Preventing and reversing osteoporosis | Dr Belinda Beck

Simon Hill· Host0:00

Bone health is one of the most underappreciated areas of longevity medicine today. Most of us don't think seriously about this until something goes wrong: a fracture, a diagnosis of osteopenia or osteoporosis, a DEXA scan that delivers an unwelcome number. Today's guest, Dr. Belinda Beck, is a professor at Griffith University in Australia and the director of the Bone Densitometry Research Laboratory, and she's one of the world's leading researchers on all things exercise and bone. The lead investigator on the Lift More and MedX Op trials, among the most important studies ever done on what it actually takes to build and preserve bone density, particularly in older adults and post-menopausal women. Her work directly challenges the overly cautious approach that has long dominated the field. For decades, people with low bone density were steered away from heavy loading. The Lift More data tells a very different story. In this episode, we cover which exercise type builds bone most effectively, why higher intensity loading protocols outperform what most people are currently doing, how to minimize injury risk when exercising at those higher intensity, how exercise and bone medications affect bone differently and why you might want both, and why bone mineral density alone may not be the be-all and end-all when it comes to fracture risk. This episode pairs well with my earlier conversation with Dr. Laura Gian Gregorio.