Transcript #411 How to Prevent and Treat Osteoporosis Naturally with Margie Bissinger

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1. Find out what’s in store on this Myers Detox Podcast with Margie Bissinger, who joins the show to talk about the best ways to treat and prevent osteoporosis naturally. She discusses the best diets, exercises and minerals that you need for strong bones, as well the factors that can contribute to osteoporosis. One in two woman suffer from osteoporosis in the U.S., so tune in to find out what you can do to treat and prevent this disease on the rise.
2. Find out exactly what osteoporosis is, its prevalence in the US and around the world, and why it should be on everyones’s radar.
3. Learn about the different types of exercises that are essential for healthy bones.
4. Find out why Margie is a huge advocate for people exercising their back muscles with fewer repetitions.
5. Learn about the foods and minerals that you should absolutely have in your diet in order to support healthy bones.
6. Find out what happens if you do not have a nutrient rich enough diet.
7. Proper digestion is essential for healthy bones. Find out why, and some fascinating facts on the digestive issues many people who have osteoporosis face.
8. Stress, which produces cortisol, actually reduces the activity of the osteoblasts, which are the bone building cells. Learn more about how stress affects bone health, and some awesome techniques you can use to improve your stress levels.
9. Learn about the variety of heavy metals that are lurking in your bones, and how they affect them.
10. Learn why Margie is not a fan of osteoporosis medications, and some of their alternatives.
11. Margie teaches and online course called Happy Bones, Happy Life. Find out why finding inner happiness is essential for healthy bones.
12. Find out where you can learn more about Margie, and read her final words on bone health.

Wendy Myers: Hello, everyone. I’m Wendy Myers. Welcome to the Myers Detox Podcast. We will have a really good show today. We have Margie Bissinger on the show to talk about how to address and prevent osteoporosis naturally, and how to get strong bones naturally. Osteoporosis affects one in two women in the United States, and one in three to five outside the United States. It’s a real concern and problem for so many women who suffer falls, bone breaks, fractures, hip fractures and things like that. There’s so many things that you can do to prevent it. We address all those on the show, like what types of exercise to do and not to do, what kind of diet to eat and not to eat and foods that are very rich in minerals needed for your bones, to have strong bones. It’s not only minerals, calcium and magnesium. You also need collagen to have flexible bones, so when there’s pressure on them, they can bend as opposed to breaking.

Wendy Myers: We talk about the heavy metals that deposit in bone, that can make your bones look more dense on osteoporosis scans. We talk about a lot of different subjects like medications and the problems with those. How they can actually promote more femur fractures after a five year period of usage, and why they just don’t measure up to lifestyle and dietary choices that you can make. Margie Bissinger has been a physical therapist for decades and has helped thousands of people with osteoporosis. She’s a wealth of knowledge. I’m so happy to have her on the show. I know you guys who are listening have concerns about your body’s burden of heavy metals, how that affects your bones and how that affects other areas of your health. I assure you that heavy metals and chemicals are the number one primary driver of disease in the United States and around the world today. That’s a bold statement, but that is supported in all the research I’ve done over the last decade.

Wendy Myers: I created a quiz where based on some lifestyle questions, you can get your relative body burden of toxins in your quiz results. You can take that quiz at heavymetalsquiz.com. After you take it, you get a free video series that answers all of your frequently asked questions about detoxification. Go take it now at heavymetalsquiz.com. Our guest today, Marjorie Bissinger, is a MS, a PT and a CHC. She’s a physical therapist, an integrative health coach and a happiness trainer. Margie has over 25 years of experience helping people with osteoporosis and osteopenia, which is the diagnosis you get before osteoporosis. She’s helped them improve their bone health through an integrative comprehensive approach, utilizing whole foods, exercise, supplements, mind-body relaxation techniques and happiness training.

