked. You really won't know that they're in there when you're eating them. It doesn't affect the texture or the flavor or anything, but I eat them a lot. Like I'm obsessed because the omega three is so good for your brain, for your skin. Sardines in general have been shown in so many studies to be incredible, like injectable skincare, so that was my primary

33:38 reason for taking them. Then I found out all this other shit. So the bones are so good for your bones. Which kind of makes sense. Um, so yeah, eating things like that is really good for getting enough calcium and also getting enough. Omega three is good for calcium absorption. So you kind of get you get a two for once special. And getting enough protein is so important for women in general. Um, but especially for for bone health. Tofu, orange juice, fish oils. Definitely interesting. Fish oil and collagen peptides actually are both pretty interesting I would say in terms of calcium absorption. So there have been some clinical studies where they supplement like five grams of collagen peptides. I don't know the specifics of this. I would need to look into it. Or you could

34:31 look into it like was it marine or bovine? Was it combined with a hyaluronic acid and or vitamin C like? I don't know, but they used five grams in studies and they saw 4 to 7% increase in bone mineral density, which is like really, really high. Like really high. Um, and most traditional supplement quantities like of collagen peptides is 20g. So like that's got to be a lot of bone marrow, bone mineral density. My mom has said she notices. My mom is really interesting because she's 62 and so a lot of changes happen. Postmenopausal women and there's so much it just changes so much like the way that you exercise your needs. The studies, like so many things change. So I use her as like a lab rat a lot. I'm like, what do you what do you think

35:22 about this? Like, how is this affecting you? Because it is quite interesting. And I would say it's an understudied, underrepresented group that probably needs it the most. So that's why I love like Doctor Stacy Sims is so great. She talks a lot about that. Also. Doctor, Doctor Lisa mosconi is another great resource. She wrote The Menopause Brain, so that would be a good resource too if you're interested in that. Because this does affect post menopause people so differently. But my mom has said collagen peptides have made a significant difference in her strength and her bone density. So she's had her bone density tested. It's also bone density, you know, osteoporosis, like there are so many factors that we can't control, so we just sort of talked about the things that

36:07 we can control. But um, like if you're tiny, like if you're small, like me, it's your bones are smaller and so your chances of getting it are higher. Um, genetics, there's also things like there's so many different factors that go into it that we don't really have that much control over. Like a lot of sex hormones. Thyroid issues.

36:32 Diseases. If you take, like, a gastrointestinal medicine, like a menopausal, it's known to, um, like negatively impact bone density. So there's so many different things. Obviously we can control that, but there's a lot of different factors that go into it. And it's almost too much for me to get into every single one. In this episode, I kind of just want to talk about what we can do to prevent it, but there's a lot I mean, even environmental factors BPA, heavy metals, Pollutants, like all of that stuff affects our bone density, which is just so crazy.

37:07 But hey, some. Secondary priority options. I said. A secondary priority just because they don't have the same level of robustness when it comes to studies or like evidence behind them. But like red light therapy, low intensity light therapy, which is low level laser therapy, has been shown to be really interesting for bone healing. So that could be something to look at, like different red light panels and things like that. It's a really interesting emerging area of science that I'm excited to see how it develops. I'm very much a believer in red light therapy for like the skin effects, and I use a mask every day. I also recently just got a panel, um, so that could be something interesting to look at. Most of the studies have been in dentistry. There have been

37:54 like eight studies, but they show really significant healing for bone health and just wound healing in general, but for the purposes of so bone health. So when you think of like red light therapy, which y'all have seen like all over TikTok, that is photo, photo, bio modulation, that's what that is. And so red light therapy and near-infrared light is photo bio modulation, which we know stimulates mitochondria to produce more ATP. It boosts osteoblasts, which I didn't get into those things in this episode, but those are the cells that are in charge of new bone turnover and mineral deposition. Red light therapy near-infrared photo bio modulation increases collagen production, so there's a lot of different ways that it can sort of directly and indirectly

38:40 contribute to your bone health, which is pretty cool. Another factor that we can talk about is sleep. There's really not I mean, there's so much with sleep like we have so, so, so many studies on sleep and how important it is. That is something I wish I would have prioritized more in my life. That I think I took for granted. Is optimizing your sleep, getting as productive deep sleep as possible? Um, people with short sleep absolutely are at a higher risk, like a significantly higher risk of osteoporosis and low bone density. So making sure that you're increasing every fucking thing you can about your sleep and making it as productive as possible, um, is so important. I mean, that's when your body

