What’s Too Late for Bone Density?

I have to be honest with this. I was insulted. I was optimistic and maybe a little self-righteous when I got my first DEXA results. But the truth is, so many things can follow you. For me, it may have been in my late teens, my early 20s. I was very thin, active, fit, running, lifting too, but I was extremely thin. I was not eating well. So it will be a mystery why we may have osteopenia or osteoporosis in spite of very healthy lifestyle of truly doing all the things. So, you know, of course I was a bit insulted. Hey, I'm Debra Atkinson. Welcome back to the Flipping 50 Show. And if you're new here, you are in the right place. If you are a woman who wants to age with energy and vitality and wants to ditch what used to be true about aging. And if you're an OG and you've been here with me forever, welcome back, and thank you so much to all of you. I have a favor. The way we grow and the way you can thank me if this has been helpful at all is by sharing this with a friend or two. There is so much misinformation so much overall information out there that my job is just to make you aware of how do you sort through it so that you're able to make informed decisions and yes, science-backed. And I know that's such a sensitive topic right now. And I say that because there are some whistleblowers out there that are saying, you know, anybody that says science says or research says or, you know, whatever, something similar, you know, run from. And, you know, I don't think it's as easy as that because I was just at a conference with some world-renowned physicians doing some major changes in healthcare and improving choices for all of us. And, and even then, physicians will say, you know, well, the research tells us that. So here's the deal: if a physician can do that knowing they have less than 2 hours of exercise science in all of their residency, 8 years, but yet a fitness and health professional who's had maybe decades is, you know, subject to scrutiny if they say research says. I just, I think we're just in this time when there has to be more said. You need to understand it, but you also need to understand that just because somebody can say the PMID number is this, all that means is it was published on PubMed. It's my hope that you understand not every journal published in PubMed is peer-reviewed. That means anybody can write anything. And it's published just like Virginia, it must be Santa Claus because it's been published in the Times, right? That's not the way things should roll, but there's so much to learn about it. In all of, you know, the instructions that have been told to you, unfortunately they have people saying, well, you know, show me the science. And yet my question back to you for, for women who are saying that is, number one, good for you. I'm glad you're asking. But what I want you to understand about science of any kind is that number one, if you've been doing this for 41 years, you're not gonna remember every study. You've been talking about studies for a long time or even for a shorter time. Studies that came out just in 2021, I talked about significantly because some of them were related to bone density topics we cover frequently, but I can't tell you the name of the journal. Certainly couldn't tell you the page in the journal where it appears. So in some of those instances, I can tell you who the subjects were, I can tell you what the protocol was, but I couldn't tell you the PMID link. And so it's just interesting that we're in this time where everybody's getting fired up, and for good reason. We're upset, we're confused, we're a little frustrated with, you know, there being so much information, but not so much good information, and it's conflicting, you know. And so whether it is opinion or whether it is research, And yet I would say, I will argue for myself, if I gave you a professional opinion, it's based on diving into research behind the protocols we use for 41 years and looking at how we used to think versus what we now know and how science has evolved, which really gives me a good perspective on the ability to say, Here's what we know now. And when we know something doesn't mean we know everything. There still are gaps. And now I can see that a whole lot better than I could when I was excited and sitting in a classroom as an undergrad, you know, at 22 in 1984. I actually have better perspective now. And so depending You may have somebody in front of you who's been 30 years in the fitness industry, who has been a part-time fitness instructor 5 to 10 hours a week. That is very different than someone who's been doing this full-time, taught at a university, been an international lecturer, trainer of trainers, and dives into the research to put behind programs. Doesn't just get up in the morning and on a whim Oh, that's a great exercise. I'm gonna put that in my program. And there's a lot of that happening. So that's a tangent and I really apologize, but I wanna point out to you that everything we do here is science-backed, science-based, and we're also