Wendy Myers: Margie is the author of Osteoporosis and Exercise Guide. She oversees all the osteoporosis initiatives in the state of New Jersey as a physical therapy representative to the New Jersey Interagency Council on Osteoporosis. Margie also teaches an online six week program called Happy Bones, Happy Life, to give people the tools to naturally achieve optimal bone health. Margie’s also the host of the Happy Bones, Happy Life Podcast. Margie believes that happiness plays an integral role in our bone health and overall health. She’s been teaching her patients “happiness habits” for over 35 years and has seen the powerful effects happiness has had on chronic pain and recovery. Margie created the Happy Me, Happy Life online program to help people increase their happiness level, energy and overall health. Margie has lectured to Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, hospitals and women’s groups throughout the country. She’s been featured in the New York Times, Menopause Management, OB/Gyn News and contributed to numerous health and fitness books. You can learn more about Margie and her work at margiebissinger.com. Margie, thank you so much for joining the show.

Margie Bissinger: Oh, thank you for inviting me. I’m so glad to be here.

Wendy Myers: What is osteoporosis?

Margie Bissinger: Well, by definition, osteoporosis just means porous bones. It’s both the strength as well as the architecture and the quality of the bone. When both of those are reduced, the bone just doesn’t have the strength or the architecture that connects it, the interconnection, so it ends up being much more porous and likely to fracture, unfortunately.

Wendy Myers: How common is it? What is the prevalence? Why is it really important for everyone, people of all ages, to be concerned about the health of their bones?

Margie Bissinger: The thing is, people don’t realize how prevalent it is. In the United States, one in two women will sustain a fracture due to osteoporosis in their lifetime. In other countries worldwide, it’s one in three. In the United States, it’s one in four men, and worldwide it’s one in five. It’s very high. A lot of people think this is something that just happens when you’re older, so you don’t need to worry about it. That’s so far from the truth because we really develop most of our bones before the age of 20. Women develop 80% to 90% of their peak bone by 18, and men by 20. What we do when we’re younger, what we are doing to our bones when we’re developing our bones has an absolutely huge impact. It’s sort of like a bank. You put lots of money in, and then at the end if you lose some or if you withdraw some, it is ok because you had a lot in there to begin with.

Margie Bissinger: It’s the same thing with our bones. If we don’t develop them early on, then when we do lose some bone with aging and other reasons, we aren’t going to have as much. What we do at all ages matters. I don’t think people realize that. We do things to keep our heart healthy but we don’t really look at bones. Well, what can we do? The good news is that what we do for our bones, they’re not in isolation, it helps everything. It’s something I think a lot of people aren’t aware of. There’s so much that can be done throughout the lifespan that we need to put it on the map. If we do that, we shouldn’t have this problem that we’re having today.

Wendy Myers: It is a big fear. A lot of women are very concerned about it for good reasons. What can they do to prevent it? What can they do now, before they get a diagnosis?

Margie Bissinger: Really, at every stage and that’s the good news, there’s so much that can be done. I think in childhood and early on, number one is that exercise is absolutely essential. If you don’t use it, you’ll lose it. In today’s world, so many people are at the computer, sitting for such an extended period of time. Maybe they’re exercising a few times a week. There’s certain types of exercises that are critical for the bones. They found that the bone responds to the forces placed upon it. If you’re just doing a little exercise, anything’s better than nothing first of all, but it’s going to make a very big difference if you’re doing the exercises that really affect bone.

Margie Bissinger: A couple things work like resistance training, when the muscles contract against gravity and say, “Hey, we need more bone here.” The muscle’s tugging on the bone, it’s pulling, so resistance training and strength training is absolutely essential for all ages. That’s the exciting thing. Everybody can do that, even people I work with in their 80s and 90s can do strength training. Also, impact, for younger people, any kind of jumping, any sports or any activities where you’re getting that force through the bones against gravity. Weight bearing, but even taking it to the next level, as long as you don’t have severe osteoporosis. They’ve done studies on jumping impact which increases bone density. I think there’s lots of different parts to an exercise program. What is really important is to get the impact, the weight bearing and the resistance training.

