167: A Pro-Aging Perspective on Bone Health- with Sarah Glicken

Let’s bone up on bone health!

We grew up being told to drink cow’s milk to get our calcium. That’s fine. This episode does not talk about the dairy industry. But obviously, more prevention measures are needed. Because today, 54 million Americans have osteoporosis.

That’s a shocking number!

Too many people are suffering from this medical condition that causes bones to become brittle and fragile. Women are particularly susceptible – but men are not off the hook!

Why is this happening? A considerable portion of the American diet is devoted to dairy. Arguably too much! Many people drink milk like it’s going out of style. (Animal and nut milk are booming.) Yet, our parents and grandparents find themselves silently suffering – many don’t even know they have osteoporosis – until they suffer a bone fracture.

If you are 30 years old, you may not think you need to know anything about this. But did you know at age 30, you have reached peak bone density? That’s right. In the future, you will lose 1-2% of your bone density each year after that. And menopausal women can lose up to 20% a year!

Make no bones about it – we all need to know what preventative measures to take to keep our skeletal system strong and healthy. And those who are now suffering from unhealthy bones need science-based biohacks to restore their quality of life.

In this episode, we get the skinny on bone health from Sarah Glicken, who has a wealth of knowledge on this topic.

Sarah co-founded the Los Angeles-based wellness center called OsteoStrong LA – a place where clients received attentive care and treatments that strengthen bones, joints, and muscles.

Sarah is “pro-aging,” not anti-aging. She helps people age gracefully using technology, mindset, and supplementation and believes everyone deserves to live in a healthy body. She is a Certified Holistic Healthcare Coach and holds a Masters in Spiritual Psychology from the University of Santa Monica. She also is an entrepreneur who loves running a business that brings people hope and guides them to a healthier and happier place.

In this podcast, we cover:

How bone health became Sarah’s passion in life
Tony Robbins’ health challenges and what he thinks about OsteoStrong
What “bone degeneration” looks like and how it affects people
The typical profile of a new client at OsteoStrong
Why do many athletes use OsteoStrong’s services?
What is “osteogenesis”
The four pieces of equipment Sarah uses to stimulate osteogenesis
The most fractured body part and the most common way it gets fractured
Why “pro-aging” is better than “anti-aging”
The critical supplements you need for bone health

What does bone degeneration look like, and why is it so prevalent?

Wade asks Sarah: “Can you flesh out a picture of bone degeneration and how it impacts people’s quality of life? And help us understand why this is happening so much in our society?

Here is a snippet of Sarah’s answer: “Our bodies build strong bones – which is living tissue – up to around age 30 – the age we reach peak bone mass. What most people don’t know is that after age 30, we all start losing bone mass at different levels.”

“Things that can affect us are number one, genetic propensity. Certain people tend towards bone degeneration. Osteoporosis is considered a female disease, but it’s not.”

“In many ‘thinner’ cultures, including thin white women, Asian cultures including Japan and China – these groups have a higher propensity towards bone loss.”

“But there are other factors we don’t think about, like people who have eating disorders when they’re young. Because their nutrient absorption is poor, which causes their bone health to suffer. We have clients at OsteoStrong who are in their twenties with bone density issues.”

“Another significant factor is hypothyroidism. People taking Synthroid or taking high doses of steroids throughout their lives are affected. Breast cancer survivors are another group we see because chemo can affect bone density.”

“Here’s a staggering statistic: 50% of women and 33% of men over 50 will fracture a bone at some point.”

Athletes at all levels are coming into OsteoStrong for help.

Sarah and her team at OsteoStrong work with a surprising number of athletes.

“We have a lot of athletes come in, either for injuries or injury prevention. Athletes suffer from joint dysfunction and pain in their bodies and are looking to mitigate or strengthen themselves.”

“We can help with athletic performance. But I would say 70% of our client base is people with bone density issues.”

Our bones provide the architectural framework for the rest of our bodies. Like scaffolding, every piece needs to be well built and working correctly, or else the entire structure (the body) can come crashing down. Don’t let that happen – you can crawl on the floor with your (future?) grandkids by making a few simple lifestyle adjustments.

Check out this episode – there’s more to healthy bones than drinking milk and taking calcium supplements!

