Osteoporosis Starts Earlier Than You Think—Here’s What To Do

Introduction to Bone Health and Margie Bissinger 0:00

Most people don't think about their bones until they break. But by then it's too late. Today's guest, Margie Bissinger, is here to remind us that bone health is oftentimes an afterthought, and modern medicine doesn't usually address this. While treating patients for breast cancer, depression, Gerd, and stomach ulcers. Even though the drugs prescribed for these conditions can dramatically decrease your bone density. Margie is a physical therapist, integrative health coach, author, and host of the Happy Bones Happy Life podcast.

With over 30 years of experience. She's helped thousands improve their bone density, prevent fractures, and live vibrant, active lives. She oversees statewide osteoporosis initiatives in new Jersey and has led four global summits Unnatural Bone Health. In this conversation, we talk about why osteoporosis is often a silent crisis, starting in childhood with poor posture and screen time. Accelerating through chronic stress and inflammation as we age and too often ignored until it's too late. Margie helps us see that prevention isn't just possible.

It's powerful. We discussed the surprising connection between stress and bone loss. Why? Balance, posture and strength are more important than you may think. How movement, joy, and breath can build both resilience and bone density, and the dangers of not having a bone repair protocol. If you're taking pharmaceuticals like proton pump inhibitors, anti-depressants, and even breast cancer treatment. And this is ancient wisdom, as the Book of Proverbs says, do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord. Depart from evil.

It will be health to your flesh and strength to your bones. Strong bones are important, y'all. Whether you're raising young children, navigating your 40s or 50s or healing after a diagnosis, this episode will equip you with hope and tools to build a stronger foundation physically, emotionally, and spiritually. So don't wait until you break. Learn how to build and protect your body with wisdom, movement, and joy. Here's my conversation with Margie Bissinger. All right, Margie, thank you so much, my dear friend, for joining us.

How are we doing today? Oh, we're doing great. Thanks so much for having me. It's always a pleasure to be with you. All right. Let me put you on the spot. What's one thing you've done for your bone health already this morning? Come on. Oh, okay. I've already exercised last night. Yeah, so I've already. I've already gotten that done. I did a bike ride out in the woods, which kept me nice and relaxed, and I did. I did some some qigong, so that's really good for my balance. But yeah. So I've done lots of things.

I've had a healthy smoothie I have done, I really do. Practice is what I preach. I think you have to. Otherwise no one would pay attention to you. That's why I wanted you here. Because. And not to not to drop the vibration and the tone a little bit. But there are a lot of people out there that don't walk the talk, and I know you do. And that's why I was like, come on, because we all should be living this way because it's fun. Like the cup overflow earth, right? The Bible says, and it's overflowing and that's your life.

I didn't know you're in that qigong. All right, I'm making you know, I, I wrote a series of public health reports for a qigong master early in my public health career. Unbelievable. I we are going to talk about that. Don't let me forget, because that is one of the, in my opinion, missed opportunities in America in any Western, right. It's so life changing in so many ways. Did something everybody can do regardless, regardless of where you're at with anything really, it's something you can do. Very simple.

You work complex and there's just so many amazing benefits. Yeah. Yes. And so we're going to dive into that because the research is profound. Like I'll just preface this with for everybody wonderful.

How Margie Entered Bone Health 4:10

Especially for balance fracture prevention osteoporosis. So give us a little quick a little snippet. How did you dive into this bone health world. And it's a very niche topic. It's very much undervalued. I think back and I just want to preface this by saying I go back to when I was, 17 or 18 years old, and I was at the graveyard with my grandma, dressing up my grandfather's grave and just celebrating life with her. And she got out of my car and she tripped on a curb and boom, broke her hip. And I'll never forget.

I'll never forget. Just the struggle she had. Because she never really recovered from that. And there's so much to be said about that experience. But I just remember thinking to myself, I don't want to be in a point where I'm in my mid 70s or young 80s, and if I fall, I'm going to break, because that's typically the mindset is, you know, when you get to be a certain age, you fall, you break your hip, you break your hip. And that's such a risk for premature death and other things. So I'm very sensitive this topic.

And that's is my frame of mind, because my grandma was one of the closest people to me in my life, and I love her and I and and I don't want people to experience that when they get older or their loved ones. So walk us through your journey into your both your bone health expertise. And let's really I'm going to pick your brain. So it's gonna be fine. Okay. So it's so interesting how you fall into things. So I was working as a physical therapist. My background is orthopedic physical therapy. So I was working on people's necks and backs.

And then a group of I was working at an outpatient private practice, and a group of doctors asked if I would see their osteo, their patients with osteoporosis. It was a group of endocrinologist, and I had had training in women's health. So I had the background to do that, and I said, sure. And I couldn't believe. And this is way back. This is around 30 years ago. I couldn't believe as a physical therapist, what I was seeing in people. The doctors would say, do weight bearing exercises and pretty much leave it at that. And they didn't know where to turn.

So they'd go to personal trainers, or they would just get magazines, and they were actually doing the exercises that increase their risk of fractures. And to me, that was so sad. Well intentioned individuals actually injuring themselves because they were they didn't have anywhere to turn. So that's when, as a physical therapist, I got really involved at the state level in new Jersey. I got involved with an organization that we oversee, all the osteoporosis initiative statewide. I got involved nationally.