not afraid to tell you a new study just came out and it maybe has a conflict or is in direct opposition to something we used to believe. Stay tuned, or you'll get a breakdown of why I think that was true and where the gaps still are. I think there's nothing conclusive. The one thing you and I both want to remember is we're our own guinea pig. We are, um, N of 1. We're a study of 1 for ourselves, and that potentially is the most important. Are you getting the results you want? On those markers of inflammation, on your muscle mass, on your body composition, on your energy, the way you feel in the morning after a night's sleep? Are you getting good results from your signs of regularity with your digestion, your elimination? All of these things are data too. And potentially they're more valuable than just a study says something, even though that also may be true. All right, so we get into the episode now, but I hope what I just illustrated for you is in answering this question, when is it too late for bone density improvement? We're using science, as you might guess. So when do you have to resign to the fact that you're just going to maintain and that that is significant? By the way, what I mean by that is average bone losses can be anywhere from about 1 to 3%. And this is depending on which research you consult, but about 1 to 3% a year. And things, different factors will affect us. Your lifestyle, what you're eating or not eating, how you're sleeping or not sleeping, your stress level, how well you're managing that, your exercise. And, and any one of those, and maybe a bit of genetics, your predisposition predisposition for it. So you beautiful Norwegian blue-eyed blondes are probably a little bit more predisposed than some of the rest of us, depending. So there are factors that make you more vulnerable. And that average of 1 to 3% bone density loss annually, that can happen if you're not offsetting it or you're doing what you can, but your gut health isn't great. So you're not absorbing the micronutrients that you need from your foods that you are eating. If we stop those losses, that is still a significant change or improvement in your bone density, by the way. So it's not necessarily that you would say, well, I've already lost something when you go get your DEXA scan, and you might have a goal or wish that you could actually come back to baseline, not have that subpar. But if you don't put the bone back on and instead what happens is you stop the losses from accelerating or accumulating, you've still made significant change. If we say it would have been -1, -2, or -3, instead it was even, you stayed the same, that's a win. If you gained 1% where you normally would have potentially lost 1, 2, or 3, that's a gain, really a difference of 4%, so even more significant. So I just wanted to clarify that. So when is it all you can do and what has to happen? What will determine that? We're going to dive into that. So I have to be honest, at this. I was insulted. I was optimistic and maybe a little self-righteous when I got my first DEXA results. But the truth is, so many things can follow you. For me, it may have been in my late teens, my early 20s. I was very thin, active, fit, running, lifting too. But I was extremely thin, I was not eating well, and I was probably having more Diet Cokes than I ever care to think or talk about again. And that's a key time, by the way, late teens, early 20s, for bone building, of which I probably was not doing. Now, with the exercise offsetting the negative habits that I had, I potentially was preventing myself from losing, but I was not contributing to my banking bone. And that's what I love to call it. We have this opportunity to bank bone until we're about 30, and that is when we kind of peak in our bone density. Muscle is about 25. We peak in our bone density at 30, and then it's kind of like we have, we have banked our bone and we will start withdrawing from it if we're not careful. Now, just like investments, you can be smart about them. In investments, you can move them around. You can take a little out of here, put it in here instead. With your bone, not quite so easy, but you can say, okay, I'm going to lift weights consciously. Maybe I'm going to be aware of what I'm consuming, not necessarily taking supplements, because through food is absorbed, by the way. And I want to talk a little bit about— I am not a dietitian, I'm not a nutritionist, which in two states in the United States that is an acceptable form of giving nutritional advice. Those two states would be California and Colorado. But I am a 41-year certified fitness professional, two degrees, taught at a university for 15 years. We have to, as fitness professionals, health coaches, talk about food because in order for you to get the results you want, food is a big piece of it. And often as fitness pros, we get to spend more time with you as individuals. And so we can, as I train our coaches in the Flipping 50 Menopause Fitness Specialist, we can educate within scope of practice. We're not writing meal