Sisters-in-Service
Are you a women veteran who feels unseen and unheard? Do you struggle with finding your purpose after service? Sisters-in-Service is a podcast that gives women veterans the platform to talk about those exact issues and more. Hear from other veterans, military spouses and Veteran Service Organizations (VSO) just like you that have overcome their transition from the military. Every Tuesday this podcast encourages women veterans to stand up and be counted because as a group we have a voice. From your host - Cat Corchado - The Voice Connecting Women Veterans
Sisters-in-Service
Revitalize Your Midlife Symposium - Day 3 - Expert Tips for Lifelong Bone Health with Debi Robinson
Discover the secrets to maintaining strong, healthy bones with our special guest, Debbie Robinson, a renowned bone health expert and certified yoga therapist. Debbie takes us through her compelling personal journey, including her experience with a total hip replacement at 51, and shares invaluable insights into the differences between osteopenia and osteoporosis. Learn about the natural decline of bone density after age 35, the acceleration during menopause, and the crucial importance of early detection through DEXA scans. Debbie shatters common misconceptions about bone fragility and emphasizes proactive management for lifelong bone health.
Elevate your daily routine with practical tips for bone-strengthening activities, posture improvement, and fall prevention. Debbie explains how single-leg balance exercises and good posture contribute to a "safe spinal space," preventing spinal fractures and enhancing overall well-being. Discover the profound connection between osteoporosis and mental health, as Debbie delves into the importance of understanding the mental and emotional layers of the condition. From proper alignment to the role of a healthy gut, we cover the holistic approach needed to manage osteoporosis effectively.
Nourish your bones with essential nutrients and foods, as Debbie highlights the importance of calcium, magnesium, potassium, and vitamin K, while also addressing the negative impact of gluten, dairy, sugar, caffeine, and alcohol. Explore the benefits of alternate nostril breathing for calming the nervous system and the power of gratitude for emotional wellness. Finally, embrace the joy of midlife play to enhance overall health and well-being, reminding us all that staying active and having fun are key components of a vibrant life. Join us for an enlightening discussion that promises to transform your approach to bone health.
Welcome to Sisters in Service podcast. Most of you know me as a strong advocate for women veterans in being recognized not only as veterans but also as women who are changing the world through our passion of serving even after service. This podcast is my passion by telling all the stories of military brats, military spouses, active duty and veterans, not to forget the veteran service organizations that help us along our transition journey. I want to thank you in advance for listening. I hope that you will join me. Every week, a new podcast and episode comes out every Tuesday, so I hope that you will join and I hope that you enjoy. This podcast is brought to you by Small Space Pilates. Are you ready to get fit and fabulous from the comfort of your own home? Look no further than Small Space Pilates. With live online Pilates and strength training classes, a video library and a no perfection allowed policy, you can achieve your fitness goals without ever leaving your house. Click on the link for your complimentary week and start your journey to feeling fabulous today. Thank you, so Hi everybody, I'm back. Yes, it's me so nice to have you back again. This is day three. So, for those of you that are just joining, in, june is my birthday month and, yes, I celebrate all month. Yes, I do, but I also wanted to give back and I am a lifelong learner and I wanted to bring on subject matter experts where I could learn from them also, and I think it's always important for us to just remain open, remain curious, to maybe take home one thing from this whole symposium that you can maybe utilize immediately Before we go there. I want you to know that if you go to smallspacepilatescom backslash revitalize, you can click on any of the speaker's picture and it will go right to their website and you can figure out more about them and look at what they're doing, because they're doing some amazing things. You can also ask questions live. We will take a break where you're able to ask those questions and get them answered. Also, this is being brought to you by Small Space Pilates and Sisters in Service podcast and Sisters in Service podcast. So, and if you can't join us, remember that there's always the replay. It will live on YouTube and you can take a look at it whenever you want to.
Speaker 1:So I am thrilled to introduce Debbie Robinson. Debbie is a bone health expert, a certified yoga therapist and a functional health coach. She's an instructor at the Torrance Memorial Medical Center, a mentor for the yoga therapy program at Loyola Marymount University Wow, she's busy and a self-taught speaker With over 20 years of experience coaching women through osteoporosis. Debbie understands the journey all too well. At 51, she underwent a total hip replacement and experienced firsthand the fear and frustration of feeling like her bones were fragile and unreliable. So she empowers women to take control of their bone health with personalized coaching programs.
Speaker 1:So I would like to welcome Debbie. Hi Hi, thank you for having me. I'm so happy you're here. So, debbie, how did you? We all know, we've heard, we don't know, but we've heard that you know you should maintain your bone density. But and we tend to think that our bones are, you know they're bone. Unless you have a break from an accident or something happening in sports, you don't think of your bones as being fragile. Is what happened that you had to have this hip issue and go through the recovery and go through all of that?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So my body was broken when I was 50, my hip joint was collapsed at 50 and I stopped living my life, and so I feel like I ran ahead. I experienced something that ladies maybe around age 80 are experiencing, initially anyway, but then the feeling of feeling fragile and breakable was so profound for me, and that's what I notice in women that receive a diagnosis of osteoporosis or osteopenia they feel fragile, they feel fragile, and so I say this chose me, because the journey of what happened to me at that age just made me all of a sudden have to think about my bones, and we don't ever think about our bones.
Speaker 1:And it puts you on the path to what you're doing now. Debbie, can you take a minute and just explain to our audience what's the difference between osteopenia and osteoporosis?