I wrote a book on exercise, Nasty, Nastier Process and just saw the need. And then at that point, my it's a long story, real quick, quickly, quickly. My son had gotten type one diabetes and I saw how nutrition changed his life. And I said, that's what's missing in osteoporosis. So I became a health coach to learn and really studied nutrition and kept studying it so that I could add that piece. And I also teach a happiness program because mind, body and stress is so important. So when you put all these pieces together and, and root causes, root cause, figuring out what causes people were thriving, you know, it's really a different approach.

And I found integrative doctors I work with. So it's really it's really it really works. And it's really taking people from fear. Like you said, with your grandma, that scenario is not uncommon, but it doesn't have to be that way. And so that's why all the things that people can do, as you mentioned, that I see with balance and all sorts of things people can do, so it doesn't have to happen and they can thrive as they get older and be active and enjoy. So, so yeah, so that's sort of how I got started.

And I, I mean, it's just so amazing how I've been able just the community and everybody helps each other. And really we've been people I can't get over like people really look at this and say, you know what? That diagnosis was a blessing in disguise because it sort of made me look at my life. The bones aren't in isolation. What areas? What pieces? Where was I missing? And when they correct that their bones improve and their overall health gets better as well. Wow. Wow. That's powerful. And we're going to talk about some of your best takeaways with regarding nutrition, exercise wise.

And I want to dive deep into this, this concept that, you know, this needs to be top of mind, especially for cancer patients and people struggling with chronic disease, Alzheimer's, dementia. But before I do, you know, imagine imagine you were a benevolent despot. You became the queen. If you could do one thing, one thing. And I'll preface this by saying my if I became king, I would outlaw fragrance for sure. I would make it absolutely illegal immediately. Not in five years now, because I feel that in my world, that's the number one thing that we need to do to take care of our health.

If there's one thing that you could change, one thing that you could bring awareness to to dramatically increase bone health, what would that be? I think exercise, I really do. I think there's many things that contribute to bone health, but I think so many people don't realize

Exercise as the Foundation for Strong Bones 9:20

that even childhood, that exercise stimulates bone. And I think, you know, there's so many I think our society in general, a lot of people are couch potatoes. They're on the computer. And I think, you know, there's so much that can be done with exercise that isn't at a very young age to really build bone at all levels. And I think people miss the opportunity and they don't realize how powerful of a tool exercise is. So there's many things I would do. But if you're asking as a physical therapist, I think that exercise and the correct, the right type of exercise, people just don't have the knowledge to know what they can do that will really make a difference.

And once you people start that, I mean start thinking in terms of the right types of exercise for bone health. Is there an age that you would say, hey, you really need to start thinking about this now, or is it just from the beginning? I think the truth is that we build by 18 and by 20, and then we build. We have our peak bone, you know, the most bone we're going to have. So and that's the people on the peak bones actually around 30, but 80 to 90% of our bone, we have by a young age. So what we do in our when we're young really, really matter.

So people just doing active. You know, we used to do hopscotch. The two things are resistance and impact. So jumping doing activities that put forces through the bones really are molding the bone. So I think it all ages. And I think it's very important for our children. They don't realize that. Besides, you know, besides the exercise, even eating what they do matters. So it's not this is not something that people. And the problem is people think about it, oh, after menopause or, you know, as I get older, it's an older person's issue.

It's not if we can build more, it's sort of like a bang. You build your bone and you may lose some, but the more you build when you're younger, you have more to draw from. So I think we could change the trajectory of osteoporosis by starting at all ages, even the pediatricians. Oh, what exercise is your child to do some hopscotch? I do some, you know, climbing, do some jumping. So I think all, all ages and you know pre menopause. Menopause I mean I think the strength training is just something that really all ages should be doing as people get older.

It's not something oh I have osteoporosis. I need to do that. I think it's something that all along can empower people as well as balance. You know, the balance and the qigong and things. As we get older, we lose our balance. But it doesn't have to happen that way. We can keep practicing and it makes a big difference. And so good I'm thinking because I have seven children and five of which right now are in school and they have physical education. Yet what you're, what you're proposing is something even deeper than this.

There's something we're missing. I mean, you know, going back to my benevolent desk, for example, if you became queen and you could see it like, this is the law, it's like we need to do things differently. It's like we need to have the kids be interactive in, in a different way because it all starts with school lunches. It all starts with the activity. It all starts with, yes, you can't outdo sitting down for eight hours by having a half an hour in P.E. or ten minutes on the playground. So it's almost like we need a cultural shift, because if not, how are we going to get out of this mess?

Because we haven't talked about it, but we'd love to hear your thoughts on obesity and growing rates of children, because we are creating a pandemic of osteoporosis in 60 years. And that's what I see. I couldn't agree more on the other thing, which you as with your background, you don't appreciate posture. These children do occur in their neck. Is changing because they're over their phone. And that's going to be the skeleton that's going to affect everything. Your your balance, your strength. It's all very important.

So I think if people could just realize these little things can make such a huge difference. As powerful as Prof. I appreciate it. Let's dive right in. Let's dive right into some practical things. I would love it if you could kind of just to keep us on track because, you know, my mind's going in a million directions, but I'll love it if you could speak to parents. Want me to take that back? Let's speak to the young adults. Right. Let's speak to the 20s and 30s and let's go into the 40s and 50s and 60s.