plans for an individual at breakfast, eat this, at lunch, eat this, at dinner, eat this, how much of it, how many calories, tracking. We can help you do that if you choose to do it for yourself, but we're not dictating what to do because we don't have that scope. However, education is something we can all do. We can say, here's something as a resource you might want to go to. Here's what makes the most sense based on how this goes with your exercise. But in talking in passing here, as we skip through absorbing nutrients to support your bone density, you know, I probably wasn't during that period of time. And we were not back in 1982 talking about leaky gut. Nobody knew what that was, you know, and I might have had it or caused it. I certainly probably wasn't eating enough fiber or I wasn't eating enough protein. I can tell you that. Lots of salads, but not— if I can remember correctly, not a lot of protein necessarily. I didn't shy away from it, but I certainly didn't consciously think about it. So I wasn't helping myself there. But you and I also didn't test our bones at 30. We didn't do a DEXA scan. So we don't know where did we reach at our peak. So we might have been like Great, we got peak and we got according to healthy bone of a 22-year-old, which is used as a baseline for DEXA scans, but we might not have made it even to that point. So when we test years later, for some of you, you're not going to get that first DEXA until maybe you're 62 or 65 when insurance will cover it. By the way, I personally will say I think it's a great investment to do out of your pocket if you have to, but I also would say shop doctors if they're not telling you that you should go and get one. Mine first said so at 58. She's like, if you haven't had a bone density scan, let's go and get that. I remember my OB-GYN, um, back in— so I lived in another state, but back when I was in my early 40s, she's like, we would talk about this knowing I was a fitness professional. She's like, yes, I don't know why we don't have these DEXA scans sooner so we can do something about it. I mean, that was back in 2012 and '13. She was saying that. So docs are aware of it. It's just the insurance system and what they'll pay for. It's just an entire racket. Doctors are well aware of it and they have their hands tied. So out-of-pocket is a good decision, by the way. And today, with our daughters and daughters-in-law, my hope is that you're helping them get their own DEXA scan for the first time, at least at 30. So without, you know, absorbing from the food that you're eating, and if you're not eating enough food, you're certainly not going to absorb enough nutrients. But we need to know where were we at our peak because we're really flying blind. So if we go test and we have low bone density score, we don't actually know how much have we lost. We only know how much we lost according to some standard healthy bone. We don't know according to our own losses. But if we tested at 30, we would stand a better chance of saying, I still might have a short window of opportunity here to lift heavier, do high impact, consume more of the right foods, fewer of the wrong foods taking up space in my diet, preventing absorption of other things. And all of that could could really help. So it will be a mystery to you and I exactly why we may have osteopenia or osteoporosis in spite of very healthy lifestyle of truly doing all the things. So, you know, of course I was a bit insulted because I, I'd like to think I'm a walking billboard, not a beauty necessarily, but at least a healthy, thriving, energetic person. My hope is I'm one of the most energetic persons walking into a room, and people feel that energy because that's contagious. And, you know, some people say mean things like, "Your arms look so masculine. I don't want to look like you." Like, who raised you? That's what I want to say to you. But, you know, it is okay, you know, and our own aesthetic of what is and what you want to be is something very different. You know, personally, I've kind of let go of, you know, wanting to aspire to a certain thing. I'd still love to have that image of mine that is probably my, you know, female perfection. Wouldn't we all? But much more important to me now is saying, healthy, energetic, thriving, and thinking 10 years, 20 years, 30 years from now, what, what will be true for me? Because we can go all the way, right, to 100 easily if we take great care of ourselves and have the interest in being that old. That's the thing. So my first DEXA results at 58 were a wake-up call that we cannot outrun, even outlift, or out eat or out-supplement our history. A lot of my clients are surprised to learn that running and walking, often the first advised exercise by their doctors, don't help beyond a certain point with bone density. Look, if you came off the couch, is walking going to improve your bone density from just sitting on the couch? Yeah. Is it for a while? But then you're going to adapt. The body is so adaptable. It's like Oh darn, right now I have to do a little something