Speaker 2:Okay. So first of all, our bones start to break down when we're 35.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's sad, it's sad.
Speaker 2:But at the age of 35 is when the bones and the muscles start to break down more than they build up. Up until that point it was more buildup than breakdown and then it starts to become more breakdown and then, when we start to go through hormonal shifts in our late forties and then menopause in the fifties, we lose even more bone density. So there's a there's a process of losing bone and there's a machine that determines what is the state of your bone health. Now it's called a DEXA machine. It's an x-ray typically not given until we're in menopause or in some cases. I'm actually noticing a lot of women don't even have their DEXA scan until they're 65 when Medicare kicks in.
Speaker 2:So you get this machine. Your gynecologist, endocrinologist or PCP orders it. You get this diagnosis from this x-ray and if your numbers, if your bone density, they compare you to a 35 year old, because that's when the greatest amount existed. So they compare you and if you are negative one to negative 2.4, you are considered osteopenia. So that's the stage of loss. Once you get to negative 2.5 or above, it's actually now a disease, and that disease of bone loss is called osteoporosis.
Speaker 1:Debbie, how do women know that they might be susceptible to osteopenia or osteoporosis? Like, how would I know that? Maybe this is something I should look into when maybe I'm in my 20s and maybe early 30s. Are there any signs? Is it you know? Am I susceptible to it because I had you know, my mom had it or a grandmother had it? Is it kind of like that?
Speaker 2:Well, those are great questions, and so, first of all, I'd say they call it a silent disease because it used to be diagnosed when somebody would fall and fracture, and a lot of the times the women that I've worked with they either fall and fracture their wrist, even if they're not in the high risk group, or they're going to have some kind of musculoskeletal surgery and the orthopedic surgeon might either say after surgery, your bones, you need to check on them. So that's one aspect in terms of the way you would feel. So the symptoms of osteoporosis unfortunately there's not a lot of big symptoms and it's usually not till later in life. So one is loss of height and this could be from because if your spine starts to fracture, which is where half of all the fractures in osteoporosis are, in the spine, so if you're buying fractures, then you start to lose height. Pain in your back, back pain, could be an indication of that.
Speaker 2:I'm going to say that there are some silent ways that your body is slowly losing bone I call it dissolving bone that you might not be aware of, and one of those, symptomatically, would be gut. So if you have any digestive issues or you have chronic constipation, if you're not having a daily bowel movement, which is an indication of a really healthy digestive system, then those are going to be two ways. I would say so anybody that's younger and I say younger premenopause looking at, are you symptomatic of gut health issues, don't have a daily bowel movement. And then, of course, cancer and some of the medications that are known actually those are steroids too, so any kind of anti-inflammatories, gut issues and cancer. So there's a lot of contributing factors to bone loss.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's not a very attractive list, debbie. I'm just going to say it's not like something that just blares at you. You almost have. It almost seems like it's intuitive, like you almost think maybe I should go like something's telling you that maybe you should go get your you know a DEXA scan or maybe talk to your doctor and find out if this is something that you need. I want to backtrack just a little bit that, at the age of 51, having the hip replacement because I've spoken to many clients that I have in Pilates who've had a hip replacement what was your recovery like, like your frame of mind when you had to? You went in the hospital, you had the hip replacement. You go home and what happened?
Speaker 2:Well, you know, I don't think I'm the typical person, so I'm a yoga therapist.
Speaker 1:So you knew what to do.
Speaker 2:I was teaching seven classes at the time, or eight classes at the time at a hospital, so, and I have perfect attendance I never miss. So, by the way, my hip replacement was June 9th 2017. So I'm at that seven anniversary. Uh, so I took some time 10 days to recover, and after 10 days I said, okay, I'm going back. I went back to teaching and so I taught. I stood on that leg, I was walking on that leg, um, so on that leg. So I recovered very quickly.
Speaker 2:And I recovered very quickly because, before I went into that surgery, I had been practicing yoga for so many years, almost every single day, and so every test that I had by physical therapist, orthopedic surgeon or chiropractors, they all said we do not think you're going to need a hip replacement because my body was so mobile, my joints were so mobile because of yoga.
Speaker 2:And then when they looked at the x-ray, he said, okay, you're bone on bone, it's time. The other thing I did so that was from my musculoskeletal health and mental, emotional, with the breath, work and meditation, and then I also ran labs on myself. So, once I had the hip replacement, I run functional labs and I ran functional labs and then I adopted a protocol that would feed my bones. So I ate, right, I filled my gut, my gut. I stopped eating inflammatory, triggering foods like gluten, dairy sugar, caffeine, alcohol and nourished my bones, thought about how am I going to build my bones with food, how do I remove things that are going to dissolve them? And so it's never just one thing, it's a lifestyle, exactly.
Speaker 1:Exactly. I love that you said that. I do know that I have had clients that had a hip replacement and because they were active prior and this guy was a biker, he had a hip replacement and two weeks later he was on the bike. What I keep hearing is that you know, moving prior to, even if you have to have a hip replacement or a knee replacement, that that activity is going to help you in your recovery. Is it safe to say that, debbie? Yeah.
Speaker 2:And you know the hip is the best joint to replace. It is such a great joint. The knee is a lot harder and you know I work with a lot of clients that have all of these different replacement parts. Yes, everything is a use it or lose it proposition. We've got to use our body always, every day, not just when we show up to Pilates or show up to yoga, but really learning daily functional movement and understanding that breakdown accelerates when you leave your thirties. This is why we don't see any high level athletes Like. Think about football players, think about the quarterbacks. They're always talking about their age, because there is a timeframe when this musculoskeletal, physical body is at its peak and it starts to degenerate.