I would like to really kind of go decade by decade for just a minute. I mean, like, look, you're in your 20s. Think about this, all right? You're in your 30s, you're having a couple kids think about this for you and your kids. And as you get older, middle age, I would love some good recommendations because it seems like it needs to be a little different because I'm finding it myself. Right? 45 years old. I can't do the same kind of exercises I was doing in my 20s, nor should I. And I'm finding as well as we age, we need to modify.

And that's where gone can go into play. So anyway, totally off script here, but I just love the conversation that we're having. Can you do that? Maybe even start in the, in the, in the single digits, like go decade by decade. What kind of good little popcorn recommendations can people have? Because we have people listening all over the world from all different angles right now in all different age groups. So how do we reach everybody? I think in terms of our kids, let them play. You know, as I said, the bones we see force is placed upon them.

So if they're doing jumping, if they're, you know, doing jump rope, if they're doing normal activities and engaged in athletics and sports, they'll be okay. You know, they will do okay. They're doing whether it's gymnastics or things that they're just getting forces through their bones. And if they're not, then have them do jump rope or things that they can. But I think being active is really important and just doing all sorts, a myriad. I think that's the other problem. Sometimes people now are doing one sport, one sport all year round, so they're only exercising a certain set of muscles.

But I think, you know, running, doing, playing basketball, just enjoying life and doing many different sports and just, you know, being active in that way, not on the couch. You know I think the cities and like little things, you know, teaching them good posture and teaching them oops. Teach, teach teaching them. Are you still there? Yeah. Oh, okay. My computer just went blank for a second. I'm sorry to have you. Go on. We'll take that out. Okay. All right. So that was great teaching them posture.

Yeah. Just yet we're good. I'll go from teaching them posture okay. Yeah. Sorry. Something like being to my computer just went off. Okay. Teaching the posture. Okay. I'm teaching the posture. Yes. And just teaching them also, you know, when they're sitting, I think at the desk, get them to stand desk or something that they can read. So they they change positions. I think, you know, being in one position, the body was not meant to be in one

Building Bone Health Across the Lifespan 16:20

position for a period of time. So teaching just good mechanics, it's not hard. It's just people don't know it. So they're not teaching them, you know, not to be rounded over how to sit, how to move. Yeah. So little things like that should be taught in elementary school instead of seeing everybody slouched over, said things like that. And then the eating, oh my goodness, the eating in just a whole foods based diet is so important. And, you know, getting rid of all the junk and toxins that they're exposed to and, and, you know, for the bones, it starts early on because one of the problems is digestive issues.

And a lot of the inflammation and issues can start in childhood. So I think good habits in making sure if there is something going on that it's nipped in the bud and figured out early at the earlier, the better. So for our kids. But in terms of the, you know, I think just being active, looking at their posture and doing activities, you know, in terms of the exercise and the eating is very important. So I the and being relaxed, you know, I see it's we we live in such a stress society. There's so much stress put on everyone and really at a younger age.

And that has so many negative health consequences in terms of the bones, the cortisol, they've done studies and that reduces the activity of the osteo blasts, which are the bone building cells, and it increases the activity of the osteoclasts cells that break down bone. So I think learning learning relaxation techniques, whether it is a G gong or meditation, even breathing, just realizing that we don't need to be so stressed out and and seeing the effect of stress on kids, there's just a lot that can be done.

So that's yeah, as we get older in the 20s and this in that I think the strength training I really do. I think you're keeping your muscles strong and doing full body activities, you know, doing squats, doing, you know, really learning to stabilize our muscles in our core, doing deadlifts, doing overhead press. You know, there's just things that we can do as well as with mind body, whether it's, you know, the qigong, which I love, it can be yoga, you know, also and I'm a big swimmer, so whenever you like, but you want things that also put forces in the body and impact.

You know, as I said, for younger people going to mean really for all people. But some people, as they get older and they have issues, they can't do the jumping in, the impact. But jumping, they found, really increases bone density. It's a force is on the bones that say, hey, we need some more bones here. You know? You know, we need more bone here. So whether it's a resistance, no way. The machines at health club or or impact you jumping and having forces go through the bone. So I think to make sure that they have strength training and impact balance cardiovascular let's say.

And but that age they can do series. You know as long as it doesn't hurt them like jumping in different things. Then as we get older, I would say that sort of stays, stays the same, you know, and through, you know, through and even through menopause. Again, it's really the similar type things that are making a difference. If you can't if someone has issues or they've already lost, you know, hopefully they won't lose the bone. But if they've already, you know, menopause is an area that people really lose bone.

So what changes there is now? I really believe there's things that can be done to prevent that bone loss in terms of either bioidentical hormones, you know, just optimizing hormones and realizing that there's prevention that can happen. But those ages the same thing, you know, it's not that's the beautiful thing that you see is that it? You know, it's getting older. People are doing strength training are doing impact. I mean, that's what the research has shown. Now again, depends on the situation.

If someone's healing from a fracture or their bones are very brittle, there's things that need to be done. But you know, and that's why I think it's a really good idea for people to work with the physical therapist initially to just make sure. But I think that really all ages, the strength training and the resistance and the posture exercises and balance or and cardiovascular as well. I think of the blue zones, and I would like it if you could speak to people briefly that just don't want to go to the gym, and they don't want to be doing traditional strength training in the way that we see it.

