9 to 5 Wellness
Do you have the knowledge you need to help your organization get the best return on the time and capital invested in employee wellbeing? Are you a busy professional or C-suite leader looking to introduce wellbeing program at your work?
Discover the art and science of helping organizations grow their most important resource, their people. In this podcast we discuss how organizations can utilize the potential of wellbeing programs to deliver high return on investment (ROI) to employers. We talk about the radical impact that holistic employee wellbeing programs can have on overall quality of work and productivity. We will be sharing insights on investing in human capital. Such as:
🌟 What has helped their organizations gain a competitive advantage?
🌟 How they see the future of employee wellbeing?
🌟 Misunderstandings that are out in the corporate market today
🌟 Advice to other leaders to create a happier, healthier, and more productive workplace
Our guests are C-suite leaders, and wellness innovators across the value chain: HR managers, wellness champions, community wellbeing ambassadors, service vendors, and wellness consultants.
9 to 5 Wellness
Girls! Here's Why Your Bone Health Can't Wait?
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
🌟 🌟 🌟 If you liked this episode and would like to learn more about wellness training and workshops offered by 9 to 5 Wellness, email us at info@aeshathair.com. You can learn more about our programs at: https://toneandstrengthen.com/workshops-trainings/. 🌟 🌟 🌟
My passion is helping organizations create a culture of wellness, and I do this by setting up health programs that prioritize the most important asset they've got – their employees. Cheers to a healthier and happier journey ahead!
🌟 🌟 🌟 You can learn more about ME- the host at https://www.aeshatahir.com
Follow me on IG and LI to learn more
Welcome to the Nine to Five Wellness Podcast, a show about corporate wellness solutions with innovators and forward-thinking leaders who are at the forefront of the workplace wellness movement. I'm your host, Aisha Tahir.
Hello and welcome back to the Nine to Five Wellness Podcast. One of the podcast listeners recently reached out to me and asked about why women lose more bone than men. I had mentioned this in our previous episode. Understanding bone mineral density. So I figured why not answer this question on the show.
So today we are talking about something most of the women don't think about until it's literally broken our bones. Girls. For us, this isn't just an old age problem, it's a 2026 reality. Did you know that? Of the estimated 10 million Americans with osteoporosis, about 8 million or 80% are women.
Approximately one in two women over age 50 will break a bone because of osteoporosis.
That's right. We have smaller bones than men. Once we hit menopause, the drop in estrogen, which normally protects our bones causes bone mineral density to plummet. So leading health experts are emphasizing that prevention starts in your twenties or even teens, and intervention is never too late.
The primary reason women lose more bone than men is due to the sharp decline in estrogen after menopause. Now, estrogen is a hormone vital for bone maintenance combined with generally smaller bone structure. Due to lower testosterone levels and just smaller skeletal structure, women lose more bone and they lose it earlier in their life than men leading to a higher risk of osteoporosis. Men's testosterone levels decrease more gradually, allowing for slower bone loss while women can lose up to 10% of bone mass in the first few years post menopause. Let's talk a little bit more about estrogen. Estrogen is a hormone that helps control the breakdown of bone, but when a woman goes through menopause, . The amount of estrogen in her system is greatly reduced.
Less estrogen means the osteoclast, which is the cell that breaks down bone. If you remember from last episode, if you haven't listened to it yet, make sure that you go back and listen to the episode on Understanding Bone mineral Density. I have talked about osteoclast and osteoblasts in much more detail over there, so let's go back though.
Osteoclasts, which are the cells that break down bone, they are able to work at a faster pace than osteoblasts, which are the cells responsible for building and repairing our bones because the estrogen level has declined. This uneven divide results in the net loss of bone mineral density. This type of loss happens at accelerated levels until a woman's body adapts to the new normal of lower estrogen.
The. Whenever I've worked with patients, I've also found that women are more likely than men to restrict food intake. Unhealthy diets are also not good for your bones. The bones need fuel to rebuild. Repair themselves. They need the right amount of protein as well as the nutrients important for bone health.
So a well-rounded and healthy diet is important. I want to touch upon another key factor here , the amount of bone you have when you reach menopause. The greater your bone density is to begin with, the lower your chance of developing osteoporosis.
If you had low peak bone mass or other risk factors that caused you to lose bone when you were younger, your chance of getting osteoporosis is much higher. Along with that goes the rate of bone loss, how fast you lose bone after you reach menopause. For some women, bone loss happens faster than others.
In fact, a woman can lose up to 20% of her bone density during the five to seven years following menopause. If you lose bone quickly, you have a greater chance of developing osteoporosis. Now we have talked about menopause in detail over here, but that's not the only thing that is responsible for faster bone loss in women.
Pregnancy robs your bones of minerals too. If you're pregnant or nursing. You need to supplement your diet with calcium and vitamin D, which your growing baby uses to form healthy bones. If you don't get enough of those vitamins and minerals from your diet, your body takes the calcium from your bones.
But most women regain bone mass after childbirth, and pregnancy may protect against osteoporosis in the long term. But the key over here is to make sure that you're fueling properly during pregnancy and while you're nursing your baby.
Another reason, which is kind of like overlooked, is that women live longer than men. So women live on average almost five years longer than men do. While that's great news, if you're a female, it also means that you're living longer with older bones. So now that you have low bone mass, . Your chances of having a bone fracture are so much higher, each year you lose two to 3% of your bone mass. A longer life therefore puts you at an increased risk for hip fractures and other debilitating bone fractures. So that makes it all the more important for you to build as much bone as you can in your younger years.