Episode Resources:

Mention the Awesome Health Podcast and get a complimentary consultation with OsteoStrong
OsteoStrong Los Angeles on Instagram
OsteoStrong Los Angeles on Facebook
OsteoStrong Los Angeles on YouTube
To find an OsteoStrong location outside of LA, GO HERE
Sarah Glicken on Instagram
Sarah Glicken on LinkedIn
Meet Sarah Glicken – article on SHOUTOUT LA

Read The Episode Transcript:

Wade Lightheart: 00:02 Welcome to the BiOptimizers awesome health podcast. And now here's your host.

Wade Lightheart: 00:16 What is awesome health. It's actually an acronym that stands for air water, exercise, sunshine, optimizers, mental beliefs, and attitudes and education. These are the pillars of peak health and my team and I have created a free 12 week course that you can use to transform each day. You'll get a written and video lesson delivered to your inbox. Everything is covered from the foundations of digestion to advance alternative therapies. Few people know about and began it's 100% free. Just go to bioptimizers.com. That's B I O P T I M I Z E R s.com. Good morning.

Wade Lightheart: 01:00 Good afternoon. And good evening its Wade T Lightheart from BiOptimizers with another edition of the awesome health podcast. And today we have Sarah Glicken, who is the co-founder of Osteostrong LA biohacking wellness center, focusing on strengthening bones, joints, and muscles after a successful career in marketing and sales, with more than two decades of experience in music design and hospitality, she left to pursue her passion as a champion of health optimization as a pro aging advocate, she guides others in discovering new ways to age gracefully through technology mindset and supplementation. Sarah holds a master in spiritual psychology from the university of Santa Monica and is a certified holistic health coach. It has her strong belief that everyone desires to live in a healthy body. Sara, welcome to the show.

Sarah Glicken: 01:59 Thank you so much. Thanks for the great introduction

Wade Lightheart: 02:04 We were chatting earlier and you dropped a bomb of a fact on us. 54 million people are suffering from osteoporosis, a degenerative and debilitating condition that really takes a lot away from our lives. I can think of one as a child. I dealt with senior citizens, a lot people who were aging, and one of the big fears was if I fall and break my hip or mobility issues and the degenerative conditions, I had an aunt who suffered from osteoporosis and the last part of her life was, was seriously compromised and certainly anxiety written because of that condition. How did you become so passionate in, in, in this area and how that became your mission in life?

Sarah Glicken: 02:53 Yeah, absolutely. Well, but first let me correct. So it's 54 million people in the U S have bone density issues in general. It's so that's a combination of osteoporosis and osteopenia, just to be clear since this information is really great, man,
Wade Lightheart: 03:12 God knows information terrorists.

Sarah Glicken: 03:15 Exactly. So, you know, how I got into it is interesting. I grew up in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and I as like a hippie kid. So from parents that were in New York in the sixties and moved to Santa Fe

Wade Lightheart: 03:32 Dan is an amazing city for that sort of creative, artistic expression.

Sarah Glicken: 03:36 Totally. So it's a beautiful, mystical, magical, amazing place. I'm super grateful to have grown up in a place like that. But so from a really young age, I was just shown all of the opportunities to support health and healing outside of sort of the allopathic medicine space. And so, I mean, that was kind of how it all started was just in my upbringing, right? So I was born in this sort of hippie family where we were eating organic before. That was like a thing. And that I just grew up like understanding what proper nourishment in my body did for me and how healing it was as well as like, you know, I was around a lot of alternative healers doing all kinds of crazy stuff back in the day. And then as it happened, both of my parents went through cancer journeys and I was caregiver to both of them and they both died.

Sarah Glicken: 04:44 And I just had, even though I loved what I did in the, in the marketing space. And I worked with a lot of really great companies, I just knew that I wanted to do something where I could make more of an impact in the world and where I could help people. And and I hadn't found it yet. And that was really clear to me. And I was really into personal growth work and went to Tony Robbins, unleash the power within. So I was already revved up with a fire in my belly. And then on the last day of that event, have you ever been to

Wade Lightheart: 05:22 UPW

Sarah Glicken: 05:26 Date with destiny? Yeah. Oh, awesome. Okay. So, you know, you know, the Tony world very familiar. Yeah. So on the last day is like the, where they do all, everything about is about health that day. And one of the things that they talk about on stage is this product called Osteostrong, which is this technology that strengthens bones. And I don't, I don't have anything in my history that would lead me to like, be passionate about that space. But I just got like this immediate yes, from the universe. Like I heard it spoken on stage by the CEO of the company who, who started the parent company of Osteostrong. And I said, this is amazing. And this is a way that I can make a meaningful impact in the world. And and so that was in November, 2017 and I opened my first location of Osteostrong in April, 2018. Wow.