And when you look at, you know, you're familiar with the blue zones. One commonality what's that? Yes, I love the one. Yeah. And one commonality is none of the blue zones quote exercise. It's not part of their lifestyle. Their lifestyle is movement. Their lifestyle is, like you mentioned, squatting. And I saw the documentary and a 102 old, beautiful Okinawan woman getting up and down, squatting on the floor, playing with her great, great great grandchild. And that's still different life. So for these people, for those of us, myself included, who is like, I really don't want to be like sitting here doing a stupid bicep curl, there's a million other things I could do with my life.

What other kind of fun things? I'm thinking gardening. I'm thinking of whatever. But what activities could you encourage people to think about specifically for bone health that maybe they're just not considering? And I would love to kind of go outside the box here. You know, you're so right. Because in other societies, it's interesting. One of the women who was a physical therapist, who I do a lot of things with, who teaches the So Narrow program, which is really a phenomenal program that based on the research in Australia.

But she grew up in Romania and and she was showing slides of their carrying babies around and doing things where, where we live a life of comfort. So we are pushing a stroller, which requires almost no effort. You know, there was her, I don't know, maybe eight year old, and she's carrying stacks of hay up and putting in places, you know, and so she's getting the same thing that you would be doing from lifting. So you're absolutely right. You can do functional activity that require that require effort in terms of, you know, we don't live in that kind of society right now.

We're we're on a farm. I mean, anything that you could do in your life where you're somewhere and you're pushing, you know, so and I'm trying to think of an actual activity where you're pushing and you're doing. I mean, that's what we've done in the gym. We've simulated that so that we can gain our muscles. But if there was a way you could just go back to the farm or go back and do things, you know what I mean? I just I, my, my son and daughter in law just had a baby. There is a lot of work involved, you know, playing with the baby, lifting, doing things.

There's a lot of work involved in that. And so I think you can see in your daily life where you can using good mechanics, doing everything, I mean, even silly things, if you're vacuuming in the house doing that. The big problem is people round out so doing that with your legs, you know, there's a lot of there's a lot of places in life where you can where you can do things, you know, similar to that or just, you know, things that they did do in other cultures that weren't, you know, didn't have the comfort that we do.

So yeah, it's also true, you know, embrace the activity, embrace the strain. Because, you know, it might be 10 pounds, but you you carry that, right? Carry the things. And I think, I think that's this whole mentality is I've been challenged all the more not to be a lazy parent, you know, to get down there, you know, get I'm 45. I'm not I'm not saying I'm old, but I have a baby.

Movement, Posture, and Everyday Bone-Building Habits 24:10

I've an infant like get I could choose. Do I get on my knees to change a diaper on the floor, or do I just keep around the changing station where. And then I find myself all day? I'm really not really on the ground. Ever. Like I need to squat. Like just that mentality of motion movement. Anyone can garden by the way. I want to encourage everybody. You could join a garden club. You don't even need a backyard. There's so many places that would love your volunteering, just picking and weeding and all the motion.

But I love it. It's just this don't be afraid to move and and try to put strain on your muscles and your body. Doctor Gabrielle Lyons I know you know her. Just heard her share a talk on the muscle strength that we develop in our 40s and 50s are the primary indicator of whether or not we're going to live to 100 and how well we live. And I will love you. Okay. Kind of speaking to that a little bit. And then we can dive into more, cancer, Alzheimer's, chronic disease. But that concept of longevity and really look, if you're middle age, this is serious.

It's like you could get by in your 20s, but you can't because you're losing muscle at such a fast rate at your 40s. And unless you're really intentional. So any advice or any encouragement you could give because, again, I'm in that population and I'm seeing it's a battle and I have to be really intentional. And that's something that, you know, I have to change my whole life around this. Yeah. I mean, it's really interesting because I've always exercise for my whole life. And then when I had a summit and I had Doctor Belinda back on and she crea she was the researcher who did this, it was called The Lift More Study.

And they took people with osteoporosis, you know, who had fractures in the past. So people with low bone density and they had them, they wanted to see because a lot of people said, oh, don't do that much. As you get older. They wanted to see what. And anyway, these people, it was a very they lifted five sets of five repetitions and was called 85% of one repetition max. So it was hard that you couldn't do seven. And they found the people did amazing. They improved their bone density, the architecture of the hip.

They actually changed and they significantly reduced their falls in fractures. So it's amazing research. And so then they took that, they put it in the clinic. And anyway when I when I interviewed I said anyone doing this in the United States, one person, where is she 25 minutes from? I live in new Jersey, so I've been doing it now for over a year and it is amazing. They are people. I mean, I'm 66. They're people older than me. Everybody's getting strong. Everybody, you know, everybody is doing things their changing tires, they're putting their suitcase up.

There's just nothing of it. Then being strong and empowered. And this can happen for everyone. And then even the balance that qigong, there are people who've been doing this and you're moving, you're moving through it. So you get that sense of balance. And they've said, you know what, I didn't trip right trip, but I didn't fall because I've been practicing this. And then these people go on to live active, amazing lives. So I just I and and you can build the muscle doesn't matter where you start every and again the nutrition is a big part of it.