more. And, you know, so is running better than walking? For a little while. And then honestly, those of you who are longer endurance runners, if you've done a lot of running and you're becoming very lean and light because of it, you're actually potentially breaking down your bone and you're more frail and you're more likely to fall. Even men who've been running for years are prone to fracture from falls because they're on the leaner side and they haven't been doing strength training much more than quote-unquote functional. And hey, we need to load bone. It takes more push than a muscle does in order for the bone to respond. So beyond that, there are 4 special types of exercise that actually help build bone. Hey, this is Debra Atkinson. I love creating the Flipping 50 podcast for you, and I have for over a decade. I also love helping midlife women shift not only their physical energy but their beliefs about what effective exercise looks like and how much it can positively and powerfully impact your life. How you menopause and exercise in menopause determines how you will live not just now, but decades from now. If you're not exercising right now, you're getting tired, not stronger, or you think you don't have time or the energy to exercise, do a 5-day flip with me. I'll send you one short video a day for 5 days. It's just 15 to 20 minutes long, so you can see exactly how I plan out a fitness plan for myself and for thousands of clients I've worked with. You can get this at flipping50.com. Flipping50.com right now. What are you waiting for? Let's start Flipping 50 together. Proven. And as we started, I know this is an electric kind of a term that might light you up, but science-backed, these 4 things are associated with greater bone density. So running alone is not one of them, by the way. So beyond that, there are also additional resources that may be help for women like me who needed them in spite of doing all the things. And so I found I had to reach outside of this box. I was eating well, I was lifting, I was doing high impact. I couldn't exercise more, probably without throwing myself under the bus and tipping it into more fatigue, tired all the time. That's not good. You need to be sleeping well, deal with stress. I have plenty, but I deal with it pretty well. Sense of humor, good friends, people I can call and say, why is the rest of the world crazy and we're not? You know, you need that person, right? Even if it's a lie, you need them. So by the way, if you want more information and you'd like to do a movement session with me, we're going to do one live Monday, October 20th. This is 2025 if you're listening. But Monday, October 20th is World Osteoporosis Day. At 4:00 PM Pacific, we're going to go through, move through literally all 4 components. I won't make you sweat because what we've realized is that's a little late on the eastern side of the country, but we'll do some balance, we'll do some stability. I will demonstrate some things you don't have to do if you're in your pajamas and you don't want to do it, but you will be able to move, I promise you. I'll put that link in the show notes, by the way. So I want to bust some myths and what is too late. Number one, I'm going to start with that. It is not too late to gain bone density. I've had women on my YouTube channel argue, no, no, no, my brother's a— my brother and my sister-in-law are both doctors and they said no, you can't gain any bone density later in life. So I want to clarify that. And it could have been very well what they meant or what she meant, but it didn't come out right. So I'm cautious that anybody else hearing this or seeing her post— I was wanting to clarify what that means. We're not going to gain bone density beyond the point where you probably were when you were 30. We're not going to return you back to factory settings and then even improve it over that. What we are going to do is if you've had a DEXA scan and it's showing, say, you're— and let me make sure you understand, -2.5 standard deviations from what is deemed healthy bone is called osteoporosis. That's where you're diagnosed by your physician. The place between that healthy bone and that 2.5, minus 2.5 standard deviations away from healthy. That gray area is called osteopenia. Not going in the right direction, but you can reverse those losses. So, Uelostic can get you back to that, that place where you've lost. Yes, we've seen it happen. So I myself had low bone density at 3 places, the 3 places they test. So it was like F, F, and F. You failed in all three. That's what I saw. And I wasn't bombing. I guess it wasn't an F because it wasn't osteoporosis. It was just osteopenia. So it was a D, a D, a D. In neither case would I have wanted to take that report card home to my parents. But what I did was say, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. I'm lifting heavy. I'm doing high impact. And I'm eating well and still, right? So I reflected about my history, you know, training for Ironman distance triathlons. The thing you do the least is run. Now, I