Wade Lightheart: 06:24 The very short period of time.

Sarah Glicken: 06:25 Yeah. Massive action. You know, Tony

Wade Lightheart: 06:30 Faction

Sarah Glicken: 06:31 The gladiator,

Wade Lightheart: 06:34 I will not stop. Thanks Tony, for all your contributions, by the way. And of course, Tony, what's fascinating is Tony has like super intense bone density because of all the jumping and clapping he's done.

Sarah Glicken: 06:47 Yeah. But he also has like borderline gigantism because he's like six, eight and has had a lot of issues with like his back. And he credits a lot of his ability to like be on stage for 12, 14, 18 hours at a time to using Osteostrong to help with eliminating joint and back pain in his body and keeping his just sort of foundational strength there, because that's the other part of what the product does.

Wade Lightheart: 07:17 And you, you indicated something to think that's really important. And let's kind of rewind for our listeners when we're talking about what are the negative effects and maybe what are the points that you need to start concerning yourself about the loss of bone density. And some people are more susceptible than others. And interesting enough, what I've noticed is in the digital age, people are far more susceptible to bone density issues. And part of that is cortisol and blue light and a city and lack of movement, you know, lack of weight, bearing exercises, all these types of things. It's, it's seriously an issue. Can you maybe point out the picture or flesh out the picture of bone degeneration and its impact on people's their quality of life and why that is happening so, so much in our society?

Sarah Glicken: 08:17 Absolutely. So we build bone in our bodies and build really strong bone, which is a living tissue up until around age 30. And that's when we reach peak bone mass. So probably most people don't even know that, that after age 30, we're all starting to lose bone mass at different levels. Right? So the things that can affect it are of course, genetic propensity towards it. Like there are certain people that have a tendency towards, and that tends to be, it's more of a considered a female disease, but it's not. And a lot of thinner cultures, so thin white women, a lot of Asian cultures, Japanese, Chinese have, have higher propensity towards high levels of bone loss, but then other things affect it that we don't even think about like, like people who have eating disorders when they're young, right? Because they're not their nutrient absorption is so poor. So their bone health really suffers. So we've seen people in, in our center who are like in their twenties who have bone density issues. Also significant hypothyroidism. So people taking Synthroid that can affect it, people taking, having taken high doses of steroids through their lives and then breast cancer survivors, because the chemo can also affect, but it, but it's a pretty staggering, like 50% of women and 30%, 33% of men over 50 will have a fracture. So it's a pretty, pretty high number.

Wade Lightheart: 10:02 You're talking about bone density, just a numbers. Cause I get my bone density, mineral tests and DEXA scans and things like that. What is a typical healthy range and what isn't range, where you're starting to run into trouble. And then, and then what is a reasonable loss as we age and in, in, in something that's a warning sign.

Sarah Glicken: 10:24 So what we consider to be in a DEXA scan, the, the, the average the mean is based off of a healthy 30 year old, which of course, I mean the DEXA scan is like the gold standard in, in measuring bone density. But it doesn't,
Wade Lightheart: 10:40 There's a lot of variables that it's not covering. And I think a lot of people overemphasize some of the information, it's a generalized directional component, but it's not as absolute as people might think.

Sarah Glicken: 10:52 And the technician, the piece of equipment that you're using, they all play a major role in the results that you can have. Your results can, can vary five to 10% if you're doing a scan on one machine and then another machine. So we're all losing one to 2% a year. And then women in menopause tend to lose five to 6%. But during the menopause time they can lose like 20% of their wives

Wade Lightheart: 11:21 Really. So, so some, so what, in other words, we see this happen for women who enter into menopause. Sometimes there's rapid shifts in their physiology and you know, their health, their vitality, like it, all of a sudden, it just kind of falls off a cliff. What is like, why is that and how does that impact bone health?

