9 Natural Ways to Build & Strengthen HEALTHIER Bones

Hey, it's J.J. here.

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Hey JJ here.

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I'm JJ Virgin PhD dropout.

Sorry, mom turned four time New York Times bestselling author.

Yes, I'm a Certified Nutrition Specialist, Fitness hall of Famer, and I speak at health conferences and trainings around the globe, driven by my insatiable curiosity and love of science to keep asking questions, digging for answers, and sharing the information I uncover with as many people as I can. And that's why I created the well Beyond 40 podcast to synthesize and simplify the science of health into actionable strategies to help you thrive. In each episode, we'll talk about what's working in the world of wellness, from personalized nutrition and healing your metabolism to healthy aging and prescriptive fitness. Join me on the journey to better health so you can love how you.

Look and feel right now and have the energy to play full out at 100.

Hey, it's J.J. here.

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Quite often, the first time someone realizes that they have osteoporosis is actually when they break their hip. And when that happens, the stats are brightening. Mortality rates skyrocket after a hip fracture. In fact, One study in 2020 showed that over 19% of patients over 65 with a hip fracture died that first year. And over five years over 50% died. And for those who do survive, it's pretty bleak. Only 26% of those patients were able to live independently a year after injury, and a lot of people just kept a bunch of disabilities after the fact. Now there's good news. There is a lot that you can do to not be that statistic and I've broken them in to a few different categories to share with you. There's diet based strategies, there's supplements. I'm betting at least one of these supplements is going to surprise you. And a few exercise variations. Plus a bonus little chat about hormones. Now before we start, please pinky promise me that you will go get a DEXA scan done to check your bone mineral density and your skeletal muscle because what you measure and monitor you can improve. So let's talk diet. Now you know my mantra if you've been listening to me at all, is eat protein first. But it's not just for satiety and skeletal muscle. Turns out that protein plays a fundamental role in building and maintaining strong bones, along with of course, what it does for our skeletal muscle because protein comprises about 50% of bone volume and one third of its mass and collagen, which is a type of protein as you know, is crucial for bone flexibility and strength as part of the bone matrix. Plus, protein supports bone mineral density and it aids in bone repair and growth. It's essential for growth and repair of bone tissue. It supports the function of the these bone forming cells called osteoblasts and bone resorbing cells called osteoclasts and those work against each other for bone remodeling. It also enhances calcium absorption in the gut which you've got to have for bone health and strength. And of course we know that protein improves muscle mass and strength and if you have better muscle mass and better strength, then you have less risk of falling. So if you don't know how much protein you need. I got you covered with my protein calculator. To get that, go to jjvirgin.com seven day. That's the number. Seven day. Next up, I want you to eat your veggies. Of course I want you to eat your veggies because of the polyphenols, but also for acid alkaline balance. Now, I don't want you to get crazy here. There's a lot of kind of hype about being alkaline. Here's one thing to know. There was a study in 2018 that was published in the journal Bone and Mineral Research that found that women who drank a lot of milk, and if you're in my community, you're not doing this, more than three glasses a day and didn't really eat fruits or vegetables, like less than two servings a day, had a higher risk of hip fractures. It was significant. This was only slightly reduced when they brought in fruits and vegetables. However, when they turned that milk consumption into fermented milk and they had a high intake of fruits and vegetables, they had very low fracture rates. What does this tell you? One of the things we do know is that if you just are eating a super acidic diet, it can be problematic. Most of us aren't doing that. The easy way to solve this is eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, especially a lot of non starchy vegetables, a little bit of fruit. If you're having struggles with those veggies, have a green drink. Easy. Next up, vitamin D3 with K. Now you want to do both of these together because their effects are both different and complementary. So vitamin D. Let's talk that one first. It's super mission critical for absorbing calcium from your diet. Without enough vitamin D, your body can't absorb calcium well, which is going to lead to weak bones known as osteomalacia. Plus, vitamin D is needed for bone growth and remodeling those osteoblasts we talked about earlier, building new bone and breaking down old bone by the osteoclasts. If you don't have enough vitamin D, you can have brittle, thin or misshapen bones. There was a study review, it was actually a review of three different studies that found a notable decrease in fractures