Wendy Myers: I am doing weight training, Pilates and walking every day. I’m doing a lot because I want to maintain and retain my bone health as well. Especially as I entered menopause about a year ago, it is ever so important. Are there any specific exercises that women can do, and men can do, to strengthen their bones?

Margie Bissinger: The areas that are most important are what’s called trabecular bone. Those are most prone to fractures. Fractures can occur in the spine, the wrist, the hips and the ribs. A lot of people will do biceps and triceps for arms, and a lot of things in terms of legs like squats and lunges. You’re getting your whole body weight on your legs, hips and the spine. What people are missing so much is the back extensor muscles, really working the back muscles. Anything with weights going backwards, like a lot of the Pilates exercises with force on all fours, lifting an arm or leg. There’s so many things, going up on your toes and down on your heels and really strengthening the leg muscles. There’s an enormous amount of things to do, but I think a comprehensive exercise program includes strength training.

Margie Bissinger: Here’s the thing. People think sometimes, “Oh, well, more repetitions is better.” That’s not what the research bears. What the research has shown is it’s actually the amount of weight that matters. You want to do around 10 repetitions of something. My favorite thing to tell people is if they do have osteoporosis, or even osteopenia, see a physical therapist. They can really make sure you’re doing absolutely the right exercises, in good posture, knowing that structurally you’re doing everything appropriately. If possible, that’s the best thing. I think making sure that your exercise program has strength training, and again, not 40 reps. They’ve done studies on this and they found around 80% of one repetition maximum is a good thing. What that means is that you can do an exercise around 10 times, and you’re sort of getting tired by the tenth time. Does that make sense?

Wendy Myers: Yes, absolutely.

Margie Bissinger: You want to work somewhat hard if you can. Again, if you’re someone who has a lot of pain, you’ll need to modify it. Everybody does what they can, but it’s the increase in weight that really seems to be what’s affecting bone.

Wendy Myers: Okay, fantastic. What about a diet? What are some foods that can help strengthen bones? What are some foods or types of diets that are detrimental to our bones? Can you elaborate on that?

Margie Bissinger: Absolutely. What we really want is a nutrient dense diet. I think that’s absolutely essential. We want to get the bones the minerals they need. We need our calcium and we need our magnesium. There are so many things that we need. If we are eating just the standard American diet, it’s really going to be devoid of that. The other thing is that sugar depletes bone. They’ve actually shown it reduces the magnesium and the calcium in the bones in terms of you’re not going to be absorbing it, it reduces the absorption. Just eat good, solid food that contains the nutrients that we need, as well as protein. That’s a misnomer too.

Margie Bissinger: A lot of people think too much protein gets excreted in the urine and that’s not good for your bones. They found just the opposite in the research. We don’t want too much, there’s obviously a Goldilocks position, but we need enough protein. A lot of people, as they get older, are not getting enough. Protein is so important for the matrix of the bone to keep it strong and flexible. We could talk literally an hour about food, but I think it’s just very important to have a nutrient dense diet because people who are micronutrient deficient, that’s one of the root causes of osteoporosis.

Wendy Myers: I make sure I eat a lot of soups, bone broth soups, because that has collagen, glucosamine and chondroitin in it. You need that collagen for the minerals to deposit onto, to create that flexibility.

Margie Bissinger: Absolutely, bone broth is great. Leafy greens are phenomenal because they have so much calcium, magnesium and vitamin K-1 to help prevent fractures. They’re just filled with so many of the bone building nutrients. For many people, supplements are important as well because a lot of people are vitamin D deficient. All those things really have a huge impact on the bones.

Wendy Myers: I love to go walking in the sun. I make sure I get sun every single day, to make vitamin D naturally. I don’t supplement with it. I get it naturally. Not everyone can do that, but I live in Mexico. You’ve got to have vitamin D to get that calcium in the bones. You can’t just drink calcium or eat calcium.

