Images of different parts of the skeleton on a dark background

SHOULD i BE BUILDING BONE HEALTH AND DENSITY? IT'S A NO-BONER!

Gym dodged for decades? Been there.

Think resistance training is for body builders? Also been there.

Popped the pill through your teens and beyond? Got the t-shirt.

Been short changed by the sun on your Vit D? FFS, UK weather!

Dipped into devastation diet culture for days, weeks, months, years, a bloody lifetime on end? Hungry AF.

Answer, been there, done it to death, to any one or more of those and it’s definitely time to put your bones under pressure (they bloody love a bit of it!) to bump your bone density. And it's especially important for women. Better bone health will rev-up your longevity and could see you living a more pain-free, independent, resilient older age. Watch me now!

Don’t be that OAP that can’t stand up for falling down

Stronger bones could mean you keep better balance to keep upright. Doddery can f**ck off. The more candles on your birthday cake, the more you need to make bones your bad boys! In old age, falling down can literally be kissing goodbye to life as you know it! And, in some cases, kissing goodbye to life. In FUTUREPROOF, Davinia draws our attention to the fact that a broken hip in old age means a 60% chance of not regaining independence. That future can do one. Let’s pivot.

Get a lot of bang for your bone!

You might not be down with the long game, but word to the wise, don’t make bone density bottom of your to do list. Want to keep your marbles, memory and brain health in check? Think bones! Then think muscles because, flex those henchmen and it’ll help you say 'alright metabolic health, stabilised blood sugars, amped up immune system and fat burning power - nice to see you!' The point is, it's all connected.

If bone health starts here, let's talk supplements for bone health ...

WillPowders hero with electrolytes, MCT keto creamer, bovine collagen and protein

WillPowders have a skele-ton of quick powder picks for your bone health:

From our mountain life Swiss cattle: Award- Winning Hydrolysed Bovine Collagen - giving your own collagen production a leg up in its bone building skills. Collagen and bone health? You bet!
Nourishment from our Scandi bovines: Ditch the creak with Delicious Protein Powders which bring amino acids, calcium and electrolytes to the bone partay! Protein also looks after muscle health - the two go hand in hand.
If muscle health is a component of bone health (and it is), pop some Creatine and Shilajit Protein Powder in your day, too.
Buttered up from the Emerald Isle: MCT Keto Powder with Irish butter gets your bone hormones revved up with the cream of Vitamin K2.
No brittle bones here: Stock up on ElectroTide for minerals that your bone health will want to hang onto.

Now you’ve got your wish(bone)list, let’s put some backbone into getting you stronger.

collagen

Tug that bone: cue skeletal muscle

Over 40? You’re losing 1% muscle size and 2% muscle strength a year. Over 70? You’ll be losing 15% per decade. But what’s that got to do with bone health?

Turns out, building strong bones means you’ve got to give them a tug. Step forward skeletal muscle - the ‘exoskeleton’ muscle that pulls and pushes bone. You curl a bicep while holding a free weight, your muscle suffers micro-damage, which will rebuild stronger, and neighbouring bones are put under mechanical stress, making them pump out oesteoblast love, reducing bone loss and building new bone. Boom!

Get your powerhouse muscle groups, chest, back, shoulders, arms, legs and core, working against resistance and you’ve cranked up your very own oesteoblast factory. Crack open the Creatine and Shilajit Protein Powder and you'll get another couple of curls in for your efforts (and all the benefits of bone broth). Thanks creatine, you little energy convertor! Hello, fewer fractures, better bone density and stability. Dust off your disco platforms, get your groove on in your golden age, this Granny’s not going down on a frosty morning!

Make exercise:

Weight bearing - your own body weight first then start adding in other weights to bear - press ups, squats, walking, running
Resistant through the use of bands to make everything that bit harder - never mind the burn, feel the stretch! And replace your bands regularly, they get flabby quickly - we feel their pain.
Something that’s done in the weights section of the gym - as Dee says, the idea that we can lift a tin of beans while the kettle boils needs to be dropped like, well, a hot tin of beans

But, that’s not all …

Footprints: walking for longevity and movement

Pound the pavement and you pound your bones and pep your mind!