Speaker 1:Around downhill from there. No, it's not Not if they do Pilates and around it's downhill from there. No, it's not Not if they do Pilates and yoga.
Speaker 2:That's true. I feel amazing. I'm in my living room, I travel, I hike, I teach five classes a week. I walk at least 10,000 miles.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry 10,000 miles.
Speaker 2:Oh wow, you're good. I try to walk 10,000 steps a day. I mean, I know what it's like broken. I remember when I couldn't walk and I couldn't hike, and you know, for those that can walk, which is almost everyone, get up and walk Just move, yeah, just move.
Speaker 1:So would it be safe to say that a primary challenge for women is staying? Not staying, but getting and keeping a routine where they're moving, whether it's yoga, whether it's Pilates, whether it's walking, some kind of movement that's going to challenge, because you challenge the muscles and you reinforce that and it helps your bones also. And can you talk about a little bit how, once you have osteopenia, there's no, you can't reverse it, but you can kind of stop it in its tracks.
Speaker 2:Ooh, but I'm going to blow that out of the water. You can 100% reverse it because we have been falsely led or really naively. It's been a naivete. We have lumped osteoporosis and bone loss into this category of something that happens as you age and something that gets worse. No, bone metab, it's a metabolism and so, just like type two diabetes, obesity, just like these, these are what we call lifestyle based or metabolic diseases. We know we can reverse diabetes and heart disease and obesity with lifestyle changes. Osteoporosis is not a degenerative or progressive degenerative disease like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's and multiple sclerosis. It's not like that and we thought it was. So my big thing is to say bone loss is reversible, osteoporosis is reversible. I see it happen all the time. I interview a lot of doctors on my podcast that specialize in bone health and they tell me I ask them, is bone loss reversible, is osteoporosis reversible? And they say yes, so it is reversible.
Speaker 1:Interesting. I just learned something new today and it's it's really interesting that you know I've been moving my whole life from sports to I went right into fitness. You know, when should a woman actually think about getting a bone scan or a DEXA scan?
Speaker 2:You know it would be amazing if they can ask for a baseline. So a baseline would be okay. I'm 40 or I'm 35, or I had cancer and I was on treatment, or I've had chronic gut issues my whole life, or I have celiac. I mean there's certain diseases that are going to affect digestion, where you cannot absorb nutrients to build bones, so any kind of anything that would affect your minerals or digestion.
Speaker 2:And to ask the doctor for a baseline DEXA scan it's a really low grade x ray and so you're not exposed to a lot of radiation and so to get a baseline so that then you can actually monitor that, maybe every five years, maybe every 10 years, and then you would actually see what's happening. And you know when we see something, when we monitor something or track something as you know as somebody in the fitness world or someone that works with others to help them move, as a movement specialist that when we track things then we're able to either stay motivated to do them or stay on track, or when you notice that you have improvement. It kind of keeps you going right, it gives that little pep in your step to say, okay, I'll do it today again.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, you know. I think it's, it's important. I think a lot of women that I meet in they're younger too, but mostly midlife and later, as they've never moved before and it's only because of an injury they had or something happened, and their doctor goes look, you need to either do yoga or Pilates, and it's hard for them to understand why their body let them down. There's that part of your brain that just goes. I thought my bones were forever. You know what I mean. It's that, oh, it kind of sucks, but I think you're getting information, I think your body's giving you information and we need to listen. So, debbie, when we talk about strengthening our bones and I know I could answer this but what types of things do you tell your clients about ways to incorporate bone strengthening activities, because in midlife we're still busy, so what types of things do you recommend to your clients and to your classes?
Speaker 2:Okay, Well, I say that for your whole life you've been standing on two feet to brush your teeth. Try doing it on one foot. So single leg balance. When you're washing the dishes, when you're heating up your tea, when you're brushing your teeth, when you're standing outside and you met a friend on this corner or in the supermarket stand on one leg often. And if you need to start at first by putting the other foot on the floor as a kickstand and then sliding the other foot up so it's on your lower leg, make sure you're not pushing into joints, so you don't want to be pushing into the ankle or pushing into the knee.
Speaker 2:So single leg balance is going to work on balance for fall prevention and fracture prevention. It's going to strengthen the muscles, joint coordination and balance and strength. In the standing leg You're going to be compressing the top of the femur bone, the largest bone in the body, the hip joint. You're going to that bone into the socket, into your pelvis and that area, the neck of the femur, that is the most precarious and actually deadly place to fracture. So single leg balance I would say can be done everywhere, anywhere and often and daily, absolutely. So that's a big one, but I'm going to tell you, the number one area I would say to focus on is your posture.
Speaker 1:Thank you, Debbie, for saying that.
Speaker 2:And I'm going to say that we all grew up with our moms telling us to stand up straight. And if you, debbie, for saying that, and I'm going to say that we all grew up with our moms telling us to stand up straight. And if you, I travel around the world and if you look at so many cultures, there's so much emphasis on a upright posture or women often. Maybe there's men in some cases, but women are often carrying things on their heads. So when I go to Bali, I take people on wellness journeys to Bali. We get to try on the offerings that are like all this fruit on it and it's really high up. So the reason my posture is so important is because half of all the fractures in osteoporosis are in the spine and they happen because, I like to say, think about your body like an ice cream cone and your legs are like the cone you're and it's three scoops of ice cream. So your pelvis is a scoop, your rib cage is a scoop and your head is a scoop. So if you have three scoops, just like an ice cream cone, if that top scoop starts falling forward, it could slide off. So now you have all this tension in the front of your body so it doesn't fall off and the poor back body gets it, loses its tone because it's trying so hard to hold that head up on top of your body.