Margie Bissinger: When people go to their doctors and they check the vitamin D level, I’m finding most physicians will look at what’s called the 25 hydroxy vitamin D and tell people where they’re at. I think people are monitoring that. Most people really care about calcium and vitamin D and that’s it. Magnesium is so critical, as well as vitamin K-2, because that’s what’s getting that calcium and making sure it goes into the bones and not into the soft tissue and places that we don’t want it. I think that’s something that is missing for a lot of people.

Margie Bissinger: We don’t all live in Japan where they eat natto, which is so high in vitamin K-2, so I think that’s something that needs to get into our awareness. It can make a huge, huge difference.

Wendy Myers: I think the best supplement is a Megaquinone, that can give you natural vitamin K-2, where a lot of others are synthetic. That’s the one that I recommend to people. Any other nutrients you like for bones?

Margie Bissinger: I mean, there’s so many. There’s boron, zinc, there’s really a whole plethora of nutrients in terms of what’s going to nourish the bones. It’s a whole symphony and everything works together. I think the missing ones I see on a regular basis are magnesium and K-2. Again, it depends what kind of diet people eat. Just getting a good nutrient dense diet’s going to help the bones as well as everything else.

Wendy Myers: What kind of diets are detrimental to bones? I think the vegan diet is detrimental. I think that the low fat diets that people were doing in the 2000s, but some are still doing for some reason, are detrimental to bone. What diets or impact do those have?

Margie Bissinger: That’s a really good point because we need fat. There are fat soluble vitamins, A, D, E and K all need fat to be absorbed. If we don’t have fat in our diet, we’re not absorbing these absolutely essential nutrients. I think there’s many diets that are detrimental. As you said, if it’s purely vegan and they’re not getting B12, they need to supplement with other things. I’m a very big believer in intermittent fasting. There’s so many benefits. However, some people take it a little bit too far, they’re not eating that much. I think the diet’s great when done well, but there are people who are just not getting enough nutrients.

Margie Bissinger: Besides the bones being weak, there’s also, it’s called sarcopenia, where your muscles aren’t getting enough nutrition. That happens quite commonly as people age, but it depends what you’re eating. If you’re eating junk food and you’re eating high carbs, they’ve shown that blood sugar has an effect on the collagen, actually. People whose blood sugar is higher, that can also be affecting their bone density. I think there’s so many really good, healthy diets. I know the diets that you promote, Wendy, are wonderful for our bones.

Wendy Myers: Yes, bone friendly. They’re the diets that I promote over here. What is the role of digestion in bone health? It doesn’t matter what you eat, it only matters what you digest. Can you elaborate on that?

Margie Bissinger: It’s such a good point because so many people will say, “Oh, I’m eating this, this, this,” but they’re not absorbing it. They’ve done so many studies, and people with digestive issues have a much higher rate of osteoporosis. I think that needs to be corrected. That’s one of the root causes. So often what I see is someone will be put on medication, and yet, they haven’t addressed the underlying digestive issues. To me, that’s one of the first things that people need to do, is really start with their digestion, seeing where there might be holes, what might be issues and dealing with that.

Margie Bissinger: In terms of the bones, particularly, there’s a couple things. One is gluten. It’s so interesting because they’ve shown that people with celiac disease have much higher rates of osteoporosis. They don’t really talk about people with non-celiac gluten sensitivity and issues. But yet, I’ve seen in my practice so many times that if people had an issue with gluten and stopped the gluten, bone density increased. That’s because of the inflammation. So yes, digestion is really critical.

