Healthy Bones: How to build bone density through menopause

Bone and Muscle Health During Menopause: What Every Woman Needs to Know 

Welcome to today's episode, where we’re diving into a topic that doesn’t get nearly enough attention: bone and muscle health during perimenopause and menopause. Did you know that bone loss can accelerate during menopause due to declining estrogen levels? And that your muscle health plays a vital role in preventing fractures and maintaining strength as you age?

In this episode, we cover:
✓ Why bone health is essential for long-term wellbeing
✓ The hidden risks of osteoporosis and how to screen for it before age 65
✓ How hormonal changes impact muscle mass and strength
✓ Simple, actionable steps to add resistance training to your routine
 ✓ The role of nutrition — including the best foods for calcium, vitamin D, magnesium, and collagen
✓ Why hydration and gut health are critical for strong bones and healthy joints

You don’t have to wait until you experience a fracture to start caring for your bone health. Empower yourself with knowledge and take proactive steps today to stay strong, active, and resilient for years to come.

Best food choices for bone health – 

Dairy – plain yogurt, kefir, cottage cheese, cheese and milk

Leafy greens – kale, collard greens, Bok choy, spinach, Swiss chard

Fatty fish – salmon, tuna, sardines, and mackerel

Eggs

Nuts and seeds – almonds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame and chia seeds

Fortified foods – milk alternatives, some orange juice is fortified with calcium and cereals are often fortified too.

Legumes – black beans, lentils and chickpeas

Whole grains – quinoa, brown rice, farro

Protein rich foods – chicken, turkey, beef, tofu, edamame, bone broth

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When you're ready, here are 3 ways I can help you to feel your best during perimenopause and menopause:

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2. Click here to get the free guide: 5 Natural Ways To Reduce Menopause Symptoms.

2. For more information about Lynda and how she supports women on their health journey, click here to learn more.

3. Interested in seeing if nutrition coaching with Lynda is right for you? Click here to book a free discovery call with Lynda.