Speaker 2:So there's a thing that I teach people. It's called the safe spinal space. So take, take your left hand palm down thumb touching right underneath your heart. So I don't know if you can see that, but your, your, your thumb is like karate chopping your chest with your, with your palm down. Now take your right hand, karate, chop your tummy right at your belly button, with your palm facing up. So your right palm is up, your left palm is down. You have a space between there. I call this the safe spinal space, s, s, s zone. That space you have right now don't smaller. If you were going to bend over to put on your clothes or bend over to get something, you would have to bend at the right place, which is the hip, and not in the spine, absolutely.
Speaker 1:I teach that a lot in Pilates. I tell people I'm like, okay, just stand up straight. And they're like this and their head's forward and I'm like, okay, we're going to. It's about awareness too. You know, I've learned that if you're not aware of the problem, you can't change it. So a lot of people don't know that they're sitting like this and their heads forward and you know it looks kind of weird when you do it, but when you're aware of it then they go oh, wow, now I can stand up a little straight. And I love the fact that you talked about the stomach, because people just you know, when you pull your stomach in not suck it in, but pull it in using the abs it actually supports your spine and so it's a nice support factor. I love the fact that you said that, debbie, thank you. And also about the ice cream, because I'm a huge ice cream person. So three scoops at least, okay.
Speaker 2:But wait a minute. For bone health you should not eat dairy. So for bone health, I mean, we'll talk physical first. Physical first. What do you do every day? You learn how to bend in your hip joint.
Speaker 2:Squat is one of the most common ways that we have evidence that proves that you need lean skeletal muscles. You need bigger muscles because the bigger muscle will make your bones heavier. They need to be bigger to hold them. And when you start to move your body and you pull and push in your bones with the bigger, stronger muscles, then you create the bone building stimulation. So muscle and bone building stimulation is important. So squatting, posture is really critical. And then standing on one leg. So those are the three like physical areas I would say. And you know what. It doesn't have to be a one hour, it doesn't have to be going to Pilates or yoga. You could have done five things by the time in the first half hour of waking. You brush your teeth on one leg, on one side, the other, you know, stand on the other leg for another minute. You squat when you're heating up your warm water with lemon or your tea, or, and posture, Posture is an all day every day thing.
Speaker 1:I think sometimes we think it's got to be hard or it's not effective. And you know, I'm on this mission to let people know that you don't have to do 40 minutes or an hour. Maybe you could do 10 minutes of something, maybe you could do a minute of standing, maybe you can do a minute of, you know, squatting. You know it doesn't have to be really hard. And my friend Yvonne says I'm standing on one leg now. So thank you, yvonne. Oh hi.
Speaker 2:Yvonne, you know what's really. So last year in 2023, they came out with a study that said that we need to do 150 minutes of movement a week, 30 minutes, five days a week. That's what they said. And then they kind of furthered that and they said, well, but if you can only do 10, that's great. And then they got even more well, if you can only walk for two minutes, that's great. And there's some functional medicine doctors that will say that the number one thing you could do for your health. You know, of course, we need to have better sleep, we need to be hydrated, we need to have a healthy gut, we need to eat well, but movement is so critical to health. If you don't move, get injured. There's this emotional, mental, you know, like, oh, I got to get back out there.
Speaker 1:You know, I got to do something for women who are suffering from, you know, maybe an injury, trying to get back to, just trying to be better than where they were. Is there a mental capacity to this? Is there an?
Speaker 2:emotional thing that goes with it. Yeah Well, always, I think, if we treat ourselves like a two-year-old and if we think if we had a two-year-old kid, would we make that kid run and do things quickly? No, so, if you try to treat yourself the way you would a two-year-old or a three-year-old, then you're going to be a bit more loving with yourself. Slow and steady wins the race, and I always say that Rome wasn't built in a day, yet it was built, and that's what I did. I mean, I could not lift my leg off the bed at 51. I couldn't lift my leg off the bed when I was in my yoga classes teaching. I couldn't lift my leg off the floor. I had to help my leg lift up, and so I would stand up, and just one inch. You know, if my goal was two feet off the floor, I'm going to do one inch, and I might do one inch for a week, slowly and surely, and just not too much.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. And I think it's hard because we're in a hurry, you know, especially now. But you've got to take the time to let your body heal. But you've got to take the time to let your body heal and, while you're healing, letting your mind heal, telling yourself, look, this is going to get better. You're going to have some bad days, you're going to have some good days, but it's going to get better because our, our, our body is remarkable in that way. But you just have to give it the time and the space to do so. So I'm going to let's take a short break and we'll be right back. And we are back. We're just going to do a quick reset for anyone who's just joined us.
Speaker 1:I'm speaking to Debbie Robinson, who is a bone health aficionado. She knows her stuff y'all, and we're talking about osteopenia, osteoporosis, how we can take care of our bones as we get older. I also want to say, if you have any questions, please put them in the chat. I'm sure Debbie will be able to answer any of them. That comes her way and let's keep the conversation going, conversation going. So, debbie, when we are, you know, sometimes we, you know, we have a glitch sometimes. I'll call it that and we go to the hospital, we think it's our knee and then we find out it's that we've got osteopenia.