It's important. But everybody and I know everybody can do this and at whatever level, wherever you start again. But I encourage you because and the other thing is with this study, it was twice a week, 30 minutes, twice a week. So it doesn't require a ton of time. It just requires, you know what? I'm going to add this to my program. So yeah. So that I just think it's exciting. I think it's exciting when you do this. And I work with seniors all the time. I mean, and I'm, I mean, I've never felt better.

I do like all sorts of great things. And, and and you can you can have that active life. You can be on the floor with your grandchild and you can you know that that is true. Just lifting and walking up the stairs, up and down and doing everything that requires strength and but you can have that strength and you can do that. It's certainly not something that is, you know, it's definitely doable. I see that every day because I see couch potatoes who, osteoporosis. I have to exercise. And then they're like, oh my gosh, thank you so much.

This has been the best thing ever. Now I know that everyone listening, there's a variety of different, spiritual backgrounds. And let's just not dive into the spiritual aspect as much because we want to encourage people to find your peace, your center. Margie said it brilliantly. We we need to fix this stress problem because it's absolutely annihilating your bone health in addition to just chronic disease in general. But you mentioned qigong several times, and I want to I want to ask if you could guide us into this intentional movement therapy, because that's really what it is.

Balance. Why is she gong so powerful? And in in terms of this one, I want to context around intentional movement because when I, I'm envisioning you doing qigong, every motion and every way you're doing it is very much intentional and you're putting a lot of effort into not maybe not strenuous effort, but that it's not like you're just skipping around trying to, you know, there's something powerful and intentional movement, I hope. If not, then it correct me. But that, to me is the key to this whole thing.

In an intentional movement. How can that help with bone health and prevent falls and fractures? Because it seems like we're missing that piece. And if so, hopefully you could riff on that for a minute, because I think there's power in that. As a physical therapist, it's always been important. As I said, my background is orthopedics, so I worked with all sorts of athletes and and it's always important that people regain their balance because you lose that after an injury. You know, oftentimes something's swollen and you don't have the same.

It's called proprioception where you're where you're limb is in space. So balance has always been something physical therapists work with. And it was very interesting. They did numerous studies years ago seeing what's really best. And, you know, is a good to go on these expensive machines that that, you know, change your balance. And they found out that then one of the best things was tai chi, where, you know, just that movement therapy and that my feeling on that is because you're moving in space.

So it's not I think it's great to stand on one foot and that's great for balance. But you need to be moving forward, moving sideways, and you experience all the different terrain so that you have that in your system. If you do trip, if you do lose your boat. So that's one point. Yes. About intention. You, you know, you're it's mind body. You're focusing on the present. You know, so often we're doing things where our mind somewhere else. And but when you're doing the qigong and the tai chi, you're really focusing on the present.

The energy. And that's such a beautiful thing. And the it's very powerful and it's relaxing you stimulating meridians. So in so many ways, you know, it's so helpful. And, and then there's a lot of challenges to your balance and tai chi and qigong. You're on one foot, you're moving. You know, I think so. But they found the research. There's good research on this in terms of really helping balance. So I think it's and it relaxes people. You know, it really reduces cortisol stress hormone and that.

So if you like it you know we have in my community we do a bone strong qigong because there are certain movements. You go back well if someone does have osteoporosis, what they do have to be careful of is rounding. You really don't want to do activities that that round the back. You can do everything just with a neutral spine because they found that puts forth the fractures happen in the front of the spine. And so by when you when they do rounding exercises, that puts more force there. So not that you can't do that.

But we want to try to minimize that. So when we're doing that qigong for the bones, we want to be, you know, elongated posture and just eliminate, you know, not do the rounding postures. And so yeah, so it's it's just a very beneficial thing. People love it. You know, the other thing I think that's so good. Let's say you have a shoulder injury. This is what I found as a physical therapist working with people. You know. You know I can only lift it a certain degree. I can only lift up to here. But if you're not thinking like that and the mind blocks you and you're thinking, I'm gathering energy, all of a sudden the arm will go higher.

So you, you know, you're not thinking in terms of, okay, let's lift ten times, let's gather energy, or let's hug a tree or, you know, let's bring the energy down. And we're doing squats. So it's sort of a different mindset. And it's not as limiting. If anything it opens you up to more. So yeah. So it's it's real. It's really great. Everybody I, I help the state of new Jersey.

Strength Training, Balance, and Longevity 33:00

I created a program that really is used for seniors all over the state. And it ends. It's called move today. But we added, I wasn't sure if I should throw in some taiji or not, so I threw in some easy things. And truly, it's everybody's favorite piece of it. Yeah, because they've just said, you know what? I didn't fall because I've been practicing this. Yeah, it's so important. And every time you mention the rounding in the shoulders, I think of my other grandma, who wasn't as warm and cuddly and loving as my one that we mentioned with the fall earlier.

My other grandma would hit me in the back, slouching or slouching. And this was before cell phones. I mean, when I was a teenager, cell phones weren't around and we didn't have internet in my home. And I just developed this rounding of the shoulders and nope, nope. And I remember especially going through chiropractic college, the exercises that we could do. And there's some and if you can, maybe you got a quick minute. Are there certain like posture exercises? Because I know of a wonderful set that I was taught at school.