Transcript

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Hello, and welcome to another episode of Joyful Menopause, where we talk all things women's health. Today we're diving into a topic that often doesn't get the attention. It deserves bone and muscle health during perimenopause and menopause. Bone health doesn't seem super exciting and it certainly isn't one of the symptoms that I have women coming to me often to help resolve. But I'm sharing this topic today because I believe that every woman deserves to feel strong, vibrant, and resilient as she moves through menopause and beyond. And bone and muscle health plays an important role in that by understanding your body and making informed choices, now you can maintain your independence, prevent injury, and feel your best for decades to come. So let's get started. Menopause doesn't have to feel like you are living in someone else's body. Your host, Linda Enright, has spent the last 25 years helping women to thrive in midlife. Here you'll find science-based practical advice that you can start using today to get real results for your health. Welcome to Joyful Menopause. Osteoporosis is silent. You likely wouldn't know you have it until you break a bone, or if you're over 65 you maybe had a bone scan, but waiting until 65 for that scan is like waiting for your car to break down before ever checking the oil. Bone loss can accelerate during menopause because of declining estrogen. Making fractures more likely to happen. I know this firsthand. A few years ago I broke my wrist and I've had several clients in their early fifties experience similar fractures. The recovery is more than just inconvenient. It can impact your mobility, causing lasting pain, and affecting your independence. But here's the good news. You don't have to wait and just hope for the best. There are actionable steps you can take to strengthen your bones. So what are these steps and how can we make them part of your routine? So we're gonna get into that in a little bit. But first I want to have you understand a little bit about your risk. Let's talk about the factors that can increase your risk for osteoporosis. Some are beyond your control, but others are completely within your power to do something about. So things they include reduced estrogen during menopause, lower estrogen levels, reduce bone density, increasing the risk for fracture, low vitamin D levels. Vitamin D supports calcium absorption. Without enough, our bones can become fragile and there's other bone supportive nutrients as well. In my Joyful Menopause coaching program, the first thing we do is nutrient testing, so we can see your personal nutrient levels to determine where your needs are and what might be the best choices, whether it's food or supplementation, to get those back up. Health of your bones being one of the reasons to do that. Excessive alcohol consumption, alcohol blocks, calcium absorption, and that weakens your bones. Smoking tobacco smoke contains chemicals that reduce bone density and some medications also can play a role. One that I think is over-prescribed is proton pump inhibitors for heartburn. That can interfere with calcium absorption, steroids also can reduce calcium absorption. So those are just a couple examples, but again, something that I always work with my clients on is looking at their medications, seeing what nutrient interactions might be happening and what can they do to support their best health. How do we know? A DEXA scan is the most commonly used test to measure bone density and predict the risk of fractures. Unfortunately, again, it's often recommended just for women over 65, but you don't have to wait until then, especially if you have risk factors. Younger women can talk to their doctor and try to get earlier screenings if there's a family history, lifestyle, or symptoms that may be increasing their risk. In some cases, providers might recommend a DEXA scan if you have a history of fractures, if you have low body weight or certain medical conditions. But just knowing your risk is the first step. The real question is what can you do to lower that risk? Stick with me. We're gonna talk about how hormones, muscle health, and your daily habits can make a big difference. My mission is to help women navigate perimenopause and menopause with confidence by providing practical science-backed health advice that leads to lasting change. I want you to feel vibrant and strong today while also taking steps to safeguard your long-term health. If you'd like more insights on nutrition, lifestyle strategies and menopause, be sure to check the link in the show notes and sign up for my weekly email newsletter. Each week I share simple, actionable tips to help you take control of your health. So now let's dive into the connection between muscle health and hormones. We often think about bones, of course, that's what we're talking about. But muscle health is actually really important too. Hormonal shifts during menopause impact impact your muscle mass, like they impact bone health too. Testosterone and progesterone are key players in maintaining the strength of your muscles. Post-menopausal women often experience accelerated muscle turnover, so that means the building and breaking down of your muscles, and this can lead to muscle weakness, poor balance, and then that can lead to a greater risk of falls. The good news resistance training is like a secret weapon. It doesn't just build muscle, but it also supports bone density. Muscle tissue also is metabolically active, meaning that it helps with maintaining a healthy weight and reducing your risk for chronic disease. Certainly you don't have to become a bodybuilder to get the benefits of resistance training. Even small consistency is the key. Consistent efforts can make a significant impact on muscle strength and then bone health. So I want to give you five things that you can think about if you're getting started with resistance training. And then in a minute we'll focus on nutrition for the health of your bones. So some things around strength training and resistance First. Start just with body weight exercises, so you can do things like squats, lunges, pushups, and planks. They're a really great way to build foundational strength without needing to go to a gym or having any equipment. These exercises are really great because they engage multiple muscle groups and they can then help improve balance and coordination. So it's not like you have to just focus and isolate one specific thing. You can do something that's going to have benefits more for a functional approach to to resistance training. Next thing you can do is incorporate some resistance bands. Resistance bands are affordable, they're versatile, they're easy to store. They travel really well. They're nice because they can give adjustable resistance, so they're great for beginners. And when you're more advanced, then you can start