among people who took high dose vitamin D. Now, one of those studies, they took 100,000 IUs of vitamin D3 every four months for five years and they had 3,33% lower fracture rate. So what I tell people to do with vitamin D is get your vitamin D3 tested. It's a 25 hydroxy vitamin D test and optimize your vitamin d at about 50 to 80 ngs per ML. What I find with most people is that's usually about 5,000 IUs of vitamin D3 a day, but yours might be higher or lower. Depends on where you live. Depends on your genetics. Depends on, depends on if you're out in the sun without sunscreen. The other part is you're going to take your D3 with K because they work together. Vitamin K works synergistically with vitamin D because what vitamin K does. So vitamin D is getting the calcium absorbed, right? And then vitamin K make sure it goes in the right place. Vitamin K activates bone proteins. It activates those proteins that are involved in bone health, one of them known as osteocalcin, which binds calcium to the bones and strengthens them. Vitamin K also reduces the risks of bone fractures and it improves bone density by regulating calcium deposition in the bones. One of the things they say about vitamin K is that we make sure we get calcium in the right places. Plus, vitamin K promotes bone mineralization. And that is an important process where the body deposits mineral into the bones which makes them denser and stronger. The other thing that vitamin K helps do is limit bone turnover and loss. And this is a big deal for postmenopausal women who are at a higher risk of osteoporosis. In fact, when you really look at it, that is when you fall off the cliff, when your hormones go down. We'll talk about that in a little bit. Next up, fish oil. Okay, so eat fish. However, you might also want to supplement with omega 3 fatty acids. Fish oil offers significant advantages for building and strengthening healthy bones. But first of all, omega 3s help enhance calcium absorption. They also aid in bone formation because they support the activity of those bone forming cells, the osteoblasts, and they reduce the activity of the bone resorbing cells, the osteoclasts. So you have better bone balance. If you've got lots of clasts and very little blasts, you're losing bone. You want to have those in balance. People who consistently use fish oil supplements and have lower risk of total fractures, hip fractures and vertebral fractures compared to those who don't. There was a study that looked at habitual fish oil use and it was linked to a 7% lower risk of total fractures, a 17% lower risk of hip fractures and a 15% lower vertebral fracture risk. So that's, I mean, that is a huge difference. So ideally, first eat great wild, fatty fish. I get mine from Vital Choice. We'll put a link to that. I love my wild salmon and my Chilean sea bass. Then test your omega 3s. So I go and do every year. You might want to do it twice a year as you're improving an omega 3 index test. And then I take my Reignite Wellness Omega fish oil to get myself into where I want to be. And what it's going to look at is give you an index and then a comparison of your sixes to threes. And that's when you can know that you're where you want to be. And I always like to say test, don't guess right. This one may surprise you. This supplement, you think of it for muscles, but the reality is this thing helps you. This supplement's going to help you work out harder, which of course is going to be better for your bones. I'm talking creatine. And creatine provides the energy to bone forming cells, those osteoblasts which support bone remodeling, which is critical for maintaining bone strength. Also remember, one of the things that creatine helps you do is work out harder. And if you can work out harder and increase muscle mass and strength, guess what you're doing? You're going to improve, improve your bone health as well. And you'll also reduce your risk of fractures. Plus, there's some preliminary research now showing a potential for creatine supplementation to help with bone healing post fractures or surgeries. I will tell you full disclosure, but my husband just had a hip replacement, so I kicked it up a bit. He already takes creatine. I just doubled it up. The big thing though, that I want to emphasize is that creatine alone isn't going to do it. You got to do the creatine with resistance training because you want to put the stress on the bone. So that is super important. So how much creatine depends on the type of creatine you take. I've been playing around with two different forms. If you're doing creatine monohydrate, it's generally 3 to 5 grams will also depend on your diet. Women have less tissue stores of creatine, probably because we eat less animal protein. And you're going to get creatine from fish and meat. So another big shout out to the seafood. If you're taking hydrochloride, you probably need 750 to 1.5 grams a day. So 750 milligrams to 1.5 grams because it's better absorbed. Okay, well, I already talked a little bit about collagen. Now, collagen is something that I use every day, and I've been doing it for my connective tissue, my hair, skin and nails. But it's also the main protein in bones, and it provides that framework that helps maintain bone strength and flexibility. So collagen supplementation, which is so easy to do, throw it into your smoothie, throw it into your coffee, throw