Training for bone mineral density | Peter Attia

bone mineral density is very important for both sexes but women are at a greater risk and the reason for that is the way bones work and I'm oversimplifying a little bit but you know bones effectively have strain gauges in them and they respond to tensile stress so when a muscle is Contracting the muscle via the tendon is attached to the Bone and as the muscle contracts the bone is compressing so imagine a strain gauge inside the bone that senses that well that's a that's a mechanical signal that gets converted into an into a chemical signal

so mechanical to chemical via estrogen estrogen is the hormone that does the signal transduction and that tells osteoblasts and osteoclasts which are the bone building bone reabsorbing cells to make the bone stronger not weaker so in other words the the use it or lose it philosophy is at play here and estrogen is the key link now men and women have estrogen and it's very important for both sexes the difference is women lose estrogen precipitously in midlife and therefore women are more at risk for osteopenia and osteoporosis now for men and women alike it's very difficult

to add bone density after you reach the critical period of maturation typically in the early 20s so unfortunately most of our audience is past that point right we're I'm not sitting here having a discussion with teenagers but of course if I am the answer is load-bearing load-bearing load bearing reach your genetic potential while you have a chance um but for those of us who are past that point the key is how much can you slow the rate of decline and nothing is more important for that than load-bearing activity and in fact it needs to be

you know heavy load-bearing activity walking does not count as load-bearing activity running certainly better than swimming or cycling where you're not bearing load but none of those compared to strength training so strength training is really the most important piece of maintaining bone mineral density and it must be supported from an endocrine perspective with the appropriate amount of estrogen and potentially testosterone and certainly with the correct nutrition and supplementation such as vitamin D and the right amount of protein and things like that [Music]