using a, a thicker band or making it shorter. So you're increasing your strength. You can do exercises like squats, banded squats, rows, shoulder presses, all really simple things you can do. Again, one piece of material that is going to be your weight. You can also use household items. You can do things like water bottles or canned goods, or even fill a backpack with books that can add resistance and make it a little harder to do these things and start to build some muscle. The third thing you can do is prioritize consistency over intensity. So strength training, just two or three times a week is enough to see benefits and the best part, it doesn't have to be a long workout, even 20 to 30 minutes can make a difference. Again, consistency is key. Fourth thing you can do is rest, rest and recover. Your muscles need time to repair and grow, so you want to make sure that you're resting between workouts and getting adequate sleep to support recovery of your muscles. And then lastly, last thing, listen to your body. This is something I talk about with everything that we do. Pay attention to how your body feels Mild muscle soreness is normal. That's a good thing. Pain is not. If you're unsure where to start or you're concerned about injuries, consider getting some professional help. Personal trainer, a physical therapist, an athletic trainer is often a physical therapist that has specific,, athletic training background. They can be a great resource, particularly if you've had any injuries or concerned about that as you get started or as you're continuing to build muscle. It takes a little time. Building muscle takes time, but the effort definitely adds up. Strengthening your muscles is like giving your bones extra protection. It's an investment in your long-term health and resilience. So now you have a roadmap for some resistance training and some things to get started, and maybe that part you've already got and you're already doing good resistance training, so you can always keep building on that. For women through the years of perimenopause and menopause, building muscle and having strong muscles is really helpful for a lot of things in preventing chronic disease and weight management and all the things we're working on. And also, it's really good for your bones. So if you're just getting started, gave you some ideas on that. If you're moving further ahead, there's some ideas too, just again, focusing on rest and recovery and listening to your body. But these, these choices, these lifestyle changes will further support muscles as well as bones. All right, so now let's shift gears a little bit and let's talk about nutrition. Your bones and muscles are only as strong as the nutrients that you give them. So to maintain resil resilience, we need to consider a few different things around nutrition. First, I wanna talk about four specific nutrients that are important for bone health, calcium, vitamin D, magnesium and phosphorus, and also amino acids for collagen production. So calcium. Calcium, we all know about calcium essential for bone strength and density. Aiming to get it from good food sources rather than relying on supplements is best, and we'll talk about that a little bit. Vitamin D helps your body absorb calcium effectively. Sunlight is our natural source of vitamin D, but food is also important to provide a boost. And supplements can be helpful too. I do find that. Women tend to be low in vitamin D. It's very common for us to be low in vitamin D, and sometimes supplementation is really helpful. It can be difficult to get enough in diet, but we can focus on diet too. Magnesium. Magnesium supports bone formation. It helps regulate calcium levels in the body, so that's important. Phosphorus, another key mineral in the structure of your bones. It works with calcium to maintain the strength. And then amino acids. I talked about amino acids are the, the smaller components of our proteins and amino acids and protein-rich foods have collagen, which supports bone structure and flexibility. So your body needs a variety of amino acids to produce, uh, this collagen. So I wanna give you some specific foods to include, and I'm gonna put these in the comments below also because I'm just listing a bunch of foods for you. And you don't have to write'em all down, but you'll see'em in the comments. So dairy, of course, is, you know, what we think of most when we think about some of these nutrients. Things like plain yogurt, kefir cottage cheese, cheese and milk. Leafy greens are great powerhouses in this world as well. Things like kale, collard greens, bok choice spinach, and Swiss chard. Fatty fish is great salmon, tuna, sardines, and mackerel. Eggs, particularly the yolks are really good sources of vitamin D, nuts and seeds, almonds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame and even chia seeds. And then there's a lot of fortified foods too, so milk alternatives, um, can be fortified with some of these nutrients. Some orange juice is fortified with calcium and a lot of cereals are fortified too with some of these nutrients. And then legumes and whole grains, black beans, lentils, chickpeas, quinoa, brown rice and farro, and any of the protein rich foods, chicken, Turkey, beef, and also plant sources like tofu and edamame and bone broth can be a great source. Some of the nutrients that were important for bone health that I talked about overlap in a lot of these foods. So it isn't just that like, let's eat this for calcium, let's eat this for magnesium. But there's overlap within each of these. So that's why I'm just giving you a list of great food choices to include. So again, check out the comments below to get that list too. Incorporating a variety of these foods into your diet every day ensures that you're getting some of the nutrients to support both bone as well as muscle health. So you might have thought about some of these food options, but also did you realize that water's important too? Staying well hydrated also plays a role in the density of your bones. About 25% of bones is made up of water, so staying hydrated ensures that your bones maintain their structural integrity and remain resilient, and water also helps transport all these nutrients I talked about calcium, magnesium, phosphorus. It helps to bring those to your bones. So without enough water, without adequate hydration, the delivery of those nutrients doesn't work so well, and that can also reduce the strength of your bones. Water also is needed for making collagen, which is that key protein in bones that provides the flexibility and reduces risk for fractures. Water also supports the health of your joints. Joints are where your bones connect, which allows for movement and flexibility throughout your whole skeletal system. The fluid that's around your joints is sort of a shock absorber, and this can reduce stiffness and pain. Water does so many things. Water also helps to flush