I'm curious what your take would be. What kind of exercises can people do even now to help with their posture or or reach you? Absolutely. I think a couple things. Number one, I think visualizing if we and visualizing them makes it so you visualize your spine is lengthening because so often we walk around compress. So just all right I'm doing it. Walk me through it. All right. So we're seeing that either our head is a helium balloon or to attach to a helium balloon. So so it's lengthening us. So so that's just something we should all day long think about this time lengthening. Yeah.

The second thing is the neck. What happens so often is we get something called forward head where our where our head comes forward. And so what we want to do we want what I found is we can't say okay, where's your head? We're too busy in life doesn't work. You know, if you teach something, make sure your head doesn't work. But what does work is maybe 3 to 5 times a day. You just do these exercises. So you remind the body. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So this one's really good. There's many ways to do it, but you can just put one hand on your sternum like here and one hand on your chin.

And then you just bringing your chin away from it. So it's it's sort of, it's sort of like you're just doing like very gentle. But to we have a natural curve in our spine. And when we do that, if you put your hand there, it flattens that. So it just takes you out of this position. And this position is so bad because it compresses all the nerves going to your head I strain headaches. So let's go through that again. So this is probably to me the easiest way to do it. One hand here one hand here. And you just bring it back and you can hold it for a second.

You can hold it for three seconds if you want. But once you got that, you can just, you know, do it. You don't have to do the hand or you can put your hands in your neck. But you know this, your eyes just go straight. So that's a really good that's a really good one for the neck. Then the shoulders. So me very simple. I think this is an easy one. Pretend someone shooting you and put your hands up and as kind of move your shoulders just you don't want to go too far back. Just very gentle. So back and down okay.

Does some real gentle backing down and really close it for maybe three seconds. Okay. And what that does that wakes up these muscles. Because if we're like this, our muscles are overstretched, weak. So when we do this we start strengthening them really easy. Or if that's not a comfortable position, you can just even have your hands here and just don't go too far though. So it's just like this left and right, back and down. And then in terms of the low back, we key thing for sitting is for the low back not to be rounded.

Because if you know a lot of people think, okay, I'll sit up straight, but if you're low back and people who are listening can try this, if you round out your low back, what happens? Breathing falls apart. You get compression, you can get carpal tunnel, all sorts of things. So a really good thing is, while you're sitting is just to think that you're on, you're sitting on a clock, you know, and there's all the different numbers in the clock. And so, I mean, you can do something called the pelvic clock where you just to get your pelvis loose because a lot of people are so tight, which is giving each number that you're just hitting each number.

This is actually a Feldenkrais exercise. But then when you want to get to a good sitting position, you separate your legs and then you go from 12 to 6. So you go 12 to 6, close your eyes and then you, you know, so it's like a pelvic tilt almost. And then you're arching and then you go in smaller and smaller increments until you stop so that you're in a nice stable position. So those are really those are some good ones we could do standing to you arch your back. I think those are good ones to start in terms of, you know, sitting posture at least. Yeah, we need to be doing that.

I love this like I, I've recently been diving into this concept of exercise snacking. And this is what we need to do. These little and this is exercise again you're not at the gym. You're not you're not bench pressing here. And and for those of you you got to go to Margie's website. You got to check out the resources because there's a lot of these little tidbits that help. So go to Margie Bissinger again, for those of you listening, you can't see the screen. McGee. Our go to Margie bissinger.com and Margie you reminding me of Paul Bragg and the famed founder of the first health food store in America, the founder of Bragg Apple Cider Vinegar that many people know.

He wrote a series of books. And I got the Bragg Back Health book 23 years ago, and he basically shared his version of what you just walked us through. And a big thing that Paul did is what you also did is this touch aspect. Having our body feel and touch with our hands kind of puts a focus, a going back that qigong and tai chi, this intentional movement. And when I like to do, I like to touch my abdomen when I'm sitting like to make sure, oh, tighten up, tighten my core, just a reminder and touch my shoulders just slightly back.

But I love that it's so practical, folks. These are the little things that make a difference, because unfortunately, we don't live in one of the blue zones unless you live in Okinawa, unless you live in in Costa Rica. We don't here in America or in most countries that you're listening to right now. And we have to be intentional because everything in our society, everything in our culture is hurting us, truly hurting us, hurting our bone health and contributing to chronic disease. So as we we land this plane, I would like if you could, you mentioned something that I never thought about before, and it kind of broke my heart.

Before I talk right now, we we were having a little chat and you mentioned about how, you know, for cancer patients and Alzheimer's and dementia and these end stage disease as we get older or just in general, if you have cancer, bone health is an afterthought. And you mentioned that like, oh, you're right. You're just thinking about saving a life. You just had a heart attack. You just got diagnosed with breast cancer or you're early stage Alzheimer's. Why is bone health such an afterthought? And how do we flip the script and help people in that situation?

You know, that's what's so sad because there's so much that can be done. But as you said, there's so worried about just saving the person's life

Qigong, Posture, and Intentional Movement 40:20

that and there's so many other things going on that they're preoccupied with that until afterwards. Oh yeah. Let's see. So my suggestion on this is I think evaluation is key before anything or even for everybody. There's most people don't know about this. For some reason. Doctors say I don't know why. But, you know, most people do know about the Dexa test. That's the basic bone density test. But we don't know when we get a Dexa result. We have no idea. It's just a measure of bone strength, not of bone quality.