did lift during that time, but you also spend a lot of time on a bike and in swimming. That is unweighted, right? You're not weighted, you're not doing ground, um, ground or weight-bearing work, that can be dangerous. Remember Lance Armstrong, probably one of the most powerful and fit men in the world, but spent all his time on a bike and he had osteoporosis. That was before cancer, it wasn't related to treatments. So if it can happen to somebody like that, and specifically a male, could happen to us too. So things to consider, I added whole body vibration through Power Plate. I'll put the link down below. And by the way, that's an investment, but, you know, well worth it for me. I mean, should I pay for that or a hip replacement later when I fall and fracture because I had low bone density? And I'm going to probably do activities as long as I can that might make me fall. I'm gonna go hiking on uneven surfaces. If I get the chance, I might go water skiing or, uh, downhill skiing. I might risk a fracture to have a life experience, but falling doesn't mean you'll get fractured, right? So think about it that way. That's how I do anyway. Maybe that doesn't fit you. But I want to make sure that you realize you can reverse bone loss. So number one, you have to plant that seed. But I want to talk about this to all of you especially who might have listened to the last episode. 80% of us are not resistance training the minimum twice weekly just for metabolic health. That's not even saying for your metabolism, right? It's a division of the word metabolic, but that implies for your health, for your heart, for your body composition, for disease. Metabolism now gets into more optimal body composition, adequate muscle, not so much fat. I'm getting those— the ratio right, right? Making sure you're standing in the right line when you say, here's what I want. That's an important distinction. But we need to make sure that we're aware we can reverse weight loss as we can get it. You have to open the door to that first. But I want to point point out how. So if you're one of those 80% not exercising correctly, part of it may be intimidation. Like everybody is saying right now, you have to lift heavy and you need to do power jumps, you need to do jump training and land on stiff legs, and you need to do it onto a 20-inch box or off of it. And it's like, whoa, are you kidding? How about I go for a walk? That's where you should be thinking. And do start there. We don't necessarily want you to stop there, but you got to start there. And that is something to be cheering about. It's a success. But I want you to know this. It is a myth when people are saying, go heavy or go home, lift heavy shit. And here's the deal. If you love it and you have earned your way to do it safely, fantastic. I actually like it too. But because I lift heavy doesn't mean I don't employ and regularly also lift light. I rotate that into my schedule because simply trying to lift heavy every single time, all the time, will lead you straight to an injury. In an injured state, you're at bed rest or simply rest. You're not lifting. You're less resisting gravity than if you're just walking around like normal and not injured. So it's not a win for you to be saying something like, I was in the best shape of my life right before I got hurt. I've heard that so much from people who go to programs like— and there's nothing wrong with CrossFit if you have a great coach, by the way— but CrossFit or Orange Theory, something that's pushing you and pushing you, and it can get a little addictive, and I get it. There is something neurotransmitters in the brain wire and fire, and they're like, ah, it's like crack. I'm gonna go a little harder. I'm gonna go again. And the competition is there, friendly camaraderie, people encouraging you. But you have to be careful with that, especially if you know yourself and know that your little inner competitor will come out and feel like you have to show off. That's a dangerous place to to be. So light, moderate, and heavy weights— let's talk about them. Yes, of course, heavy weights do contribute to bone density, potentially more. However, light weights will contribute to bone density, particularly if you have been lifting no weights. And we all have to start at the right place, which is lighter weight, higher repetition ranges. Then moderate is the next step. So if we started you with somewhere like 20 repetitions, maybe 20 to 25, maybe it's a little bit fewer than 20, but right around there, that's a higher repetition range. And then we moved you into moderate, and we're going to call moderate based on kind of coinciding with what researchers call in the lab moderate, about 15 or 16 repetitions to muscular fatigue. The ones where I'm losing my form, I think I can feel it, I'm going to put it down. That's about 15. Research has said, and I know I'm using a dangerous term there, right? So I cannot quote, but up to 48 weeks, that's almost a year, everyone, up to 48 weeks, moderate weight training for someone who started new will