Margie Bissinger: Another interesting piece to it is stomach acid. Dr. Wright, who looked at this and did endoscopies, found that 80% to 90% of those with osteoporosis actually had reduced stomach acid. When that happens, the body’s not able to break down a lot of the nutrients. When people have stomach issues they will be put on Tums, or they’ll be put on some type of antacid or PPI, and reduce the stomach acid even more, for symptom relief. They found that those medications are a huge risk factor for osteoporosis and really increase the likelihood. It’s just something that a lot of people aren’t aware of, that you want other ways to deal with your digestive issues. Again, if you’re on this, don’t just go off. Work with your physician. The stomach and definitely anything that people can do to improve digestion, is going to make a huge difference in terms of what you’re absorbing and the quality of your bone health.

Wendy Myers: Let’s talk about the role of stress, because a lot of people are under a lot of stress right now, and fear and uncertainty. Stress certainly has a negative impact on your digestion. Can you talk about some ways to reduce stress to facilitate bone health?

Margie Bissinger: Well, the interesting thing is that, just like you said, people are under a lot of stress and don’t realize that the stress has a huge impact on their bones. Stress, being a stress hormone, increases cortisol. Cortisol actually reduces the activity of the osteoblasts, which are the bone building cells. They’ve done research on this. It started as animal research, but now they actually have studies showing that increased cortisol reduces bone density, absolutely. It’s one of the first things I work on with people, because people will say, “I’m so worried about: Am I eating the right food? Am I doing the right exercises?” They don’t realize that the stress itself is negatively affecting their bones. I always start with just breathing, deep breathing before people, just taking a break.

Wendy Myers: Taking a moment before you force that food down.

Margie Bissinger: That’s going to affect digestion. They’ve done studies on this as well, showing that if they attach it to something they’re already doing, if you’re trying to introduce a new habit and you attach it to something that’s already happening, you’re much more likely to do it. So with eating, we all eat, and if we just stop and take a few deep belly breaths, it does so many things. It increases our digestion. It also just relaxes us. We enjoy our food more. People have lost weight from just doing that. That’s one thing I start with.

Wendy Myers: I haven’t lost weight doing that. Maybe there’s some exceptions to that out there.

Margie Bissinger: There’s many different techniques, whatever works for people. There’s so many things. I’ll teach something from the institute, where people just put their hand on their heart. Then they visualize something that causes them to feel love. Just doing that stops the sympathetic, the fight and flight, and brings on the parasympathetic, rest and digest. The rest and digest is where miracles happen. That’s not only where we digest our food, but that’s where we can reduce our stress. I could probably talk for two hours on stress. Gratitude, I’m such a big believer in gratitude and appreciating the good in life. All of those things are really the antidote to stress.

Wendy Myers: Yes, it’s definitely a practice instituting that. Let’s talk about heavy metals. We know the bones are a repository for heavy metals. They’re almost like garbage cans in the body. The body loves to stow away heavy metals and they’re very convenient. What metals do we find in the bones?

Margie Bissinger: Well, you’re the expert on this, Wendy. Lead and cadmium are two that are very big in the bones. The problem is that people don’t realize that they could have been exposed to lead a long time ago, and it could still be in their bones. Aluminum as well but this is your area, absolutely. It’s something most people don’t think about. They don’t even think that one of the root causes of osteoporosis is that their bones are filled with these, and it takes the place of other minerals. It’s such an important thing that people need to get tested and work with people like you, to get rid of that, because that certainly does play havoc with the bones.

Margie Bissinger: Also, when people go through different stages of life, menopause and different things, you could be getting more in your system from this, so it’s an area that’s so important.

Wendy Myers: I just want to give my two cents on this.

Margie Bissinger: Yes, please do.

Wendy Myers: So people can make that connection between bone health and heavy metals. Lead is very prevalent and it can make bones look more dense on DEXA scans, that are done for looking for bone density. Also, when you supplement with calcium, calcium will displace and push lead out of the bones. When women go into menopause and they have faster bone cell turnover, because of the lowered estrogen, women start having a lot more lead leach out from their bones into their system. That can cause fatigue, cataracts, and other types of issues like high blood pressure and things like that. Aluminum is largely deposited in the bones. When people are detoxing aluminum, their bones can hurt. They can have bone pain, which some people find very unnerving, but that is a symptom of aluminum detoxification. We can go on and on and on, but it’s very important when you’re thinking about doing a detoxification program, you are going to be helping your bone health as well, and facilitating bone density by displacing lead with calcium.