So we don't know why is this person a couch potato and didn't eat well or have an issue growing up, have anorexia, or are they actively losing bone? Is something going on that we need to deal with? We have no clue. So there's a test called the CTE and it's see, I never pronounce it right, but it's a really incredible blood test. And what they do it it stands for C-terminal tell a peptide of type one collagen. And what that does that looks at bone breakdown. And then there's another test called P1 MP which is pro collagen type one N-terminal Pro peptide.

So I'm such a big believer in getting these tests. If you're going on any cancer treatment besides the Dexa, see where you're at when you start and see what's happening, you know, with your bones to start with. And then you can follow this, you can follow this, you can even check this 3 to 6 months. Are you losing bone? What's happening. So I think this gives people these two tests are so helpful, giving people so much information on what's going on. So that's number one. But number two you know cancer's tough.

And you'll have you know there's many different treatments. So always you know check with your oncologist. But but their days. But any kind of exercise you can do to prioritize it. They don't tell you that. They say you'll do what you can. But yes, people are walking or doing. But if there's a way that you could add or even work with a physical therapist, you know, add some impact or add some strength training or, you know, just to know the things that work, you know, even even a little bit is going to make a big difference.

Or that qigong. But just to prioritize even, you know, maybe the days you're not feeling well, you can just do a little movement, but the days that you are feeling well, you want to do this because it can really help your bones and the nutrition. You know, sometimes they're like, I know this. My mother had ovarian cancer, so I went and died unfortunately very young age. But I went to so many, so many treatments and I would just, you know, we don't care what you eat, just eat, just get the calories in.

So she could have had the absolute worst diet. They not that that's like that everywhere now. It's not things have really improved this is you know 23 years ago I think. But the point being is, is that, you know, taking care of yourself during the cancer and eating, making sure you're getting the calcium, the magnesium, you know, the protein, all those things that are so important for bones and working on, you know, the supplements vitamin D or K again with your practitioner, but all those things are going to make a big difference.

I mean, it makes such a big difference that after, you know, after you've finished the treatment, then you didn't lose as much bone as you needed to, or there's just so many things that that can be done and that people don't think about. Okay, you know what? I'm going to do some strength training on the days I feel good during treatment, you know? And then the last thing is when people are on the aromatase inhibitors, you know, a lot of people have breast cancer. That what that does that blocks the estrogen.

And so what happens what happens with that is that, you know, these lower estrogen levels, it can can really be, you know, it's very helpful because they block the activity of aromatase that, you know, helps they convert the, androgens estrogen. But anyway, the point is it lowers the estrogen. So it's great for the breast cancer but not good for the bones. So it's just something that to talk to your oncologist. And for certain people if you've already lost a lot of bone, you know, and I'm a person, I'm not a medication person.

To me that the last resort. But in certain situations with bone health, we don't want a fracture. So there are some medications that prevent the bone loss and that for certain people it really helps during treatment. And anyway, so I just wanted to mention those things for people with cancer, because I think I see a lot of people who've been on aromatase inhibitors and they lose bone and they wait, you know, till afterwards where if they were already low and high risk, they could have been on, you know, there's there's I mentioned called so meta.

It's cylindrical acid. And it really does help prevent bone loss. So anyway, I could go on for a long time looking I mean, in folks, this is this is recognized but ignored. I mean, breast cancer I'm looking at right now breast cancer.org, osteoporosis from menopause or breast cancer treatment. And it goes into great depth into what Margie's just so eloquently describing here. I guess the bottom line is, is whether it's heart disease, medication, cancer medication, Alzheimer's, dementia, the chronic diseases that people are being just inundated with right now, the drugs that are being prescribed are hurting your bone health.

And it's that you're not thinking like that, right? It's not because it's not today. It's ten years from now or 20 years from now or five years from now. We're thinking about the side effects of, oh, what's your blood pressure? What's your blood sugar? What's your inflammation gas bloating like. So I love this. This is a longer term picture into what I'm doing to myself because we're seeing higher rates of osteoporosis. Why could it be because of all the treatments that people are on. So this is a stark warning, but I love what your take home message is.

And this is not to encourage people to go natural or integrative. I hope you do consider an integrative route. If you are under, under the guidance of a health care practitioner for a chronic disease, look at a blend of natural, allopathic and conventional and herbal and all the wonderful things you could do. But don't ignore the bone aspect.

Bone Health During Cancer Treatment and Medication Use 46:40

And that's my warning that I'm getting right now from you. And I appreciate it because I never thought of it, Margie. I never thought of it, and I never connected the dots. And your doctor's not going to tell you. They're not going to say, hey, this drug is going to increase your risk for osteoporosis because you're facing a death sentence. And the last thing they're thinking about is 20 years from now and you falling. But guess what? You falling 20 years from now can cause you to die. And that's the other problem.

So how do we trade death for tomorrow versus death for today? That mindset needs to stop. And it's just like, how do we just live? How do we live better and how do we balance all of this. So I'm convicted. This is part one. One couple things is that in terms it's not to say don't take the aromatase inhibitors. They're really powerful. And they really do. You know they're very helpful. So it's not to not take them. They work. It's just while you're taking them you must must address your bones. So get that CTCs work with someone.