it into your yogurt, especially collagen peptide supplementation can help support good bone mineral density. And I want you to really think of this if you're heading into menopause, because this is when we're at higher risk. It can stimulate osteoblast activity and it may reduce that osteoclast activity. So again, we want to make sure we have that balance here. We don't want to be breaking down more than we're building up. Also, collagen supplementation can help slow the rate of bone degradation that naturally occurs with age. And, you know, if you are breaking down more, guess what you're getting into osteopenia or osteoporosis. So there was a study in 2018, it was published in Nutrients Journal that looked at 131 postmenopausal women. And what they did was investigate the effects of a collagen peptide supplementation on bone mineral density. And they did it over 12 months. And participants took 5 grams of collagen peptides daily. And what they found was that there was a significant increase in bone mineral density at the spine and the femoral neck for that peptide. Collagen peptide group, 3% increase in the spine, almost 7% increase in the femoral neck. Compare this to the placebo group. They lost around 1% in both of those areas. Also, the bone formation marker P1NP increased significantly in the collagen peptide group and the bone degradation marker CTX1 increased in the placebo. Placebo group. So you think of collagen again for your hair, your skin, your nails, maybe your connective tissue. I want you to think about it for bone health as well. And how do you do it? So collagen peptides are so easy to do. It's one that I've been carrying in Reignite Wellness for years because I always carry what I use. And then you can also use my bone broth paleo protein. It's about 80% collagen. So easy enough to get these things into your diet. And of course, you can always drink bone broth. Next up is exercise. And to start with, I like everyone to get their steps in every single day. 8,000 is the minimum, but more is better. And then what I like you to do is add a little intensity. And I have you do that by adding a ruckin vest. What the heck is a ruckin vest? Rucking is as simple as just putting on a weighted backpack. When you think about it, we've been rucking since we were little kids. Think when you went to school and you had to carry, remember books, we had to carry them in the backpack. Turns out that rucking, which walking with that backpack or walking with a weighted vest, which is a way, I like it better, or even walking with a belt is an effective way to build and strengthen healthier bones. So what you're doing when you're putting all that weight on you is you're stressing your bones. What happens when you stress your bones when your body goes whoa, it actually increases signals to your body to go, hey, build more bone. So it's a very simple thing you can do on a regular basis to help prevent osteoporosis. And here's what's great. You're stressing the most common areas for osteoporosis, your spine and your legs. And what's also great here is it's gentle on your joints. I'm going to talk some more on exercise, some other things I want to do. But when you think about a lot of the high impact exercises, some of them you might be a little bit concerned to do if you've already got osteoporosis. And the other cool thing with rucking is it's going to put a little weight on that helps you deal with balance and stability. So that can help prevent falls. There's been a lot of research on rucking. It seems to be kind of the hip cool thing. Now there was a 2018 study that was published in the European Journal of Implementation that found that weight bearing physical activity like rucking improves bone mineral density and neuromuscular function in osteopenic women. So either get yourself a little backpack, throw some water bottles in it, or get yourself a cute rucking vest. There are now ones for women and get on out there. The other thing that I want you to do is resistance training and this is super important. There's very specific things that I want you to do. Why is this important? Because it applies stress to the bones and that's going to stimulate those osteoblasts which then is going to help you build up that bone, which is going to help you have stronger, denser bones. In fact, we know that regular resistance training increases bone mineral density. That is what you're testing when you go get the dexa. So, yes, we can put on more bone now. As we age, we're losing bone mass, and resistance training can push against this and help make sure that you keep that strength through life. Plus, not only are you building stronger bones, you're building better muscles, too. And what do we know about muscles? They support and protect the bones, and they also help you reduce the risk of falls and fractures because you're improving your balance, your coordination, and your mobility. So what do I want you to do in the gym? There are some very specific things that can. Can help here because when you think about what you're trying to do, you really want to load your spine and your hips. So some of my most favorite exercises for bone density, the first one is an overhead press while standing. Why? Because when I push weights overhead, guess what I'm doing? I'm strengthening my shoulders, I'm strengthening my arms, but I'm putting load, axial