Sarah Glicken: 11:44 So why is that? That would be a really good question for, for a scientist who really understands. It just is that we as women have a higher rate of decline as we age, as we're losing estrogen in our bodies. But then there are a lot of other factors that play into it. Like what our vitamin D levels are are our calcium absorption. When I was a kid, it was like, drink milk, drink, milk, drink, milk. And it was all about calcium and taking enough calcium. And then what we've really grown to understand is that it's more about absorption of calcium into the body and actually just taking calcium on its own without understanding the whole picture of the body and like magnesium levels, vitamin D levels, you can actually take too much calcium and then you can see like calcification in the board.
Wade Lightheart: 12:39 It's the opposite effect. You start dropping calcium because your magnesium calcium ratio is out of whack, or you don't have enough sunlight or D three present in the body for absorption issues. You know, we're all about absorption. You know, it's always say, it's not what you eat is what you digest, absorb, and utilize. And a lot of these low grade or low resolution solutions that have been propagated on to the population over the last 80 years

Sarah Glicken: 13:11 Are

Wade Lightheart: 13:12 Really hurting people. You know, cause people think, Hey, I'm taking my XYZ vitamin or I'm getting extra calcium cause sorry, you know, Abe is vitamin enriched white bread. Yeah.

Sarah Glicken: 13:27 But I think, and then if we take it to a whole other level, which is why I I'm launching this, this new sort of a coaching program that is a physician guided coaching program around bone health, is that we, and especially in, in the allopathic medical world, I mean, I'm so grateful for the role of doctors in, in my life and in the, you know, what, what they are here to do. But what is true is that they are taught to prescribe and to diagnose and to cut are the primary things that they're taught. That's obviously oversimplification of it all. But, but what we need to be looking at is like the whole body and the whole person. Right. So we don't think about like, how does sleep gonna affect our bone health? How is nutrition, just what we're eating on a regular basis? How is stress going to affect everything?

Sarah Glicken: 14:23 I mean, I know for myself when I'm under high levels of stress, I just, I can see immediately what it's doing to my physical body and how it's either helping or hindering what's going on. And I think that it's time that we start looking at the whole system and kind of what we can do on all levels. Like we look at these different pillars of like sustenance. So like what, we're, what we're eating right then supplementation. So what can we be taking? What stimulus can we have? Like Osteostrong or as well as what we're doing out in the world in terms of exercise and then stress. So that sleep stress and how all of those things are going to affect us. And we need to be looking at all of them. We've we see pretty stupendous results in women's in everyone's bone density increasing that at Osteostrong, but it's not the whole picture either, you know, so we have to be looking at the whole body.

Wade Lightheart: 15:27 So when you talk about reversing these trends, so what I, what I love about Osteostrong, maybe we can talk a little bit more about what that program is, is your typical client comes in, maybe they've gotten a diagnosis from a medical doctor, or there's a genetic pattern or whatever that says, oh, you know, I'm susceptible or I'm heading down a bone degeneration thing. That's going to run into some complications. Is that the type of person that comes to here?
Sarah Glicken: 15:56 Yes. So it's either that or it's athletes. So we have a lot of athletes who come in either for injury prevention or ha dealing. We've got a lot of ex pro athletes who come in because they have, have had so many injuries. They've got a lot of joint and dysfunction and pain in their bodies that they're looking to mitigate and to strengthen. And then we can help with athletic performance as well. But I would say 70% of our client base is people with bone density issues.

Wade Lightheart: 16:31 Got it. So someone that comes in, what, how does this work? Like, like, Hey, what is account? That's dangerous on bone density? Cause like, you know, I get these little things that says cell it's 7.8 or 7.9 or

Sarah Glicken: 16:47 Yes. So that's not going to be, so what we're looking at is the T score on a DEXA scan and the zero is like the, the

Wade Lightheart: 16:57 Explain what the T score is for

Sarah Glicken: 17:00 Listeners. Yes. So that is bone mineral density in your body. And so what we're looking at is the average bone mineral density of a healthy 30 year old, which they count as the zero. Okay. And then as it goes down you get into the osteopenic range, which is in the zero down to minus 1.5 and then below that is considered osteoporosis.

Wade Lightheart: 17:31 Can you can you explain those terminologies what the difference between them means?

