Bone Health

they have a whole library of these kinds of probiotics and prebiotics from plants that you can mix and match and find the right combination of them for many different chronic diseases.

So we're going to start with one of those diseases, which is Bone disease or bone health, right? Bone density, managing it, you know, staying away from fractures and pains and so on and so forth later in life, right? How do you do that? That's the thing we're going to talk about today with our special guest, Alicia Ballok, PhD.

Yeah, I'm really excited about this conversation.

It's gonna shine the light on parts of the human physiology that most people are not aware of until it's too late.

Yeah, Momo, you know, I want to tie it back to one more thing.

I know my mom is going to be watching, so I want to actually tell her a direct message.

We've been talking about bone health for a very long time in my family.

Both my dad and my mom had issues with bone health.

Because I'm like, I don't want, you know, I'm like, oh, it's bad enough.

But bone health, so important to not be fragile because you and I have seen it from the people that are older than us.

They fall, they break a hip, game over.

Yeah, it's kind of the beginning of the end.

And what is heavy for you is truly going to be individualized to the woman that I am speaking with.

But I do think it's really important that we really start to put some load that is manageable and appropriate, but still challenging.

Because, you know, several months ago I had a client, and you're talking about bone health.

She's like, Erin, what's the difference between... lifting 10 pounds 10 times and lifting a hundred pounds one time the overall load is the same but you have to think that like even what is required of the bone modeling the connective tissue even like your central nervous system response for you to really brace and use all those stabilizing muscles to pick something truly heavy off the ground It's just, again, a different response than doing the lighter weight, lighter or more frequent reps that we tend to see in a lot of these women oriented classes.

I've heard this more and more.

And I'm sort of curious your take, like, how much has observation of bone health been important in your approach to surgery in the last couple of years? Was it something you're thinking about going forward? And is it something you're still watching to see if data comes back? And just in general, how much does bone health affect, you know, your surgical outcomes?

Definitely, I think bone health has a big impact on patients' recovery afterwards.

Definitely, when we put the metal in, we put it in quite tightly.

So in patients who have poor bone health and bone quality, the risk of, for example, a fracture during the operation is a bit higher.

So it's definitely something that we counsel patients on pretty extensively, preoperatively.

Uh, you know, for the most part, bone remodeling and improvements in bone health can be kind of slow for patients.

And obviously most people who come to us hoping for a surgery are not looking to have a surgery, uh, years down the line.

I've heard this more and more.

And I'm sort of curious your take, like, how much has observation of bone health been important in your approach to surgery in the last couple of years? Was it something you're thinking about going forward? And is it something you're still watching to see if data comes back? And just in general, how much does bone health affect, you know, your surgical outcomes?

Definitely, I think bone health has a big impact on patients' recovery afterwards.

Definitely, when we put the metal in, we put it in quite tightly.

So in patients who have poor bone health and bone quality, the risk of, for example, a fracture during the operation is a bit higher.

So it's definitely something that we counsel patients on pretty extensively, preoperatively.

Uh, you know, for the most part, bone remodeling and improvements in bone health can be kind of slow for patients.

And obviously most people who come to us hoping for a surgery are not looking to have a surgery, uh, years down the line.

They do show why it is sensible to keep strength training in the weekly routine.

Bone health and osteoporosis When you lift, your muscles pull on your bones.

That can provide a useful signal to maintain bone.

but it is best not to treat strength training as a guaranteed way to prevent osteoporosis or fractures.

A 2026 review of 124 exercise trials found small improvements in bone density at the spine and femoral neck with resistance training.

The evidence was low to moderate in certainty, and the review did not find a clear reduction in fractures from resistance training alone.

Bone health is broader than lifting.

Walking or other weight-bearing activity, balance work, and medical care when needed also matter.