Margie Bissinger: Absolutely. That’s such important information.

Wendy Myers: Let’s talk about medications. A lot of women go to the doctor, they get a diagnosis of osteopenia or osteoporosis, and then their doctor immediately wants to put them on different medications. What are your thoughts on that and what are the drawbacks of medications?

Margie Bissinger: I feel there’s so many other ways to handle bone loss versus medication. I think so often when they’re put on medication and I see this a lot, people think, “I’m set. Okay, I have the medication. I’m set.” That’s so far from the truth because I’ve been working in this field for over 25 years. Way back, that’s when Fosamax and bisphosphonates came out. They didn’t even know that more than five years caused significant problems. Now they’re not even keeping people on it for five years because normal bone turns over. Every 10 years, we get a new skeleton. There’s constantly old bones replaced by new bones. That’s how our skeleton stays strong and healthy.

Margie Bissinger: What happens with these drugs is they stop us from losing bone, but they stop the whole process. You’re also just not getting that bone turnover, so the bone isn’t as healthy and fresh. There’s a problem with that. I think all the drugs have significant side effects. Some people are on these drugs. I’m not going to say never, depending on what a person’s situation is, but for the most part I think people have to start at the very basics. The very basics are what the root causes are, and to really go through system by system and see what’s the problem. If you went on the medication and didn’t correct your digestive issue or didn’t deal with the heavy metals, you still have problems. This is just masking it, and masking it with significant side effects.

Margie Bissinger: A lot of these drugs haven’t even been on the market long. Some of them reduce your immune system. There’s definitely side effects. To me, you start with a natural approach. I think exercise is something really essential and people don’t realize that you can still gain bone through exercise. They did a study called the Lift More Study, where they took people who had osteoporosis and even people who had fractures, and it was supervised. It was supervised by a physical therapist and by professionals. They had them lift weights. It was a higher weight. I think it was 85% of one repetition maximum and they found people increased their bone density. That was really positive and nobody got hurt. I think exercise is essential.

Margie Bissinger: Looking at your food and looking at inflammation. Inflammation can be majorly affecting your bones. Any sources of inflammation need to be dealt with. I’ve been working with people for so many years, and the good news is a lot of people don’t need to go on medication. Hormones are huge, working with someone who deals with hormones is another way to deal with bone health. That’s not my approach at all, in terms of the medication.  I’ve seen people do amazingly well. The good news is, there’s a silver lining.

Margie Bissinger: You find out you have osteoporosis, initially, people are like, “Oh, my gosh. I’m not going to be able to play with the grandchildren. My life is over. My trips are over.” It is just the opposite. You find out, then you do all these great things. If you were a couch potato, you become an exerciser, or if you’re not eating healthy, you add healthy eating and reduce your stress. You’re doing all these things and then you become so much healthier in the process. That’s my approach, and I’ve seen it being very effective. A lot of times, I work with functional medicine physicians and other people who really are looking at a root cause and I think you need to. I think that’s the only way to approach this is to look at it from that perspective and see where your weak link is. That’s the other good news. When you help your bones, your skin gets better, just like you see with the detox. Whatever area needs to be improved, other things get better as well.

Wendy Myers: You teach an online course about this. You’re a plethora of knowledge of bone health. Your course is called Happy Bones, Happy Life. What role does happiness play in your bone health?

Margie Bissinger: It’s interesting. I’ve been a physical therapist for a really long time. Early on in my career, I had gone through something that wasn’t so happy. I was working with people with chronic pain, back pain, neck pain and TMJ. People were really unhappy, my patients. They would say, “Margie, you’re so happy. What’s your secret?” I thought, “If they only knew what I went through, they wouldn’t be saying that.” But the truth was, it hit me at that moment, that happiness is an inside job. It’s not based on your external circumstances. So I started teaching people what worked for me. Later on, I got trained in happiness and took positive psychology, et cetera.