39:33 does so many amazing things. That's when your brain is able to clear metabolic waste. Your cells turn over your your body is able to heal and repair itself. It's so, so, so vital. And your bones are no exception. So making sure you're sleeping enough is huge. Um, stress. Like people with anxiety, depression, and PTSD. Much higher risk of osteoporosis because of the. Something. Something with the cortisol, which is the stress hormone. I didn't do that much digging into it, but making sure that you're managing your mental health has a direct effect on your bone health, which is kind of crazy. Yeah, there was a really crazy study done I saw on like, night shift nurses who had abnormal sleep for like 20 plus years. They were at like a I think it was like

40:19 37% higher risk of, um, fractures and and bonus shoes. Let me make sure that I'm not. Thank you. 32% is what I wrote down. Yeah. And that interesting both short sleep under six hours and long sleep, which is over eight hours, are associated with reduced bone mineral density and higher fracture risks. I don't even know what to make of that because I'm like very much pro women need longer than eight hours of sleep, but now we have this. So yeah, it's just a whole thing. I would say just sleep as well as you can. Eight hours is a good number to go by. But yeah, the night shift work and chronic sleep disruption significantly impair bone health and increase the risk of low bone mineral density and

41:10 osteoporotic factors. Sorry, osteoporotic fractures and factors. So yeah, the last thing I want to talk about is creatine, which I will preach about until the day I die. I love creatine so much. I could do a whole episode on creatine, but because we're talking specifically about bone health in this video, it doesn't directly contribute to either of those functions or those things. But what it does do is supports bone strength and reduces bone mineral loss because it increases your muscle mass. So you're able to exert all that force.

41:42 Remember I said like progressive overload, lifting really heavy weights, doing all those dynamic things. It's going to be a lot easier for you to do that. Like a lot easier if your muscles have more ATP energy and are stronger. I am significantly stronger and have significantly more endurance, and I can lift heavier in the gym. And it's much easier for me to do progressive overload when I'm taking creatine and my energy is better. Um, and then you can work out harder and then your sleep is better too, because you're wearing yourself out more. So it has a lot of indirect effects to bone health, and I think it's so important for them into for memory and brain health and all of those things. Okay guys. Now we're going to

42:26 get into non loser behavior. So this is my challenge for everyone this week and also for the rest of your life. Non loser behavior is not being afraid and thinking that you're going to get bulky and look bad from lifting heavy. Never in my life have I ever seen a woman who lifts heavy or started lifting heavy and go, yeah, she looks a lot worse. Like she just looks so much worse. It only is going to make you look better and give you that shape and ability to control your shape that you want. And all of the other benefits that I just said. So non-linear behavior. Lifting heavy and stronger, not smaller. Okay. In our last segment and my favorite segment is the Gold Line, which I'm gonna leave with our assistant today. But

43:15 let's hear from some of our Collins. Okay, so my name is Addison and I'm a junior in college. I'm studying psychology and religious studies, and maybe philosophy and anthropology is in the future. I'm going for my grad in both psychology and religious studies and maybe a doctorate in theology. I'm not sure yet. But anyway, I have. I've struggled with depression a lot, and I have a really hard time finding joys in life and trying to get out more and especially like with social anxiety, being able to get out on my own, like I struggle so badly with going into the grocery store sometimes and then sometimes it's completely fine. But my question is mainly curated towards depression. How can I put more value to

44:11 things in my life? Like I feel like I can do things that are objectively happy, but then when I look back on them, I don't feel as happy or it just feels fake and I want to be genuinely, constantly happy. And I, I don't know, I feel like I, I feel broken in a way because I don't feel constantly happy, even though, like, I know life's full of ups and downs, but I feel like I'm being ripped off. I'm 20 years old, I'm in college and I. I've made no friends. I have no friends. I have a boyfriend. But that's it. Yeah. I think everyone, even even someone who's not struggling with mental health in that capacity, can somewhat relate to what you're experiencing. And it just breaks my heart because, like, it's funny hearing