Speaker 1:And people tend to like, oh my gosh, and now I can't move, they don't want to move. They're like oh no, I can't do that, I can't move, I'm not supposed to. Even though the doctor tells them they don't want to move, what do you tell them? What do you say to them? Because and the only reason I bring that up is that my husband was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis at the age of 32, very young and his doctor said don't work out, don't move, don't do anything. And I was like no, that's not right. So what do you say to women, because I'm sure they're a little hesitant to start to move what do you say to them to get them to feel better about moving?
Speaker 2:Well, it's a use it or lose it proposition. So we're going to lose it if we don't use it. But the big thing and what you're touching on there is the mental, emotional layer of a diagnosis of osteopenia or osteoporosis and the all of a sudden awareness of our bones. So the way that I like to think of this I'm very visual and I like to put it in visual perspective. We don't really think about our bones and if we were to think about them, we imagine them to be like the stone bricks of a castle. Right, they're just sturdy, they're hard. We know that people fracture them. Maybe we fractured our bone or we had a kid that did or something, and so you just don't think about your bones. But the minute you get that diagnosis, your stone castle bones feel like sand castle bones to you and it is deep, it is emotional, it is mental, it brings feelings of fragility and being tentative and cautious. And when we don't move our body, when we don't pull and push on our bones, when we don't strengthen our muscles, we lose more density, muscle density, bone density, and so that actually contributes to more bone loss, which will then lead to osteoporosis or deeper into osteoporosis.
Speaker 2:If your diagnosis started at osteoporosis, right. So really, it's this mental, emotional layer which is why, like you made a comment earlier, that awareness is the first step, and it is because, if you walk into a dark room, you don't know where the furniture is or what's in that room. You have to turn on the light and then you say, oh, I better walk this way because I would trip on that table. The chair is there, this is there, that's there, let me go. That thing I'm looking for over there, it's the same, this is what it is. So I'm here to raise awareness to hey, you've got bones and here are all the things in your life that could contribute to them dissolving or breaking down, and here's all the things you could do every day in your lifestyle to strengthen them and to make sure they stay strong.
Speaker 1:Yeah, debbie, do you have a story of someone you helped that seemed? You know, sometimes you get a client and you just think I don't know if I can help them. Do you have a story like that where you, you know they, they were just at that brink of you know, I, I don't want to move, you can't make me move, even though they have osteoporosis? Do you have a type of story that where you, you, you met, you got them to understand how movement was going to help them and they're, they might even be teaching yoga classes now or some kind of movement classes teaching yoga classes now or some kind of movement classes.
Speaker 2:Okay, so I mean, of course, I have like so many people that come to mind, but what I'm going to say is that the thing that I consider to be my biggest wins is not necessarily when someone comes to me and tells me, oh my gosh, I got my new bone scan and I reversed my osteoporosis, or look at my numbers are here, there. It really is when people tell me I feel confident to move, that there, that there's enough education being shared with them, that they feel confident to move. Um, and when I teach, I teach super descriptively. So my goal is this is what I tell everybody I don't want to give them a fish, I want to teach them how to fish, I want them to know how to move.
Speaker 2:When they leave my class and say that in every class or even my private sessions, that my, my goal is that you leave here and you know what you need to do, um, so yeah, I mean it happens all the time and you know it's not something that bam Well, actually there are bam. The next day they feel it. We do ball work in the arch of our foot for people of knee and hip and they say, oh my gosh, my knee or my hip doesn't hurt anymore. So they're like I'm at eight or nine or 10 out of 10 and then watch their body. I'll help them find that alignment to unobstructed nerves and to find that alignment and to stretch what needs to be stretched, to create space. And then next week they'll say, oh my gosh, I did it every day this week, what you taught me, and I don't hurt anymore. So, yes, it happens all the time.
Speaker 1:I love that you said something about the feet, because I understand that your posture starts in your feet and if your feet are messed up, everything above it is messed up and you want to try to and people, we don't think about our feet until they hurt, right, and I love the fact that you said that the things that your, your clients, will say to you that they're confident to move, and I love what my clients will say oh, I went on vacation. I keep hearing your voice in my head, kat, you know about, you know Pilates dance and pulling your. And I was like, yes, I love that. I really do so, debbie, are there any? What types of foods could help strengthen our bones? Are there any?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, let me just say something to what you said, because you asked me the things I remember. It happens so often that people will come to tell me a story of them falling and how they fell, and they cannot believe they didn't break anything. So they'll tell me I tripped over this curb, I couldn't believe it. Or this other woman told me my husband didn't realize I was in the car and I the door wasn't shut yet and he started to move it and I fell and dah, dah, dah, dah. And then they tell me I just I have a bruise or I'm a little sore here, but I had x-rays or and I didn't break anything.
Speaker 2:So I tell people I help you be bendable and not breakable, because falling is where the fractures, like most of the fractures, come from. Falling especially the deadly fractures, the hip fractures, spinal fractures, putting the the body is in a force that it can't manage. So we have to have flexibility and range of motion in our joints so our body can manage that stress. So I just wanted to say that, that I help them be bendable and not breakable. And they tell me their stories of falling and not breaking and I'm like, yeah, so to me that's a total win.
Speaker 1:That sounds like a book.