Sarah Glicken: 17:38 So so osteoporosis is basically means porous bones, right? Yeah. And so the osteopenic range is, is that range where your are starting to have issues, but they're not down to a level that they would consider that you would need to take medication or to, to mitigate the loss at some level.

Wade Lightheart: 18:02 And what are some of the medications that people are taking and what's the, what's the potential side effects for these things? Cause I think a lot of people just don't understand.

Sarah Glicken: 18:09 Yes. So bisphosphonate drugs are the primary things that are prescribed for for bone density. And there are some people who find some benefit from using them. There are a lot of side effects from them, including some of the, some of those there are different ones that you take like a shot a couple of times a year, or there's some that you take as a pill, but some of them can create things like your jaw becomes very fragile so that they recommend that you no longer have extensive dental work after you start doing them because your jaw could fracture. Wow. That's crazy. Yeah. Yes. So there are so many side effects that people experience from them and in, and this is purely my feeling around them because I'm not big on taking pharmaceuticals in general, but what they do is they're not actually getting to the root of the problem. What they're doing is they're sort of essentially they're creating kind of like a candy coating around the bone that makes it sort of seem to be slightly stronger. It's not rebuilding the actual bone so that your bone itself becomes stronger because since bone is living and it can be remodeled under high impact force. And we know that from Wolf's law, which every doctor studies from the 18 hundreds, which says that high-impact force can remodel bone.

Wade Lightheart: 19:50 And this is something I think a lot of people are not people think of bones as these like hard steel, like structures inside your body. They get fractured, but they're living dynamic aspects which produce blood cells and all sorts of different things, you know in our bodies. And I would think that sealing them up with a drug might not be the best answer over the longterm. And oftentimes, would you say that, or I don't want to put words in your mouth, but what percentage do you think of these debilitating conditions are lifestyle and what percentage would be genetics? Are there a range there? The

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Wade Lightheart: 22:10 Lifestyle is the way to impact that.

Sarah Glicken: 22:14 Yeah, I think that there are probably, I don't, I've never seen any studies on the difference that in that, in terms of percentages I would say that frequently, it's a combination of the two, of course. But there are going to be people that have a higher propensity than others. So the gymnast have the highest bone density on earth.

Wade Lightheart: 22:38 I get like the forces that they do and they jump and go as insane.

Sarah Glicken: 22:41 So it's been measured and they can have as much as like 10 to 15 multiples of their body weight in force go through their bones at a time. So that's, you know, and these teeny, teeny little people, right? Both the men and women are generally pretty small in the gymnastics world. Yeah. It also has one of the earliest retirement ages of any sport. [inaudible] The average retirement age is 19 for gymnast and they have tend to have very high rate of knee, hip shoulder replacements down the road

Wade Lightheart: 23:16 Can ankles and that sports really bad. I've almost all the gymnasts. I know I have knee and hip issues. Yeah,

Sarah Glicken: 23:23 Exactly. So when John Jake wish was getting his PhD, he's a an engineer and was his mom was diagnosed with osteoporosis and she's European and she's like, I'm not taking any drugs, but I, I, and I don't, and the doctors were like, stop exercising, stop doing the things that you love because we don't you to fall and hurt yourself, which makes no sense to me. And so John looked at it and he said, wait a second. Osteoporosis is a deconditioning of the bone. So if something is deconditioned, it should be able to be reconditioned. Right. And so he started researching and he's like, okay, let's look at who has the highest bone density on earth. We already know Wolff's law, which says that bone can regrow. And then let's look at who does that naturally? And he looked at gymnast and he looked at Olympic weightlifters, right.

Sarah Glicken: 24:19 And he studied their ergonomic form of like, what position do you have to be in order to exert the absolute, most force out of your body possible without risking injury and like, how do they do it? So obviously both of those CA can hurt themselves a lot. But, but for the most part, they've learned how to be in positions where they can absorb really high amounts of force in their body. So he like literally studied the human body in terms of that and figured out, like, what is the optimal position in order to exert the most force out of the body possible? And then how can we put end to end compression on the bones to trigger what's called osteogenesis, which is the osteoblast building, building new bone tissue.