45:01 the sort of paradox of I'm achieving so many things and I want to go for my doctorate and I'm I mean, what a badass you are and like, how smart you must be to to go and do that and be able to do that. I wish I had, you know, the brain to do that and the brain that you have, and you sound so introspective. And I just think it's so beautiful that you even had the strength to be so vulnerable in a question like that. So yeah, that just really emotionally resonated with me. Um, so look, I know this maybe isn't the sexy answer that you want. Truly, truly, truly the level of depression that you're experiencing sounds like it's affecting your life. Like in a way that is, like you said, not fair. And at that point, I think you owe it to yourself to get, like,

45:50 professional help. Not because you're broken, not because there's something wrong with you. Because I think you would be shocked at how many people relate to this, and how many people understand what you're going through and have interventions non, maybe even non-pharmaceutical. You know what I mean? It doesn't mean that you need to immediately get on a medication because there's something wrong with you. But speaking to therapists, there's so many different kinds of therapy. There's so many different kinds of talk therapy. I would seek out someone who is professionally trained and knows exactly what to do and knows what's going on with you, and can sit and talk with you about it. I know that's maybe not the answer that you want to hear. Um, but I think

46:32 that's the correct answer. And that's the answer that I need to give, because qualified help is the best help. And the other thing I want to say that comes to mind is if you can't do it for yourself, do it for other people. And I've always said, if you feel lost, if you feel broken, then you like finding a way to serve other people is a way to like that's a proven way to sort of help you find your purpose again and help you sort of feel like yourself and feel like it's not always just about you. And you don't have to feel like you have the weight of the world on your shoulders. And oftentimes we find that in helping other people.

47:12 So I would tell you, go find some qualified help, not because you're broken, but because it's a luxury most people can't afford. And if you are in a position to where you can afford that, whether it's through BetterHelp or a licensed therapist or a psychologist or a psychiatrist, like be willing to do that for yourself and seek out the help. And then I would tell you to throw everything you have when you start feeling that way into other people. Because if you can't live a happy life for yourself, maybe you can make someone else's life happy. And I think you'd be shocked at how far that could help you. Hi Bella, I love you so much. You are genuinely one of my favorite podcasters and I love your insight on literally

47:55 everything, but I would love to get your advice on this even as if you were in my shoes. Um, I would consider myself to be a very highly ambitious person. I love to achieve big things. I have great, big goals for myself, and I've just always like, never wanted to stop until I reached my fullest potential. And within the last year, honestly, I've just this year has flown by because I have experienced a lot of stress, life changes, grief, loss, and just so much that has thrown me off of my loop. And I find myself, you know, trying to get back into the routine of things every day. But this has been the same pattern probably for the last like six months now, where I'm like, okay, let me get back to it. I'm going to focus. I'm going to

48:43 go back to the gym. I'm going to wake up early. I'm going to eat right. And then, you know, focus on what I want to focus on that will benefit my future. And I just have been struggling with focus, motivation. I feel like my brain has just been so fogged and I just like, I don't know if this is the right way to describe it, but I've just become so lazy and I just have no motivation to do anything. So it's it's very hard to be transitioning from, you know, somebody who wants a lot mentally and physically. I just can't get there. So do you have any advice on what you would do in my shoes? I have a lot to say. First of all, thank you so much for your question.

49:21 Second of all, I relate to you so, so so much. My personality type is called the Achiever. So I'm the same way. And ambition is such a double edged sword because it's like the best motivator. And it's just who you are and it pushes you and propels you forward. But it can also be so crippling because you put these unrealistic expectations on yourself, where your value is directly related to how much you achieve. And that's not you know, that's not how everyone operates, but sounds like that's how you operate and that's how I operate. Okay, first of all, the first thing that you said about how you want to reach your fullest potential. So that's a trap a little bit. And what I mean by that is as a achiever, personality type like myself, like

50:08 you, we have it in our heads that as soon as we get this milestone, as soon as we achieve this, then we'll be good. And then and then you move the goalpost and then you achieve this, and then you'll be good. Moving the goalpost is an amazing tool to constantly be setting new goals for yourself. The trick is you have to be satisfied with where you are now. Because one of my favorite quotes is people think of education as something that they can finish, and you just don't. You never stop learning. You never stop growing, you never stop achieving. And you're going to do that until the day you die. So that's life and that's the point and that's the purpose.