Speaker 2:So the insurance company has a program called Healthy at Home with Aetna, and I just did a bendable, not breakable program for them.
Speaker 1:I love that title. Yeah, can you talk about maybe you know some foods that people could maybe think about eating that might help their bone?
Speaker 2:density. Yes, so I am a yoga therapist and a functional health coach and I run my signature program is called Healthy Gut, healthy Bones, because without healthy gut, you can't have healthy bones. So the taking care of our gut health and our digestion is so important. So there are things that we can eat that will build bones and there's things that we can eat that will build bones and there's things that we eat that dissolve bones. So when we talk about bringing in foods that are going to build bones, we need foods rich in the vitamins, minerals, cofactors and protein that builds bones. So that would be calcium rich, magnesium rich, potassium rich and vitamin k. Then you need manganese, boron and protein so those are you need that, those sources?
Speaker 2:and, to believe it or not, most of those things are in plant-based foods. So eating as many seeds, nuts, especially if you don't have any allergies to nuts you can get food sensitive, tested for that or you might know you're reactive. So eating green vegetables, lots of vegetables, lots of colors, and seasonally it's also. They're going to support gut health. So you want to support your, your, your bone building bacteria in your gut. So eating prebiotic rich fiber, those are your root vegetables. Artichokes, olives are good for gut health. Fermented foods to help support digestion and the species, the bone building species. We want to do that. So those are like not just thinking about let me eat this chicken because it'll build my bones, or let me eat this kale because it'll build my bones, it has vitamin K. Let me eat this kale because it's going to have this many nutrients that will support my gut health. Support, like you know, not just one thing, it's everything.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:So all of those, but the bigger thing, I think, is the foods we should avoid, and this is what is not known as much. Gluten is terrible, terrible, terrible for bone health, for gut health, for thyroid health, for fat metabolism. So getting rid of gluten is the number one thing. I would say the number two thing is getting rid of dairy and that people are actually eating more dairy thinking that they're going to get protein or protein, calcium and protein, but it's actually highly inflammatory and the protein in milk are inflammatory. So triggering inflammation is going to lead to bone loss.
Speaker 2:Gluten, dairy, no Sugar triggers inflammation and inflammation is a major root cause of bone loss. Then you have caffeine, because it's dehydrating and hydrated bones are more likely to snap, crackle and pop. We want that in our cereal that's free, with a non-dairy milk, but not in our bones. Alcohol, because alcohol is going to mess with your liver, it's going to mess with your hormones and we need all that. So, from a food perspective, you want to support digestion, support gut health and support the nutrients that build bones, and then you want to make sure you eliminate the foods that dissolve bones.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's a lot to take in, but you know it's. It's starting with one thing, right, it's starting with one thing and then building from there. You don't start working out and run a marathon, you just don't put your shoes on and start running. You have to walk first and then go from there. So thank you for that, debbie, because that makes a lot of sense. I know you had mentioned how your stomach, or your microbiome, is affiliated with bone health, so can you give us a little more information about that, about the why?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's called the gut-bone connection. And at the top of the funnel for building bones there's two things. You have to do two things. So every day, do these two things. One of them is muscle and bone building stimulation. That's going to be standing on your leg, walking, squatting, pilates, yoga, weight resistance training. So you have to pull and push and create strong forces to build stronger muscles and stronger bones.
Speaker 2:The other thing you need are the nutrients to build bones and you have to make sure those nutrients get from mouth to bone. And the pathway to get to mouth to bone is through the gut. So we have to first chew our food. So chew your food, because digestion well, the physical digestion begins in the mouth. So chew your food. You want to make sure you don't eat too fast, eat too much. You don't want to drink water or a beverage with your meal because you don't want to dilute your gastric juices, the acid that breaks down food. You want to keep it robust, drink before you eat and hydrate the system to be better at digesting food. So we want to make sure that digestion is optimized. Then you have small intestines. We want to make sure that your bacteria that maintains your fortress, your mucosal barrier is optimized. So now we need probiotics and we need the good gut microbes, and this is where food feeds the good gut microbes. We need to eat prebiotic and probiotic rich foods.
Speaker 1:I'm always confused by prebiotic and probiotic. I mean I know what they mean. I had to look it up. It's like can you just explain real quick why someone would take a prebiotic versus a probiotic, or do they take both?
Speaker 2:Prebiotics are the foods for the bacteria, probiotics are the bacteria. So when we take probiotics we're repopulating our gut with the bacteria. The prebiotic fibers are when we are feeding. So the fiber so the number one thing that will support your bone building bacteria in your gut is fiber. So eating 30 grams of fiber is the recommended target for the day and most people eat maybe eight.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So this is going to be nuts, seeds, legumes, vegetables. That's where your your.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's, you know, and you're so right in that it's. It's not just this one thing, it's it's everything we do for our health. It's not just this one thing, it's everything we do for our health. It's all the little one things. You do one thing here and one thing here and all of a sudden you're taking care of your body the way you should be. And I think sometimes we get overwhelmed with oh you should be doing this. Well, you should be doing that, you should take a prebiotics, you do a probiotics and you kind of go whoa, yeah. But I think that if we just took one thing and did one thing that was good for our gut, something that was good for our body and our bones, you know, I think if we did the one thing you know for our whole body, that we would all be a whole lot healthier. I'm just going to put it out there. Maybe not, but I'm hoping that could change. So, debbie, during midlife, especially for women, we're going through perimenopause and menopause. How do hormonal changes affect bone health?