Wade Lightheart: 25:10 So then, so this became the foundation of the Osteostrong program. And so when a person comes in, like this person, they, you know, they finding out, Hey, I've, I've got this, you know osteopenia, osteoporosis, whatever I'm on that, this directional thing. And I want to reverse that they come in and you put them on one of these Osteostrong programs. Is, is that, is that how it works? So what that involved?

Sarah Glicken: 25:37 Yeah. So obviously I, you know, I should say that we don't treat, diagnose or cure anything. But what we do is we support the natural process in the body to heal itself. And so what it looks like is, and which is why it is called a biohack, right, is that it is a way to receive maximum effort with minimum results. So it's literally a trigger for the brain to stimulate osteogenesis. So all we do, we have four pieces of equipment that each focus on a different body part. So there's one that's called the upper gross trigger. That's focusing from shoulders down to elbows and elbows down to risks. The second one is focusing on the lower body from hips to knees and knees to ankles. And the third is for your core. So that's really looking primarily at rib cage and then deep abdominal muscles.

Sarah Glicken: 26:25 And then the fourth is called the postural growth trigger. And that's looking at the spine and all the postural muscles. So it's a once a week modality which is really interesting, right? Because similar to how muscle needs rest time bone has a longer needs, longer rest time. The life cycle of bone is five to seven days. So so there's no benefit. It's been studied. John studied it and it's, there's no benefit in doing it more often than once a week. And the other part that's really interesting is there's no benefit in doing not hitting the stimulus. That's needed to create osteogenesis and doing it. Like I can jump up and down a thousand times, which will probably be good for my cardio, but if I'm not hitting the minimum stimulus needed to trigger osteogenesis in my body, it doesn't matter how many times I do it. It's not going to do it. So that's, that's the other really unique part about this is that you do each of these modalities once with the goal of hitting a specific trigger. So like what we know the area of the body that's been studied most of course, is the hip, right, because of hip fractures. Right. And we know that you need 4.2 multiples of your body weight in force to trigger osteogenesis.

Wade Lightheart: 27:52 So for 120 pound woman, they would need how much?

Sarah Glicken: 27:58 Yeah. So they would need, you know, five, 500

Wade Lightheart: 28:03 And, and how, and obviously you're going to need some specialized where you can't just go out and put 500 pounds on your back and expect that you don't get

Sarah Glicken: 28:11 Right. Or you could jump off of this. And I would probably get 500 pounds of force for my body, but that would like strained my lower back. And so what we're doing is we're eliminating the weak range of motion completely. So we're putting you in your strongest position where you can have the most force. I mean, you understand this as having done traditional weightlifting, right? So like we can only push what we can push from back here if we're doing a bench press. But when we're out here is when we're at our strongest, right? So we eliminate that week range so that we put you in a position where you can exert the most force possible out of your body in order to stimulate those triggers. And what we see is that people are seven times stronger in their strongest range than in their weakest range.

Sarah Glicken: 28:57 So like I've been able to do my max on the lower growth trigger is 2,400 pounds of force. So would I ever be able to do a leg press of 2,400 pounds no way, but I am able to do that. And it feels good. And it's, it's not only the other interesting part about it is it's not only stimulating bone growth, but it's actually increasing the number of myofibrils in your muscle cells. So it's making your muscles denser. So it's not going to create larger muscles on the outside, but it's going to just increase your overall strength. So it's sort of like, like the chassis of a car sort of making the whole foundation stronger so that then you can go lift heavier, run farther, you know, not wind up with osteoporosis, like all of the ways that it can support you in your body. Ideally people are doing this for prevention as opposed to,

Wade Lightheart: 30:00 Right. And so let's talk about that for like, so let's say a person, you know, here we have a menopausal lady at 120 pounds comes in and she's in the thing, what are some of the reversals that you've seen? You know, like that, that people are heading down one path and you know, what are the reversals, what percentage can they change? How they, their trajectory change. What's the timeframes involved at producers?

Sarah Glicken: 30:22 Great question. So we've seen, so we've been open about three years and we've seen over a hundred people come back with DEXA scans heading back towards normal bone density. So a lot of them have gone from osteoporosis osteopenia. Wow. and we've had a few go back to completely normal, normal bone density.

Wade Lightheart: 30:47 Wow. Yes.