50:43 And I would tell you to stop focusing so heavily on the outcome and the achievement and start realizing that there's always going to be a new one, there's always going to be a next one. And if you're an entrepreneur achiever like me, it doesn't matter where the goalpost is, you will find somewhere else to move it, even if there's nowhere else to move it. So start learning to embrace the journey in the process and realize that's just who you are. And I think start allowing yourself to be, you know, there's a whole thing happening with your dopaminergic system.

51:12 You're saying you're unmotivated. Dopamine is the motivation neurotransmitter, neurochemical. And so there's something going on with that, something you can do that will sort of tie both of these together is intentionally, intentionally like rewarding yourself and allowing yourself to feel rewarded and achieved or like you've achieved something with your little goals and your little wins. So if your goal is to start a business that's not a sustainable. Like achievement day to day. Like if you only allow yourself to be happy and feel rewarded with the big things with, oh, I got engaged, I bought a new house, I started a business, I made this much money. If you only allow yourself to be happy and feel rewarded, and you

52:04 can actually trigger the release of dopamine with your thoughts, if that's only happening at the big things in your life that rarely happen, that's not setting you up for consistent happiness and success, because that's not every day. But truly, if you can start allowing yourself to be rewarded when you are, oh my God, I have the money to buy a lip gloss for myself because I work so hard.

52:23 Because I have. I have money to put gas in my car, because I have this car, because I'm healthy enough to walk, and you know, my legs can carry me into the store and I'm able to speak to the the cashier without any anxiety, you know, being grateful and being proud of yourself. It's not about giving yourself a trophy for showing up, but it's about learning to trigger the release of dopamine with your thoughts in a way that's going to make you substantially feel rewarded and happy and more motivated to live your life every day. Okay, that's the first thing. Or that's the second thing. The third thing you're saying you're feeling brain foggy and things like that. I don't know if you're already doing this, but we need to probably do some

53:02 healing with your relationship to dopamine. I would say try to eat a meal undistracted every day. Go on stimulated walks. Stop having to have a screen in front of you all the time. Start doing things just for the sake of being bored. That's going to help clear your brain fog and heal your relationship with dopamine, the grief and loss and things that you're experiencing that is actually physiologically affecting you. And it's making all of this a lot harder. That's not because there's something wrong with you, or you're just a loser now, or you're just lazy now. Laziness is not like a thing in the brain that we can measure. Um, it's something where you're going to have to get back into your routine, one little baby step at a time. And this is where I think we need to start

53:40 prioritizing the little habits every day. Realigning your relationship with your dopamine, which is your motivation. Allowing yourself to be proud of yourself for those little moments, and integrating things one at a time so that you're prioritizing consistency over intensity, because that's what's actually going to breed results. Hey Bella, I hope you're having a great day or whenever you're hearing this. What books or podcasts really did it for you? I'm open to any suggestions. No specific genre. Just what really resonated with you. What really inspired you? And I'm glad you said what really did it for you, because it wasn't a book. It's really all been podcast. The first one that comes to mind is on

54:27 diary of a CEO doctor K. He is incredible. I think I talked about him in my last episode too, because a girl asked about what I thought about the effects of video games. This man is brilliant. The way he articulates anything from neurochemistry to psychology to just well-being and mental health in general. He's one of the most fascinating people ever. Just look up doctor K. He has an episode on Modern Wisdom. He has an episode on diversity. So he really, really did it for me. Um, Doctor Stacy Sims has impacted me a lot, and the way that she talks about women's health found my fitness doctor, Rhonda Patrick is fantastic. And then Doctor Louise and Nikola, she's really passionate about stopping neurodegenerative disease from impacting women so profoundly. She is a huge participant and

55:23 leading researcher in Alzheimer's and dementia. She really did it for me. Her podcast is called The Neuro Experience And yeah, I think those are the ones that I would recommend to you first. Thanks for your question. Okay, guys, so that's a wrap on today's episode. Thank you so much for listening. I hope this inspires you to take your bone health seriously. If you ever want to submit a question, a story time, call me to complain. Tell me a hot take. Whatever you can.

55:53 Always call into the gold line in our Instagram bio. And yeah, thank you so much. Please subscribe to this podcast YouTube. We're on Instagram, TikTok, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and thank you so much for your support. I'll see you next week by. All opinions and advice given on the show are intended for entertainment purposes only and should not be considered professional, medical, legal, financial or other expert advice. Do your own research and consult a qualified professional when appropriate.