contribute to increases in bone density. And then after that, you may need more to get off of that plateau of bone density to gain more or see more benefit. Now, some of us will be limited by a condition, a prior or existing joint injury, rheumatoid arthritis, Lupus, something not allowing us to do more. Okay, so we can look at other things that we can do, but lifting heavier might not after that be an option for us. But we all have to progress up to that point and we have made bone gains in doing that. The range that we as strength and conditioning professionals give for reaching muscular fatigue and choosing weights is between 6 and 30 repetitions. That's according to really ACSM and to National Strength and Conditioning Association position statements and guidelines. The upper light range is probably 20. I wouldn't go too much higher than that, 20 to 25 at most, because think about this, wear and tear on joints also should be a concern for us. We don't want to repetitively do light weights so many times, we're just causing wear and tear. Kind of want to find sweet spot. Moderate, 15 plus or minus a repetition or two. And then heavyweight would be deemed something like 5 to 7, 5 to 8 repetitions. And, you know, anything goes. If you're aiming for 5, sometimes you'll only get 4, and that's okay. That's okay. Put them down. So we also want to use some terms like reps in reserve. So when you say these ranges, It's also important that you realize we want to stop at so many reps in reserve. For beginners, you're just getting started. The reps in reserve, meaning you still have some in the tank. There's still some oxygen back there, right? You have about 5 or 6 repetitions there. And you may think, how do I know that? I'm a beginner. I don't even know. You know, I think you do. Intuitively, we do know this. We know if you've ever helped somebody move or just even moved a chair in your living room at Christmas time to move it out of the way because you're gonna put the tree, right? Did you do this? We always had to move the Lazy Boy upstairs, and it was a sad day for my stepfather, like resigned, because the TV wasn't going up, but the Lazy Boy was, and they should never be separated, I think. You've done that and you kind of have that sense of, okay, wait a minute, I— before we go up, I need to put it down. That's just intuition. So you didn't actually drop it, you knew that you needed a break so that you didn't. The same thing really happens. Your body takes over to protect you in weight training. So you will probably be more intuitive than you think. You're going to rest a minute for beginners between exercises that work the same muscle group. For more advanced exercisers, taking about 3 minutes can be much more helpful because we have to— it escalates essentially. The more fit you are, the more you're going to have to push yourself. And so the more recovery between so that you can go fresher and harder. And ironically, Unfortunately, a lot of people think the opposite. Like, you're doing high-intensity interval training and you think, no rest, because I'm just going to barely rest and go again. That actually doesn't work really well because if you are doing speed work, say, on a treadmill, your consecutive repeats are probably not going to be as fast because you're not recovered. So if you recover completely, you can go harder during the work interval, and it's doing the harder work that gets you more fit. That's, that is not rocket science, but I think we've kind of forgotten that. In the fitness industry, there are some things, silly things that we, that we did. We sprung Tabata on you, 20 minutes of work and 10 minutes of recovery. That should never have happened. With beginners, we always would do it the opposite way. We would say maybe 10 seconds of hard and then 20 seconds of recovery. It's always a longer recovery period. And then we might move you into 1:1, and then we might do it the other way. But in the illustration I just gave you, it actually makes so much more sense to recover 100% so that you're working at capacity so you can really test your capacity. So all of those things are really, really important. So gaining bone density, you know, it takes up to a year with moderate weight does increase bone density. Don't let somebody scare you into lifting heavy too soon, particularly if you feel vulnerable. I've worked with so many women over the years, and I can remember one woman's name, and I'm not going give it out because it's a very unique name and I don't want to throw anybody under the bus. So let's just call her Karen. And to all you Karens out there, I'm so sorry, your name gets used so often. Uh, but Karen always used to— she probably kept 10 reps in reserve. She didn't like to ever feel vulnerable. It probably also held her back from getting results that she really wanted. But, you know, we have to— if somebody thinks they're gonna get hurt, you're probably going to be right. So we've got to be careful with that. So if you have a fear of getting hurt, please honor it. If you have a