Sarah Glicken: 30:49 It's really exciting. And really encouraging of the direction that, that, that is going,

Wade Lightheart: 30:55 What's that like for the, for the, for the client, but when they, when they, you know, they're, anytime you get a diagnosis and it can be very scary and debilitating, and then when you can actually engage in a lifestyle alteration program and see progress, what's, what's that like?

Sarah Glicken: 31:12 Well, what I would like to know is what's it like when their doctor gives them the results in the doctor's office, because frequently I think the doctors are like, they're like in shock because nothing has the ability to affect a change in bone density and the way that, that this can this meaningfully in this period of time. Right. So frequently it's first, the doctor is like, wow, that was a significant change in your bone density.

Wade Lightheart: 31:39 What have you been doing? Right. That's usually the question. Right.

Sarah Glicken: 31:43 And it's, I mean, I will say that on a human level, it's brought me to tears multiple times when I, I no longer am working there regularly, but when I was there all the time, just seeing these people coming in and their faces when they get their DEXA scan back and they're realizing, because there isn't, there's so much fear around it, you know, they frequently, they saw a mother or grandmother.

Wade Lightheart: 32:10 Yeah. Because he usually it's, oftentimes it's, it's also genetic predisposition. So there's probably a family member that they saw, you know, break their hip. And a lot of times people hit brakes before they fall. It's not the fall that breaks. And that's a lot of them be able to understand that.

Sarah Glicken: 32:24 Yeah. And you know, that the, the ribs are the most often fractured part of the body and the most common way that the rib is fractured is from sneezing.

Wade Lightheart: 32:35 Wow. Yes.

Sarah Glicken: 32:36 So, and I think that what it comes down to really it's like getting down to people's why, because we hear someone saying, I want to increase my bone density, but, but really what it's about is I want to be able to crawl on the floor with my grandkids when I get old and be able to do it and get back up off of the floor and not be hurting. And I want to be able to go on a hike when someone invites me and not be afraid that, that I'm going to lose my balance and fall. And it's like, it's really about quality of life. It's not, it's not really about the number, but there does tend to be a lot of fear. And so instead, what we try to do is to help them future pace towards what is possible.

Wade Lightheart: 33:18 Do you think that it's possible for most people that may be predispositioned for bone density issues to stabilize that if they're following an Osteostrong program?

Sarah Glicken: 33:31 I, yes. And there are always going to be exceptions to the role. You know, we had someone who did not have good results. She probably had one of the highest stress jobs that I had seen. She was on a plane all the time, had poor eating habits very poor sleep. So, and she also didn't believe in it. So she came, but she started it and said, I don't think that this is going to work, but I'm going to try it.

Wade Lightheart: 34:01 Right.

Sarah Glicken: 34:02 So she kind of fit the perfect avatar of the person. Yeah,

Wade Lightheart: 34:07 Yeah. Resistant to the to the benefits. But for the most part, you're able to positively impact. And what's a timeline that's realistic for people to start to see progress. So people coming in once a week, come in once a week. And how long is this session?
Sarah Glicken: 34:24 10 minutes.
Wade Lightheart: 34:25 Really? So they just come in for 10 minutes. Do the, do the program and out the door again, simple, easy, well, that's pretty impressive. Now, do you advocate lifestyle changes or dietary changes or supplementation changes, anything like that?

Sarah Glicken: 34:42 Definitely. we also advocate, you know, we have several other modalities that we are big proponents of like PEMF technology. So we have PEMF pulse, electromagnetic

Wade Lightheart: 34:54 Frequency got one of these here and one upstairs here at the Bible home. Yeah. So exactly as I call it this.

Sarah Glicken: 35:00 Yeah. So we have a bio charger as well, which includes PEMF and rife technology along with light and sound, which is really wonderful. We have a full body red light panel. And then we also have NormaTec compression boots, which are just really great for circulation lymphatic system, obviously breaking up lactic acid for people who are athletic, but also, but for, I am amazed at how many people love it, who aren't athletes, it's just tired legs. Yeah. Getting the, getting your blood flowing. So, so we recommend all of those things as well as the Osteostrong, but also, you know, get your vitamin D levels checked because that plays a crucial role in absorption of calcium magnesium supplementation. Yeah. And then eating a healthy diet and the healthy diet for different people looks differently. Right. We're not going to, for some people,

Wade Lightheart: 36:00 Are there any things other than a stressful work environment that are, that they get out of your life kind of thing

Sarah Glicken: 36:08 Smoking soda, both of those things. If anybody is on Synthroid, of course they're probably on Synthroid because they need it. But if there's a way to naturally make changes to their thyroid and to get off of Synthroid, that would be, that would be another thing that can be really helpful for it.