Speaker 2:The greatest decrease of bone loss is around perimenopause or menopause, or even under cancer treatments where they're blocking hormones.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:So why is that? Because estrogen testosterone are bone protective hormones and so it is the biggest decrease when we're losing our hormones and we lose bone density. So there's such a strong link between the two, and so I'm a big proponent of HRT and on my podcast I interviewed a doctor that is the hormone harmonizer and she balances hormones. She's a big proponent of HRT. So much research out there. We all got the heebie jeebie scared out of us in the early two thousands with the women's health initiative that it leads heart attacks into strokes. But what happened when they stopped all those hormones is that increased risk of fractures.
Speaker 2:So hormones like I love bhrt, bioidentical hormone replacement. And for those that can't do that because there's some ladies that fall into that category, although most so if you've had a hormone specific cancer or current cancer, then you're not the candidate for that. Foods that are estrogenic or that support estrogen. Tofu is a fantastic food. Lots of research in Japan, even women with cancer eating tofu, so tofu is a great food for that. And foods that support hormones.
Speaker 2:But again, the gut. You have to have a healthy gut and you have to have a healthy liver, because the liver metabolizes our hormones and there's certain pathways, like one of the functional labs that I run looks at metabolic pathways of hormones and there's one pathway that your body metabolizes your hormones and if you're not metabolizing down, there's one pathway that's considered the carcinogenic or the yucky pathway. We don't want to be down that way. We want to be metabolizing down the other pathways. So from a functional perspective, we need everything to be functioning properly for all facets of health, including hormone health, to be functioning properly for all facets of health, including hormone health, bone health, absolutely, I'm a huge fan of BHRT.
Speaker 1:It made me feel how can I say this nicely Like I'm a person again, but it's a personal decision. For anyone who's thinking of it, and you, you know, always go to your doctor and, you know, talk about it with your doctor, about what you know might be the best way for you to go. Debbie, what are some common misconceptions about bone health in midlife?
Speaker 2:That it's inevitable and that when you get it it just gets worse. And the only tool in the toolbox for conventional medicine are medications the medications that stop bone dissolving, which means you're going to now have really unhealthy bone with new bone building. So it's a shaky foundation, kind of like building a house on quicksand and then the other ones build up. But once you commit to that, you can't just go off and then you need to take these antiretinoids or the bisphosphonates, because then you have to make sure you don't lose what you just built up. So the misconceptions are that there's a pill for osteoporosis, because there isn't. It is not just one thing, it is many things, it's lifestyle approach.
Speaker 1:So the misconceptions are that it's not reversible that a pill will fix it and that it's an inevitable part of aging. All wrong, yeah, it's just like building muscle. People think, oh, I'm too far gone. I've never worked out before or worked out with weights. It's never too late to build muscle. You always have muscle. You just have to make it work for you. And the way you make it work for you is by working out. You know whether it's walking, whether it's lifting weights, and it doesn't have to be these huge weights.
Speaker 1:But you know, just doing more than what you've been doing is what I want to tell people, and I love that, because people tend to think they get a diagnosis. They're like, oh well, that's it for me, I can't do anything, you know. So I love the fact that you talk about those misconceptions. So I know that I had just touched on this a little bit, but when we talk about lifestyle changes, what can you give? Just some tips on some lifestyle changes that people can make. You know, that doesn't require a whole lot. And I say walking, because walking as you put your shoes on, you walk. But do you have any other easy lifestyle changes that people could just incorporate, like right now?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so standing on the legs, one leg when they're brushing their teeth, heating up tea and being near a wall. Or hold on to, don't hold on to a chair, push into the chair to activate postural muscles. So don't grab on, push down. So standing on one leg all day, every day. Practice squatting or pushing your tushy back to sit down, practice bending at your hip joint, not your spine, and then keep your spine, that safe spinal space, or that lengthened spine, those three scoops of ice cream, pelvis, rib cage, head in alignment throughout your day. So that's the physical, then mental, emotional. Take three doses of vitamin G before bed and when you wake up and vitamin G is gratitude.
Speaker 1:I love that.
Speaker 2:You cannot be grateful and unhappy at the same time. So when you start to go into your pity party, your depression, what you don't have, da da, da, da da, you need to think about what you do have. So three doses of vitamin G, present moment. That'll bring you to the present moment, bring you to the, the conscious brain, the, the prefrontal, cortical, smart brain. So vitamin G and deep breaths. Take deep breaths so you regulate your nervous system, you regulate blood sugar and that'll also support digestion. So that's mental, emotional and then biochemical. Sit down to eat, prepare to eat. If your body is scared, if you're watching the news and you are scared, this is, they're doing this, they're taking this, they have this, the he, this she, this, this happened, that happened. If you are not sitting and eating and being in the moment with your eyes, your ears, your nose, your mouth, your body, then your body is not in a state of digestion. And if you're not in a state of digestion, you're not going to digest the food. The food can't get from mouth to bones your digestion.