Bones banish brain fog? It seems so! Bones are endocrine glands (who knew?). In FUTUREPROOF, Davinia discusses Nobel Prize winning scientist Eric Kandel. His research into age-related memory loss uncovered that the hormone oesteocalcin ‘gets through the blood-brain barrier, helps in spatial learning and helps to prevent anxiety and depression’. Bring me that on a weight bearing platter! And, says Kandel, ‘to prevent the onset and progression of age-related memory loss, these are the steps that are important: regular walking to increase the release of osteocalcin’.

Osteocalcin relies partly on Vitamin K. For the Louis Vuitton of Vitamin K2, you’ll need grass-fed, pasture raised butter. Snaffle some easily and daily in our MCT Keto Creamer and Protein Powders. One less thing to worry about in the Great Nutrient Audit, right?

futureproof

Don’t let stress and sugar turn your body into a boneless box

Peeling yourself off the ceiling, but not in a good way? Reaching for your third sugar snack of the night?

The toll stress and sugar take is high:

Elevated stress equals elevated cortisol. Cortisol can force bones to give up some of their minerals, lowering your bone mineral density (BMD), so that you can use the amino acids for energy. Also, unfortunately, the stress response system can lead to reduced bone formation. While we all love a bit of autophagy, when it comes to cortisol’s ability to seduce minerals out of our bones, it’s a screw that from us! None of us want to be left asking, once it's too late, where did my bone health go?

Stress triggers inflammation, that precursor to most disease, also gets in amongst your bones and proceeds to take action with a wrecking ball. Hell no!

Excessive sugar can ‘drive both calcium and vitamin D deficiency,’ even when you’re popping supplements like a 90s raver! Bone off!

Solutions:

Don’t let the wheels come off your bone density wagon. Be a bone health Rolls ...

Keep stress down - take Calm as a first step to taking control of your dysregulated nervous system. Learn more about how it might be in overdrive, even when life doesn’t seem to be tripping you up!
Reduce or cut out inflammation sparking foods such as veg oils and sugar
Keep amino acids high priority in your food intake so your body doesn’t have to go leeching them out of your bones - oof!
Wean yourself off the sugar with nutritious craving crushing alternatives that feed bones and keep you away from the white stuff

calm

Ozempic, Mounjaro and Wegovy and your bone health

There’s no judgement here. If you’re undergoing treatment for weight loss via a medically monitored process, fine. But we also get that your appetite will be in tatters if you’re suffering from the nausea, bloating and vomiting side effects weight loss injections bring.

Concentrating on keeping protein levels up can be a battle. Chowing down on a steak every day can strip the joy of, well, … steak. But bone density matters for the long term and, once the injections have done their thing and you’ve reached a healthy weight, you’ll still need to shimmy habits towards a protein first approach beyond bone health.

Now is the time to stack habits:

A glass of water with a scoop of taste-bud dodging, bone building collagen - because you’ll still have to drink water, right?
An ElectroTide to aid absorption of minerals crucial to bone health
Stick an MCT Keto Stick in your cuppa - that way, you’re keeping the Vit K2 ticking over and you’re saying come hither to calcium
Switch in a WillPowders Protein Powder shake. Stevia respects your blood sugars and the full protein profile allows your body to get busy with the old repair, rejuvenate, renew combo. Make it with water if nausea is niggling - or milk, if you fancy. You don’t have to drink it all at once - make it in our Mixer and sip throughout the day. Slick as!
Many find that WillPowders Award Winning Milk Chocolate Protein Powder helps them steer clear of Mr. Cadbury and the whole ‘Galaxy’ of chocolate temptation once they’re out of the other side of weight loss. Bone appetit!