Wade Lightheart: 36:32 What do you feel going from that UPW event to now you're three years or so into your journey as an advocate for this program, what is your mission and how do you see that unfolding in the next mile?

Sarah Glicken: 36:48 Well, that's a great question. So my mission really is about supporting others in, in what I like to call pro aging. Right. As we've always said, anti-aging, but I'm like, I don't want to be anti anything. I love that. I want to be supporting, you know, aging age, like a pro and like, and feel good in my body as I age and feel like I got this, no matter how old I am even. And while simultaneously embracing the changes that we are all going through as, as we age, because those are real, right. Like I'm not going to recover in the same way that I did when I was 25. When I do a high, like a hit class or something, it just, I just don't recover quite the same as I did, but the more I can embrace that the better, I think, as I move forward.

Sarah Glicken: 37:47 And, and in these next few years, I mean, I'm launching a couple of really exciting things to sort of round out the, the bone health support world with. I mentioned doing this coaching program, which is like an online program in support of whole body bone health, and all of the things that we can do to support it from supplementation to what we're eating to what, how we're stimulating it. And I, so that's a big part of it. And, and just that goal of, of, I want to be an advocate for people to you know, move through this life in a, in a joyful easeful way so that they feel good. I

Wade Lightheart: 38:35 I'm with you on that. So, Sarah in closing a couple of things I'd like to ask you, if someone that's listening to this knows someone who has a predisposition for this, or is suffering from one of these conditions, or may have a genetic predisposition, what would you suggest that they do right now? It's to take action because I always love to, Hey folks, it's not enough just to listen to both this, it's not enough to hear about this, get this message out to people. You can make a difference. You can change somebody's life. You can prevent you know, a lifestyle of pain with something that could be much better than that. What, what would you suggest for them?
Sarah Glicken: 39:18 Yeah, I would suggest a multi-pronged approach if they live somewhere where there is an Osteostrong location that they can go into and actually start a program. I would suggest that there are a hundred locations around the world that have this equipment, that they can do that. But I would also, it's about empowering people to take control of their own health. So I would encourage everyone to have their vitamin D levels checked. I mean, we know how important vitamin D levels are for our immune system as well, but really vital in our bone health also. And to be supplementing, I would suggest that they all look at magnesium breakthrough and see how that can support their

Wade Lightheart: 39:59 It's been very helpful. I know a lot of people with bone density issues have love that product and a variety of other things. It's such a deficient, mineral,

Sarah Glicken: 40:07 You know, full disclosure. I, I have been a user of the product from, for quite a while before we were introduced to each other. And you invited me on here, which is, yeah, I love the product. And I'm a huge fan of, I mean, it's been so helpful in my body. Yeah. And, and, and then as well, just really looking at the other things that they can do. How can you reduce stress? Are you eating a whole food diet? And are you surrounded by things that bring you joy because all of those things are going to support your overall health and wellbeing.
Wade Lightheart: 40:44 Okay. Where can people find you find out more get involved with your company and your mission?

Sarah Glicken: 40:52 Absolutely. So if you are in the Los Angeles area, you can find us on Osteostrong la.com. And for around the country, osteostrong.me. You can find all the locations that exist everywhere and I'll also be sharing. And maybe you can put it in the show notes, some more information about this bone health program that's going to be launching.

Wade Lightheart: 41:16 Yes, that would be great. And we will put all of that information in the show notes. Sarah, thank you so much for joining us today. I think you're on a great mission and we're delighted to support that as a advocate for better health and stronger bones. Thank
Sarah Glicken: 41:30 You so much. It's been a pleasure.

Wade Lightheart: 41:32 All right, everybody, that's another edition of the awesome health podcasts. Be sure to refer this out to people. There's probably someone that, you know, that is suffering from osteopenia or osteoporosis. And as Sarah is indicated, you can make a difference and they can make a difference by implementing some of these lifestyle programs.