Speaker 1:You're not going to digest the food. The food can't get from mouth to bones. Wow, I hope y'all are writing down this stuff because I'm going to have to look at the replay again and write some of this stuff down. I love to say, when you said vitamin G, the gratitude. I call it the what didn't suck today list. So like, oh yeah, this didn't suck, this didn't suck, this was good. I think what I've been doing lately when you talked about breathing and I'm glad that you brought that up I've been doing alternate nostril breathing, which just, really just, and I've been doing it before bed. I'm laying in bed, I'm watching something on TV, doing the alternate nostril breathing. It's almost instantaneous, is what I want to say.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's called nadi shodhana because in yoga, like you mentioned earlier about the feet and the breakdown of the feet for posture, which is true, so the feet are the communication up to the brain for balance and the energy or the nerve endings or the brain right For balance, and the energy or the nerve endings or the energy centers begin in the feet and they terminate in yoga at the nostrils. It's where the noddies terminate. So now you have the brain about that. So, with the alternate nostril breath, what we're doing is we are balancing out both hemispheres of the brain. So we are balancing our brain physically. We are balancing our brain physically, we are balancing the biochemistry, we are balancing back and forth. So, alternate nostril nadi shodhana is the SAMS term, really effective, great balancing breath.
Speaker 1:Would you mind showing us how you do it, so that people can have a visual.
Speaker 2:Okay, so sit upright.
Speaker 2:Close your eyes and sit upright. Make sure your legs aren't crossed. When we cross our legs, we stop the flow. We stop the flow of lymph and blood. So close your eyes, sit upright, take your hands, slide your hands back so that your elbows are underneath your shoulders. That's going to bring your shoulder blades onto your back. That's going to help to hold you upright. You're not up against the back of the chair. Now take your right hand and you're going to use the thumb to close off the right nostril. And if you only need to touch the round part of your nostril to close off the flow of air, and then take your pinky and your ring finger to close off, bend, bend your pointer finger and your middle finger. Wait, so bent. So here's your pointer finger and your middle finger. Wait, so, here's your pointer middle. Bend those, bend them. Bend them, okay. Thumb to close off the right and ring and pinky to close off the left. Yes, oh, got it. Okay, you're just going to move back and forth between these. Okay, so close your eyes, close off your right nostril and start breathing in and out through your left nostril. Just through the left nostril, now this breath just through the left nostril is called moon breathing and it's calming for the nervous system. So let's prepare.
Speaker 2:Take an exhale through the left. Let's begin. Inhale left, close off the left. Exhale right. Inhale right. Close off the right. Exhale left. Inhale left. Close off the left. Exhale right. Inhale right. Close off the right. Exhale right. Inhale right. Close off the right. Exhale left. Inhale left. Close off the left. Exhale right. Inhale right. Close off the right, exhale left. Keep your eyes closed. Put your hands on your lap and breathe through both nostrils. Keep your mouth closed. Feel the breath coming in your nostrils. Feel the breath coming into your body. Feel the breath going down to your belly. Feel the breath going down to your belly. Bring your awareness to your eyelids. Do not pop them open. Let them gently blink themselves open. I love that and you'll notice that you feel calm.
Speaker 1:A few minutes of breath. Yes, it's so immediate.
Speaker 2:It's powerful, it's so immediate. It's the most beneficial thing we do in yoga.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love it, I think it's just. Oh, I, like I said I've been doing it before I go to you know, like I'll be laying in bed and I have a bed where you can raise the head and raise the legs, so I'm in an upright position and I'll just breathe and all of a sudden my husband goes wow, I left the room, you were awake and I came back and you were asleep and I was like it's that alternate nostril breathing. It works every time, every time, every time, every time. Debbie, this has been such an amazing conversation because I'm learning stuff. This is awesome. I try to be a lifelong learner because I love how to anything that can make our lives just that much better. You know what I mean? That much better, just that much better. You know what I mean? That that much better, I think. I think it's just amazing, debbie, where can people find you if you know they want to reach out or they have other questions for you?
Speaker 2:My website is debbirobinsoncom, so D E B I Robinsoncom, and my YouTube channel is Debbie Robinson wellness. I actually teach a live yoga class that's donation based every Thursday, so at 11 PM Pacific standard. So if somebody, anybody wants to practice with me, I am live at 11 AM every Thursday. I'm in LA, so it's Pacific standard time, 11. So you got to figure that out and whatever your time zone is, and, um, debbie robinsoncom, and yeah, I mean that's the best way. My podcast is stronger bones lifestyle and I interview a lot of great speakers, a lot of physicians, a lot of doctors that are functionally minded, that really understand this. Osteoporosis is reversible, because that's my big thing. Bone loss is reversible. So, yeah, those are the places.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you again, debbie, for being on. This has just been remarkable and I hope anyone listening, even if it's on the replay this woman knows her stuff, man. She's lived it, she walks it, she does it. She knows what she's talking about and I kind of want to do the yoga thing. You know, I want to take her class because I think that would be very cool. But I hope you'll stay tuned for day four, which is tomorrow. I will have the amazing Yvonne Marchese on.
Speaker 1:We're going to be talking about, you know, play in midlife and how it can help you with your health. Didn't know that, did you? Playing like a child, thinking like a child, getting on the floor and playing, not exactly play, play, but okay, I still love a swing. I'm just going to say I will stop and swing in a heartbeat, but she's going to be on tomorrow. We're going to be talking about ways that we can incorporate some fun into our everyday busy lives. Remember, you can go to the website Kat Small Space Pilates at I can't even say it smallspacepilatescom backslash revitalize, where you can look at all the speakers and actually look. Go to their website. You can look at all the speakers and actually look. Go to their website, which you'll find all the information for Debbie and Debbie. Thank you again, and you've been such an an awesome guest, so until next time, we'll see you tomorrow, yeah.
Speaker 2:Thanks, thank you, bye you.