TODAY'S AJENDA #57

25 to 30 years old. That’s when bones reach their maximum strength and density. (Never again will your body naturally build more bone!) As you age, your body withdraws from this “bone bank” to maintain calcium levels for essential biological processes. 

But here’s the thing: 

When these withdrawals exceed what your initial bone bank contained, bone density drops below healthy thresholds. First comes osteopenia (low bone density), then osteoporosis (dangerously fragile bones). 

In other words, the smaller your bone bank from those early years, the faster you’ll reach these dangerous thresholds where even minor falls can cause life-altering fractures. 

So why weren’t we shown how to invest in our bone strength during our 20s?

Osteoporosis Begins In Your 20s 

The culprit? A society that writes off osteoporosis as a condition reserved for “older women.” The reality is that osteoporosis begins decades earlier, and it affects both women and men! 

In fact, by age 18 in girls and age 20 in boys, up to 90% of their peak bone mass has already been built, with the remaining 10% continuing to develop until age 30. (Chan et al., 2018). (Please share this fact with any high school or college student you know and love!) 

But most young people don’t know this. And if they sabotage their initial bone health through poor diet, low physical activity, or hormone imbalances (such as hypothalamic amenorrhea or low estrogen), they start with a deficit, and this deficit sets the stage for osteoporosis decades later. 

Is It Too Late? 

“Jen, I missed my bone-building window. Am I too late?”  

Absolutely not! It’s never too late to build or preserve bone. There are a few things you can do: 

How to Preserve Bone Density With Resistance Training

Lifting weights (or resistance training) is one of the most powerful non-pharmaceutical ways for women after menopause to build bone density. Full stop. 

Here’s how it works: Bones are living tissues that respond to stress. Just like muscles, when you lift weights, the mechanical load creates teeny-tiny strains in your bones. 

These micro-stresses trigger osteoblasts—bone-building cells that lay down new bone tissue. This process of turning mechanical stress into bone growth is called mechanotransduction. (Honestly, how fun is that word to say!?). 

Why This Matters To Women 

This process is critical to women. After menopause, our estrogen levels—which are key to maintaining bone balance—drop. Without estrogen, bone breakdown (by osteoclasts) outpaces bone formation, leading to—you guessed it—bone loss and increased fracture risk.

But resistance training can counteract this imbalance. 

A study found that postmenopausal women who engaged in high-intensity resistance and impact training (deadlifts, squats, and overhead presses) significantly increased bone density at the spine and hip, the two most fracture-prone areas in osteoporosis (Watson et al., 2019). 

So while weighted vests are trendy, we need more than that. A lot more. We need to lift serious, progressively heavier weights that challenge our entire skeletal system. 

Your Resistance Training Regimen 

Here’s your guide to weight training for maintaining bone health: 

• Lift heavy. Use weights that are challenging (approximately 70-85% of your one-rep maximum). This means weights you can only lift 8-12 times before needing to rest! 

• Focus on compound movements. Prioritize weight-bearing exercises that work multiple muscle groups (squats, lunges, step-ups, rows, overhead presses). 

• Consistency is key. Aim to train 2–3 times per week. 

4 More Ways to Build Muscle Density 

Beyond resistance training, here are a few more strategies for strong bones: 

Get calcium from food, not pills. Aim for 1,200 mg of calcium per day from dairy, leafy greens, fortified foods, etc.

• Prioritize protein. Consume about 1.6g per kg of body weight daily.

• Ditch bone-draining habits. Avoid smoking and limit alcohol, both of which accelerate bone loss. 

• Consider medication when appropriate. Ask your doctor about bisphosphonates or other bone-preserving medications if you're at high risk. 

The best time to build bone health was in our 20s. The second-best time is now! 🦴

When you put a product in your shopping cart, you trust that it’s safe. But is it? 

Because here’s the thing: Over 90,000 commercial and industrial chemicals are approved for use in products in the United States, yet many of them haven’t been tested (either individually or in combination) for potential human toxicity. 

That’s concerning as we use dozens of products daily—from the mouthwash we gargle, to the orange juice we sip, to the perfume we spritz. In fact, the average American inhales, absorbs, and consumes around 5 pounds (!) of chemical additives from products in a single year. 

Fortunately, Dr. Aly Cohen is here to do something about it. 

Meet Dr. Aly Cohen 

Dr. Aly Cohen is a board-certified rheumatologist, integrative medicine physician, and one of the country’s leading medical and legal experts on environmental health with over 22 years of experience.   

I recently met Aly when we were both speakers at SXSW in Austin, Texas. I told her I am now obsessed with the issue of microplastics, and that’s when she gave me an advanced copy of her book. I immediately wanted to share what I learned with you.

In her new book, Detoxify, Dr. Cohen combines her knowledge and experience to provide a clear, science-based plan to rid yourself of the toxic chemicals lurking in our food, water, personal care products, and everything in between. 

I asked Aly if I could interview her for Today’s Ajenda to learn what we can do today to detoxify our environment—and how we can protect ourselves from our increasingly chemical-saturated world. Here’s what I asked her:

I believe drinking water contaminants are one of the most underrated and under-recognized contributors to human health issues…so I would rate it a 9! 

One of the best ways to detoxify your drinking water is to filter your water when it comes into your kitchen sink, no matter whether it’s from a well or municipal tap water. 

Any water filter is better than no filter (pitcher, faucet, refrigerator door are carbon block filters), and they vary by mechanism, efficiency, and costs.

The most aggressive way possible to remove contaminants is filters that incorporate reverse osmosis filtration. They’re around $300 and can be used on a countertop or installed under your kitchen sink in an hour by a plumber. 

