My mom was just diagnosed with osteopenia.

The stage before osteoporosis when bone density is starting to drop. This is the exact thing I’ve spent the last 10 years hoping wouldn’t show up.

So I’m writing this as much for her as I am for you.

This matters because 1 in 3 women over 50 will break a bone from osteoporosis.

Read that again…and let that sink in.

For many women, that bone is a hip. And breaking a hip after 65 is one of the single biggest predictors of losing your independence. It often means not being able to drive, not being able to live alone, not being able to pick up a grandkid.

What’s most frustrating about this is by the time anyone brings it up, the conversation is about treating a problem instead of preventing one.

Fosamax and other medications become the topic of conversation but they don’t come without a long list of side effects.

So instead, I want to cover the preventative side of things. And this can work whether your bone density is still strong. Or if you’ve been diagnosed with osteopenia or osteoporosis.

My mom’s doctor told her to take a calcium pill. A lot of women I talk to and work with take them.

But calcium supplements don’t work the way you’d expect them to based on the research.

A 2021 meta-analysis of about 29,000 women found that calcium supplements increased the risk of cardiovascular disease in healthy postmenopausal women by roughly 15%.

That’s disturbing…

But here’s why that happens.

When you eat a food high in calcium, it often has Vitamin D, Vitamin K, and other nutrients. These nutrients act as escorts, guiding the calcium to your bones.

But when you swallow 1,000mg of calcium, your blood calcium levels spike. Your body doesn’t know what to do with that much on its own and some of the calcium makes it to your bones. But a lot of the calcium wanders off into your arteries. Where it hardens into plaque.

And if this isn’t bad enough about calcium supplements…

A long-term study tracked over 5,000 adults for 10 years and found the same pattern… those who got their calcium from supplements had measurably more coronary artery calcification.

But people who got the same amount of calcium from food did not.

It makes you wonder why the same nutrient taken from a supplement works so differently than when you eat it from food…doesn’t it?

Well I dug a little deeper to find out why.

And it has to do with a few important vitamins I mentioned above:

Vitamin D3 and Vitamin K2.

Vitamin D3 acts as a sponge, helping your body absorb more calcium. Without Vitamin D3, your body only absorbs about 10-15% of the calcium you consume. That jumps to 30-40% when consumed with Vitamin D3.

Studies on women 65+ found that taking 800–1,000 IU of Vitamin D3 per day, combined with calcium from food, decreases bone loss and reduces fractures.

The second nutrient is the one no one, not even most doctors, talks about with calcium. But it turns out to be just as important as D3.

Your body naturally produces a few things that act like traffic controllers for calcium:

But both of those are dormant until something activates them.

And that something is Vitamin K2.

Without enough K2, you can take all the calcium you want but your body has no way to direct it.

It floats around, looking for a home, and a lot of times the path of least resistance is your blood vessels…exactly where you don’t want it to go.

A 3-year randomized trial gave 244 postmenopausal women either a placebo or a K2 supplement of 180 mcg per day.

The K2 group preserved bone mineral density while the placebo group lost bone density, as expected.

These are what no one told my mom. And probably not you either.

The reason calcium supplements seem to harden arteries instead of strengthen your bones isn't that calcium is bad. You absolutely need it.

But you’ve been told to take more calcium without giving your body the tools it needs to put that calcium where it belongs.

Knowing what calcium pills can do to your arteries, you're better off getting your calcium through food.

The recommendation for women over 40 is roughly 1,200 mg of calcium per day. That sounds like a lot until you start counting it up.

Here are some of the best foods for calcium per serving:

One thing to know is not all calcium from plants are created equal. Spinach is loaded with calcium, but it's also loaded with something called oxalates. And these oxalates block absorption of calcium so you only absorb about 5%.

But kale and broccoli don’t have these oxalates. So you absorb closer to 50%.

To hit your calcium goal, your day could look like this:

A smoothie with Fairlife milk for breakfast, Greek yogurt for a snack, sardine salad (it’s better than you think) for lunch, and sauteed kale for dinner.

Nutrients like calcium, Vitamin D3, and Vitamin K2 are important for your bone health.

But they’re only half the equation.

The other half is based around exercise. Specifically whether you’re doing enough to strengthen them.

I’m going to warn you…this next part might be hard to hear.

Walking is not enough.

Of course, walking is good for you. It's good for your heart. It's good for your head. And you should absolutely do it every day.

But it's not enough to strengthen your bones.

Neither is Pilates or yoga.

Because bones follow a rule called Wolff's law, which is just a fancy way of saying: your bones adapt to the activity you do. Almost the same way your muscles do with exercise.

Stress them with something like strength training and they get stronger. Don’t and they slowly get weaker. Even if you walk every day.

The good news is, to strengthen them, you don’t need to become a powerlifter.

There was a study in Australia that took 101 postmenopausal women with low bone density and split them into two groups.

One group did a low-intensity exercise program, like Pilates. The other group did strength exercises like deadlifts, squats, and push-ups, twice a week, for 8 months.

The light-exercise group continued to lose bone density. But the strength training group gained bone density in their spine and hips.

This proves that strength training is not the risk…not doing it is.

And the most important part of all this…where most YouTube and other workouts go wrong…

They don’t focus on progression. Making sure you get a little stronger every time you strength train.

Because your bones adapt. And once they adapt to you lifting 5lbs, they now need you to do 8lbs or 10lbs to be able to get even stronger and adapt again.

We went through a lot today. But if you take away anything, make sure it’s this:

The Strong(er) Bone Plan

Whether you’re in your 50s, 60s, 70s, or beyond…

And no matter if you have normal bone density or you’re osteoporotic, it’s not too late to build stronger bones.

Your friend and coach,

Ben Miknis
Revitalized