out toxins, which I've talked about in other podcasts in detoxification, important for many different aspects of menopausal health, but for bone health, the buildup of harmful substances, those toxins could contribute to bone loss and also damage your joints. So a question that I get asked all the time is how much? How much water do I actually need to drink every day? A good goal is to aim to drink half your body weight in ounces of water per day. 150 pound woman would aim for around 75 ounces of water. Also, consider that if you have a diet that's rich in fruits and vegetables, that gives you water in your food too. If you have a diet that's like pretty heavy in meat and grains, breads and things like that, that's not giving you as much water from your diet. Herbal tea is also great, provides hydration without caffeine. And listen to your body again, listen to your body. Thirst, dry skin fatigue. Those can also be indicators of dehydration. We might not, we think of thirst maybe, but dry skin and fatigue. I don't know that women often think that those could actually, because you're not drinking enough. Staying consistently hydrated is a simple, yet really powerful way to support your bone health as well as your joint health, especially during these years of perimenopause and menopause. And then for the many years to come. Up next, I wanna talk about gut health. I talk about gut health all the time, from digestive issues to hormonal balance, to skin health, to weight management. Your gut is crucial for everything. I bet you didn't think too much about how it might actually play a role in bone health because it directly impacts how well your body absorbs all these nutrients. Again, calcium, magnesium, vitamin D, and phosphorus, all the nutrients we've already talked about, and a healthy gut microbiome. That bacteria in the gut also produces something called short chain fatty acids that support bone density by reducing inflammation and improving the absorption of minerals. In addition. poor gut health, not having a very healthy gut, often caused by imbalances in gut bacteria or conditions like leaky gut can interfere with nutrient uptake and contribute to bone loss over time. So again, we're not getting all those nutrients. You might be eating great, but if your gut isn't super healthy, you're not absorbing those nutrients well, and then they're not getting into your bones. So prioritizing things like fiber rich foods. Lots of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, fermented foods like yogurt or kefir or kimchi, and probiotics can support both your digestive health and your bone health. Remember the choices you make today can set the foundation for your future strength for vitality as you get older. That might be something, again, we, we think about that as like a long ways away, but as we start to get even into our forties and our fifties and certainly beyond our bones are going to start to get depleted and it's something that we wanna start as early as possible to take care of because in the future we're going to regret it. We're going to regret if we didn't do these things to build strong bones now, because later in life we're going to want to prevent falls and injuries from happening. What if you're already experiencing bone loss or muscle weakness? There are some other options to consider. Let's cover those next. For some women, lifestyle changes might not be enough to maintain optimal bone and muscle health. So hormone replacement therapy or HRT can be beneficial in restoring hormone balance, but important to have a, a good conversation with your healthcare provider to really figure out what's right for you to figure out the right balance for you. We know so much more now and practitioners are continuing to learn and we have a lot more research around HRT and the significant benefits that it can have. There are risks with anything, but there are a lot of benefits too. So if you're curious about that and thinking that might be something that is a good next step for you, then talk to your practitioner. And then let's talk a bit about supplements. If you're wondering about supplements, work with a nutritionist to assess your nutrient levels. Like I said, in my program, that's one of the first things I do is we do nutrient testing to understand your unique nutrient needs. The thing about supplements is that, you know, they can be super useful when you need them. If you don't need them, then they're, they're kind of a waste of money, right? If we, if we have enough nutrients, we don't need to necessarily be supplementing, I always think food first. We can get so many of these nutrients from a well balanced diet. But some things, like I mentioned, vitamin D, vitamin D is often difficult to get adequate in your diet, or I, I very often see women that are pretty depleted in vitamin D. And when we have a straight up deficiency, when we actually are deficient in a nutrient, it can be difficult to replenish that fully with food. And so supplementation, even on a temporary basis, can help build those levels back up to normal and then diet can help to maintain them. One other thing I want to add about supplements is it's important to have a supplement that is comprehensive for bone health. If you choose to have supplements, and if we find that you're depleted and need that, um, just supplementing with calcium alone, I don't always think is a great choice because again, we need all those other nutrients in order for the calcium to get absorbed. So there is a downside. There's a downside, first of all, to just over supplementing. We don't necessarily need to over supplement, but supplementing with isolated nutrients isn't always the best choice. So again, working with a nutritionist to figure out what's that right balance for you is going to be the best way to go. The real key about all this is knowing your body and making empowered choices. So where should you start? Let's wrap up with some final thoughts. Taking charge of your bone and muscle health during menopause isn't just about preventing disease. It's about feeling strong, capable, and full of energy for years to come Through personalized nutrition, strength training, and appropriate screenings, you can build a solid foundation for longevity and vitality. Remember, progress is about consistency, not perfection. So every small step you take matters. If you found this helpful today, I invite you to subscribe, share this episode with a friend who might benefit. Like I said, I don't think we talk a lot about bone health and it's, it really is a big factor in that vitality and longevity and just being well for many decades to come. So if you're looking for ongoing tips and support, be sure to sign up for my weekly email newsletter. I send you science backed advice and simple steps that you can take to feel amazing now. And in the future, stay strong. Stay well, and I'll see you next time.