lack of knowledge of knowing what to do, that's gonna hold you back. And if you are getting hurt all the time, something to consider is that you don't have the right progression. It might be to take a little look at closer look at your nutrition. So it's important that you have these two things: place and pace. You are starting at the right place. If you're a beginner, act like a beginner, it's okay. And you're going at the right pace. So progression takes time. And yes, as a beginner, you may progress a little more quickly at first because we start you light, erring on the conservative side, and we may have really underestimated your ability, and you'll go a little faster in the first couple of weeks. That is actually quite normal and natural, and then you slow down because you really get into the right place. But that's still a very wise way to start. When you hit that upper limit— so be sure first that it's a physical limit, not a mental one— and then you can use, all the things that you can do, focus on that. So if you hit an upper limit, I can't go heavier than this with these joints anyway, and then I feel vulnerable. Okay, so you've got these weights to play with, and what else? There are other things you can do, and I want you to get your MSA. What? So your MSA, like an MBA, only this. You want to get mobility, especially in your ankles, your hips, and your upper back. And you want stability, being able to take your center of gravity that is somewhere close to our belly button for most of us and move it off of our base of support. When you're distracted with noise or visuals, sounds all around you and you can still do that and stand back upright without falling. That's stability. Stability is not standing on one leg because there's no wind, like nothing's really rocking your boat. You just put your foot down if you want to. Stability means there's a resistance, something is out there. Now you might be standing on one foot on an Airex pad or a BOSU ball. That is actually, by the way, not my favorite place for you to, to practice balance. I would rather see you practice the static stuff or going to a yoga class, but then let's do dynamic motion where center of gravity is out here and your base of support feet are still right underneath you. That is a better way to train. I'm going to leave you with this thought. So Robert Redford said in a quote, um, about aging. He said, you're young and you're just going about your life and you're basically taking it for granted. And then there's a time when you start realizing you have to be careful. And I think that's sad. So I think if I can interpret for him that it's sad when you have this awareness of that, right? You have a sad moment that I just did that. Like I've never thought before, like, which shoes should I wear because I'm a little afraid I'm going to slip on the hardwood floor? I just decided not to do something because I was afraid of falling or getting injured. I've had moments like that, and I'm sure you have too. More recently, just this last weekend, I chose the shoes. I considered the spills on the dance floor. As soon as I saw that, I'm like, I'm out. I'm gonna go back over here on the carpet where it's safe because, you know, I don't want to be taken out of activity every day. And I hope that you're feeling the same. Protect that because we cannot afford to be down and out. And, and by the same token, protect your immunity. Eat those vegetables, right? If you need to supplement, supplement. Take care of your gut. You know, I can hike the Grand Canyon, but I am scared of a disco floor and 3-inch kitten heels. That is now my reality. It's true. But that's kind of the way I want to keep it. I want to hike the Grand Canyon for as long as I care to do it. If you're suddenly thinking about this too, I highly encourage you to join us for the October 20th World Osteoporosis Day live movement session. As a medical exercise specialist, strength and conditioning coach, and the Flipping 50 menopause fitness specialist, the first one, by the way, as I've created that certification in 2018. With over 4 decades of experience, I'm going to share with you 4 science-backed types of movement that help boost bone health the most, 3 musts to decrease fall risk, additional resources when you're limited on your choices, and references for the science girl in all of us. I'm going to put some resources in today's show notes too if you want to get a head start. And if you really need some help or know somebody who does boosting their metabolism, before that, you can register for the metabolism reset. It— we call it the 10-Day Hot Not Bothered Challenge because we like to have fun here. All right, thanks so much for joining us. Make someone else happy and aware of menopause, of exercise and menopause, how it changes and how it can change your life and the trajectory of it. Thank you so much for joining me. If this has been valuable at all, please share it with a couple of friends. It is how we spread the word and all of us become healthier and happier as we age.