And you know, it's interesting because the very first time that I had that you were on doctors, I was it's natural approaches to ask you to bone us. You know, that's your process of bone health. And I didn't bring up anything about medications. And I just thought, you know what? I didn't want to go there. I'm just going to tell. And that was really a mistake because there are a lot of people, I'd say under no circumstances would I ever go on a medication, and then they end up fracturing. And then, you know, as you said, 24% of people die within a year.

Another 24% are in nursing homes the rest of their life. So the statistics are very dire. And if your bones are that weak, that really isn't a lot. I'm I'm not a person that you know, is is is like a person that goes right on medication. Absolutely not. But I realize that that was doing people a disservice that the integrative approach here is if your bones are there now, amazing medications that build bone, there are medications that help you don't go on forever. You figure out root causes. You deal with everything else the nutrition, the exercise.

But in the meantime so that you can build some more bones so that you aren't at risk for fracture. They really can play a role. So I don't want people being scared of them because if used properly, then I've seen so many times now, you know, where it's really filled the gap in so that someone isn't at high risk. They've improved their bone density, their quality, and, you know, while they're doing everything else. So so, sometimes it can really be helpful. But you did mention something important.

A lot of the medications that were on, whether it's the PPI so many people are on for, you know, for all sorts of things, a proton pump inhibitors for systemic issues, you know, that's, that's that's a huge risk factor for bones in that, you know, so a lot of times and even antidepressants, a lot of times they don't say to you one of the side effects is bone loss. Yeah. So let's so true what you said. All right I love it folks. I want empower you with something. And I get mixed results when I say these things about artificial intelligence and ChatGPT.

It's not going away. Just trust me on this thing. It's replacing Google as we speak for search. Next time your doctor or if you're on any pharmaceuticals right now, and if you're want to increase your bone health as you get older, just type up an ChatGPT. Say, what risk does this drug give to my bone health? Something and just have a conversation with the AI and find out what the risks are if there are risks. Because here's my takeaway for everybody. I never thought about this. And again, as I get older and as I'm starting to care for older parents and, this is becoming real for me and I feel we need to have a bone.

I'm writing down a bone repair protocol. In our world, if you're on an antibiotic, we always tell people you need a gut health protocol, right? You gotta reconstitute your microbiome if you're currently under a medication. Mother's cancer, Alzheimer's, a proton pump inhibitors or something. And that, you know, because research has shown is hurting your bone density in your bone health, you need to now flip the script and be more aggressive during this short season as you recover. And this is a wonderful journey, and that's where you really got to get plugged in.

Whether it's joining Margie's community or getting her courses, learning how to diet, do it yourself. Find a physical therapist, someone local that can help you, or even virtual. But that's my big takeaway here. And I love this. Like, this has been such a great conversation. I just feel like we just touched the tip of the iceberg, but thankfully, that's what these things are for. This, this is awareness. This is a great just overview. We've talked exercise. We've talked potential drug interactions.

Practical Takeaways and Final Encouragement 51:20

We've talked just personal just I want to say common sense. Like I'm sitting now my tummy's tight and I got good posture. Thank you. Margie, I want to encourage people to think, you know, there's a lot more, but I know we're out of time here, so, What what do you want to leave people with? Any thoughts? I'm thinking, you know, I don't know. I'm thinking too much because I'm going to end up interviewing again. So how would you like to end this? We talked about a lot of things. The key is not overwhelm.

And if you get the you don't have to just take a breath. It didn't happen instantly. You know, just didn't happen. And you can take your time. You know, I'm such a big believer in one step at a time, then the next step, then then you can do one thing, maybe think, you know what, let me let me see what kind of exercise I can add to my life. Do that. You know, let me look at my diet, you know, so you just do it gradually. And that's what I've seen work and, you know, and also prioritizing your mindset.

Okay, you know what I am a stress case. What can I do? Maybe I can do the chee-kong or take some breaths or whatever it is. But I just want to tell people that there's so much help, so much help, and people look back. And when you take action, I think focusing instead of focusing, I hope for me, I have osteoporosis, in the fall or, you know, oh, I've just gotten over the cancer and, you know, that just doesn't get people anywhere, unfortunately, you know, focusing on the problem. So you say, okay, well, what are my solutions?

And then you become empowered and then you can look back and really be proud of yourself because so many good things will happen. So that's what I that's what I've seen. I love it, folks. Bone health starts in childhood. It needs to be a focus for your parent, needs to be focus for your kids and for you. As we age. You don't want to be thinking, oh, look at me. What happened? You don't want to be thinking about this when you're 60, 70, or 80. It needs to be part of what you're doing now. And it's one of those just forgotten things.

And we need to create that awareness. So thank you. So much, Margie, for being here and for sharing this message. I'm really been inspired and convicted, and there's some things I'm going to start doing differently. And I want to let you know that. And folks, learn more. Go to Margie bissinger.com and just dive in, dive in her community, dive in her courses, learn how to DIY this thing, because a lot of things you could do on the cheap doesn't have to be super expensive biohacking stuff. And you can do this well.

And as always, Doctor Eric Zelensky, my hope and prayer is that you and your family truly experience an abundant life and robust bone health as part of it. All right, we'll talk soon. Bye.