And if you are past the age of 35. Try to make sure that you preserve your bone mass.
There are some other risk factors that are not necessarily. Gender exclusive, but I do wanna touch upon them. For example, your race, women of Caucasian, Asian, or Latin backgrounds ha, are at a higher risk of developing osteoporosis. Women who are overweight or obese, they are at a higher risk. Or if you smoke or drink alcohol excessively, that puts you at a high risk having an eating disorder.
Having thyroid gland issues, , leading a sedentary lifestyle, they are all risk factors for developing osteoporosis later in your life. So even if you're otherwise in good health, you might have osteopenia, which is low bone mass, or osteoporosis. That's why getting tested early is important. The standard recommendation for a DEXA scan, which is the gold standard for understanding your bone mass or bone mineral density remains at age 65.
But current practices are evolving, which is a good news. . Many healthcare providers are now suggesting a baseline scan earlier, potentially around age 35. Understanding your bone density through a T-score can facilitate proactive measures to maintain bone health.
So now that you understand why women are at a higher risk of osteopenia and osteoporosis, let's talk about some strategies on how to improve our bone health. Let's talk fuel first because you are what you eat. We always hear about calcium, but what's the 2026 gold standard for a bone healthy diet?
It's a power four approach. What is the power four approach ? . First, adequate calcium intake is essential for bone health. Second, vitamin D is necessary for the absorption of the calcium.
Third is protein. Bones are approximately 50% protein, and most of us are coming way under the amount of protein that we should be eating. So sufficient protein intake supports the structural integrity of bones.
And fourth is magnesium and vitamin K. Magnesium is involved in activating vitamin D and vitamin K plays a key role in incorporating calcium into the bone matrix. So if you are looking for a bone healthy grocery list, which includes the power four, calcium, vitamin D, magnesium and vitamin K, here are a few things to consider.
Plain Greek yogurt, higher in calcium than regular yogurt. Keefer. A probiotic rich high calcium drink, fortified plant milks. Make sure that the labels specify 300 milligrams or higher of calcium and vitamin D protein, which is the bone builder, sardines and salmons with small bones in them. Tofu. Yes, you wouldn't really place it on tofu, but tofu is rich in calcium sulfate and then lean poultry and eggs, particularly the yolk is rich in vitamin D when it comes to produce, which has a lot of micronutrients. Try to look for dark leafy greens like kale, bok choy, collared greens.
Prunes are really good for bone density because research shows that they slow down bone turnover, so try to eat like four to five prunes daily and sweet potatoes. Which are rich in magnesium and potassium to help neutralize bone leaching acids.
Second is exercise. You have to surprise your skeleton. No, literally surprise your bone with more stimulus so that they can grow. And I hear a lot from my patients that they, their primary form of exercise is walking well, walking is good, but it does not provide enough mechanical stress, so think about exercise in terms of what can stimulate bone growth. So think of impact activities such as jumping or plyometrics, which can stimulate bone growth, resistance training, lifting heavy weights. I want to underscore heavy over here that challenge your muscles. And also help build bone strength, the stronger your muscles.
The stronger your bones because your muscles are the foundation which are holding up your skeleton, which are holding up your bones. So if you think of a house, the stronger the foundation, the stronger the house is gonna be. Same way, the stronger your muscles, the stronger your bones are gonna be. And also heavy weight provides stimulus for your bones to grow.
Third are targeted exercises, focusing on exercises that work. The hips, spine, and wrist or forearm bones can help strengthen these areas. Some of the exercises that I recommend to my patients are squats and deadlifts. These load the spine and hips the most, which are the most common fracture sites for women.
Overhead press. They strengthen arms and upper spine, and then make sure that you're lifting heavy enough that you can only manage eight to 10 repetitions per set. So I say eight to 10 repetitions because I want you to keep two in reserve. So we always go for a set of eight with two in reserve, or a set of 10 with two in reserve.
Two in reserve means that you are fatiguing by the eighth or final repetition, but you're not breaking your form so you don't have a broken form. By the last repetition.
When it comes to impact loading activities, think of box jumps, jump rope, brisk walking, or jogging. I would prefer jogging for you guys because that does induce, , stress on your bones and joints so that they grow stronger so that you're challenging the bone architecture.
So those are a few impact activities that anyone can do. Also for balance and posture, make sure that you do some form of single leg stands, like tai chi or yoga, or you can just do single leg exercises at home on your own.
And back extensions. Back extensions are great for balance and posture to keep your spine straight and counteract the forward-leaning posture that we all have while we are working at our desks. So these are a few ways to improve your bone health. If you are a girl or woman listening to this podcast in your teens or early twenties, hey girl.
Please take care of your bone health. The best advice I can give you is do get active and do weightbearing exercises so that you can grow as much bone as possible in your youth and that would help you to stay healthy and maintain good bone mass throughout your life.
Think of your bone health as a long-term investment that requires consistent attention and care. That's it for today.
Check our show notes for additional resources on bone health and testing. Thank you so much for listening to our show today. I'll be back with another episode tomorrow. Bye.
If you like this show today, please share it with your friends and family members and don't forget to subscribe to our show so that you can get fresh episodes every week.