Margie Bissinger: I found that it makes a huge difference in chronic pain. People were getting better so much faster than they were with just traditional physical therapy. They’ve actually done a study showing people with increased life satisfaction and happiness have increased bone density, and it makes sense. If you’re happier, and the happiness I’m talking about isn’t just walking around with a fake smile, it’s happiness from within. It’s a matter of just being content and being able to ride with the punches. It’s like a deep sense of peace and wellbeing that’s not dependent on your circumstances.

Margie Bissinger: Happiness, when people get that, everything gets better. They want to exercise and they want to eat well. The research has shown their bones improved too. That’s always a piece of everything I teach because to me, it is a foundation. I guess for you, the foundation is detox. To me, it is to start working on these habits because they really translate into every aspect of your health. It’s a fun way. How nice is that? You find out you have osteoporosis, then you start learning these habits, and you wake up happier.

Wendy Myers: Sometimes these diagnoses are a wake up call that it’s time to start taking care of yourself. Maybe it was just was your weak spot, your weakest link that you need to address. Any diagnosis is a systemic issue. It’s not located in that one area. Where can we learn more about your course and learn more about you and your work?

Margie Bissinger: My website is just margiebissinger.com. My course is called, it’s on there, Happy Bones, Happy Life. I also have a podcast that you’ve been on, Happy Bones, Happy Life Podcast. Posture is so important. We didn’t really discuss that. Can I actually just mention one thing? If people who are listening have osteoporosis, they have shown that rounding out exercises, like forward bending, touching your toes, actually increase the risk of fracture. It’s just something that the listeners want to know, and extreme rotation as well. If you’re at a yoga class, you don’t want to do those extreme movements, not that you can’t do things, but if you bend instead of from the waist, you bend from the hips.

Margie Bissinger: Posture is just so important to everybody. Since rounding has been shown to increase the risk of osteoporosis and fractures, you certainly want to make sure that you don’t have that every day in your posture. I can give you a link for posture exercises that people can do to help them stay in a good, comfortable posture. People are so worried about getting that hump and other things. They’re easy to do, and they really make a big difference, so I can also give you that as well.

Wendy Myers: Fantastic. We’ll have that link in the show notes if you go to myersdetox.com and search for Marjorie Bissinger, you will find that link in the show notes. Anything else that we haven’t covered yet, that you wanted to touch on?

Margie Bissinger: The most important thing is to look at it as an opportunity. At any age, make sure that you’re eating nutrient dense food. Make sure that you’re doing exercises to put forces on your bones. Children should be doing jumping, all sorts of things, so they’re getting that good weight bearing exercise and not sitting all day in one position. I just think, all ages, I think it needs to be looked at.

Margie Bissinger: Whatever we do can be preventative down the road. If you do get a diagnosis or find out you have osteopenia, take action. I can’t even tell you, looking back, people are so happy because it was a window into finding out something they could improve upon. I guess I look at it as an opportunity, an opportunity to improve your bones as well as your overall health.

Wendy Myers: Fantastic. Well, Margie, thank you so much for coming on the show. This is a very, very important topic. This is an issue that plagues so many women. I urge people to head this off at the curb. Do not wait until you get a diagnosis. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Marjorie, thanks so much for coming on. Everyone, thank you so much for tuning in every week to the Myers Detox Podcast. I truly believe that love is medicine. In doing this show and providing this free content, I do this because I care about you. I love you and I want you to love yourself enough to work on your health every single day. I just love all you guys for tuning in every week. I love teaching you guys as much as I can about your health and different aspects of detoxification. Thanks for tuning in. I’m Wendy Myers. You can find my work at myersdetox.com. I’ll talk to you guys next week.