I would rate this exposure a 7 given that we absorb many immune disrupting chemicals (IDCs) through our skin and vaginal canal (feminine care). The best way to detox is by not purchasing toxic products in the first place. There are a lot of free websites and apps (such as ewg.org) that can help you check. 

This is why I use coconut oil on my body as a moisturizer rather than any product with dozens of chemical ingredients! 

I would say environment and lifestyle (sleep, exercise, diet, smoking, alcohol use) play a key role. 

After two decades of managing patients with autoimmune and immune diseases, one thing is clear—reducing toxic chemical exposure, improving lifestyle, and incorporating key nutrients in our diets are critical for disease prevention and management. 

To be clear, modern-day humans (like you and me!) are loaded with environmental chemicals since they’re in many of the products we use. We don’t need a lab test to confirm that. 

However, my recommendation is to test if you’re really curious, or if you have severe symptoms that are clinically warranted, since exposures (and lab results) change on a day-to-day basis.

This question came from someone in the 8-Week Wellness Experiment recently. In a perfect world, we’d be discussing this over oat milk lattes at that cute corner café. But hey—this virtual coffee date in your inbox works too. 

The short answer? Yes. There is a difference–big time. And it isn’t just wellness industry hype (unlike those $80 collagen powders that promise to “reverse the aging process”). There’s actual science behind it. 

Time to catch up: ☕

Extra Virgin Versus Regular Olive Oil 

The biggest differences between Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) and Regular Olive Oil lie in how they’re produced, their nutritional content, and flavor profile.

Let’s start with how each is made: Imagine two olives side by side. Olive 1 is at its prime ripeness. Olive 2 is under-ripe and bruised. 

Olive 1 becomes EVOO. It’s brought to a mill where it’s cold-pressed, a process where the olive is crushed to extract the oil without the use of heat or chemicals. 

Olive 2 becomes regular olive oil. (It wouldn’t even qualify for EVOO because producers only use the healthiest olives!) While this olive also gets a cold-press, it then undergoes refinement—a process that uses heat and chemical solvents to remove any impurities and create a more shelf-stable product. 

Another way to picture it is the difference between fresh-squeezed orange juice and store-bought concentrate. Same fruit, very different final product. 

Let’s Talk Nutritional Profiles 

Naturally, when you subject any food to intense processing, you strip away many of its beneficial properties. Olives are no exception! 

While regular olive oil will retain olive's heart-healthy monounsaturated fats, the heat and chemical-heavy refinement process nixes the vitamins (particularly vitamin E), healthy fats, and polyphenols. 

That last one is important. Polyphenols are powerful antioxidants that have been shown in several studies to reduce inflammation and promote heart health (Behl et al., 2020). 

But Extra Virgin Olive Oil? It keeps all that good stuff—and then some. A meta-analysis in Nutrients (Flynn et al., 2023) reviewed 34 clinical trials and found that regular EVOO consumption was associated with: 

• Prevention of cognitive decline 

• Decreased risk of Type 2 Diabetes 

• Lower likelihood of obesity and weight gain over time 

• Reduced risk of breast and colorectal cancers 

Even better? EVOO is a cornerstone in the Mediterranean diet, which is well-documented for its longevity effects. A study in Nutrition, Obesity, and Exercise found that women who adhered to the Mediterranean diet had a 23% reduced risk of all-cause mortality (Ahmad et al., 2024). 

Of course, many factors contributed to these results (EVOO alone isn’t some longevity potion, though, I wish). However, it makes for a compelling case to add it to your kitchen pantry. 

What About The Taste? 

It’s not just health benefits you’d be missing out on: Flavor is part of it, too. 

EVOO has a noticeably fresh, grassy aroma and distinct taste profile. I’d describe it as a strong, peppery flavor, and I love to drizzle it on salads, veggies, and toast. 

Meanwhile, regular olive oil has a lighter, neutral taste. It doesn’t really have a strong flavor. However, that does mean it’s better suited for higher-temperature cooking, frying, or baking.  

Here’s My Advice

My advice as a doctor and nutritionist? Use EVOO whenever you can. It seriously goes on almost anything—pizza, morning eggs, grilled fish, and vanilla ice cream (just trust me on this). 

Save the regular stuff for high-heat stir-frying if you must. Just don’t count on it for bringing that nutritional punch! 

Recently, I discovered a great olive oil company that’s quickly become my favorite! Brightland* is a women-owned business based in my birth state of California, and they not only create high-quality and delicious extra virgin olive oil, but package it in bottles so stunning they could seriously double as kitchen decor. 

Brightland’s Californian home base is no coincidence. The state is known for its perfect olive-growing conditions—their olives grow in premium soil on family farms before being harvested at peak freshness and cold-pressed by a master miller (no chemical processing here). 

The result is an extra virgin olive oil that’s both delicious (I seriously put it on everything!) and brimming with antioxidants and polyphenols. I reached out to the Brightland team, and they were kind enough to offer a 15% discount for Ajenda subscribers. Just use the code DRJASHTON at checkout! 

Cheers to the power of extra virgin olive oil! 🫒

Did you enjoy Today’s Ajenda? It would mean the world if you left us a testimonial!

ABOUT DR. JEN

In her former roles as chief medical correspondent for ABC News and on-air cohost of “GMA3: What You Need to Know,” Dr. Jennifer Ashton—”Dr. Jen”—has shared the latest health news and information with millions of viewers nationwide. As an OB-GYN, nutritionist, and board-certified obesity medicine specialist, she is passionate about promoting optimal health for “the whole woman.” She has authored several books, including the national best-seller, The Self-Care Solution: A Year of Becoming Happier, Healthier & Fitter—One Month at a Time. And she has gone through menopause…

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