load, it's called, down my spine and onto my hips, which is super great. The other one that I want you to do is a squat. And you. If you're thinking right now, I can't do a squat because of my knees and my back, I want you just to consider this. You get up off the toilet, you're getting out of the chair. We actually have to squat all the time. So let's do it in a controlled environment so that when we're out in the wild, we don't get hurt. But these squats are amazing because we're loading again those hips, and we're also improving that strength. And what you can do to start is just simply have a chair behind you and just do what's called an air squat. Right? Okay, now we're going to take it up a notch. An advanced version of the squat is a little squat jump. And so all you do with this is you come down, and at the end of the squat, you do a little jump up. And it's that impact that puts stress on the bones that is so beneficial for. For bone strengthening. And you can start so easy because you start with the air squats, then you add a little bit of a jump, and then you can add a bigger jump. But this can make a huge difference for you. Now, I recently acquired a power plate, a vibration plate. This is known as whole body vibration. And I've been looking at these for a While I was like, do these really do anything? Turns out they stimulate bone formation by subjecting bones to this mechanical stress that's going to help you increase bone density. In fact, regular use of vibration plates can improve both bone strength. So now you're less susceptible to those fractures and osteoporosis. And the vibration from the plates helps promote bone mineralization. And that means that you're ensuring that essential minerals like calcium go into the bones, which makes them stronger and denser. Also, vibration therapy triggers the release of growth factors like IGF1, insulin like growth factor and BMP2, bone morphogenetic protein 2. Those both help promote bone formation and repair. And vibration plates also improve blood circulation, which means you're delivering essential nutrients and oxygen to the bones. And of course that's going to help support bone health and healing. And a little aside, more about my husband's hip replacement. This is also a key thing that we're using to help him in his recovery. So there was a study in 2015, it was published in Menopause Review where 70 women underwent whole body vibration twice daily for 10 minutes over 12 months. And what the results showed was a decrease in bone loss of 1.5% in the spine and 2.1% in the femoral neck region. That is huge. Now finally, I promised you a little hormone piece. And so I want to talk briefly about estrogen and progesterone because they are two key hormones that play a significant role in women's health. And of course, part of that is the maintenance and health of your bones. And that impact is huge. In fact, when you really look at at menopause, that's when women's bone mineral density just falls off the cliff. Let's talk estrogen first. Estrogen helps balance bone breakdown and formation. It supports bone density by shortening the lifespan of bone resorbing cells, osteoclasts and promoting the activity of those bone forming cells, those osteoblasts and bone maintaining cells, osteocytes. Estrogen also prevents excessive bone resorption. And this is super important during menopause when declining estrogen levels can lead to increased bone turnover and accelerated bone loss. This all increases that risk of osteoporosis. Remember I said menopause, we just kind of fall off the cliff. The other thing that estrogen assists in is calcium absorption and it also influences vitamin D metabolism. There was a study in 2015, it was published in Steroids, that found that during menopause the decline in ovarian estrogen levels is linked to decreases in bone mineral density and over a 10 year period there's an average cumulative loss of 9% in the femoral neck and 10.6% at the lumbar spine. So again, things just kind of go off the cliff with menopause. The other side is progesterone and progesterone can stimulate those up osteoblasts and it works with estrogen to enhance bone formation and potentially increase bone density. It also may enhance bone quality by influencing the turnover rates, promoting the deposition of new bone. But we don't really know exactly how it works as well as we do with estrogen. We know that it collaborates with estrogen to regulate bone remodeling and that these two hormones work together in a balance to really help with the all optimal bone health during reproductive years. In 2022 there was a study published an article published in Endocrine Society that shared that research indicates that up to 20% of bone loss can happen during menopause. One in ten women over the age of 60 are affected by osteoporosis worldwide. So this is one where I'd say consider if you are going through menopause, consider working with a functional medicine doctor. Do your research and check in for HRT for you because you do not have to be a statistic. We've got diet changes, exercise changes, hormonal things that you can do that all can help fortify your bones to keep you solid and age powerfully and be built to last. Sure to join me next time for more tools, tips and techniques you can incorporate into everyday life to ensure you.

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