Did you know that bone health issues don’t just start in your older age? And we’ll bet you didn’t realize broken bones can be fatal! Bone health needs to be prioritized in your younger years. Tune in to learn more about bone health and improve your vitality for years to come with Dr. John Neustadt!Today Jenn is joined by Dr. John Neustadt to talk about bone health. He talks about why both health is worth prioritizing and discusses the tools that are commonly used to check bone health (and how accurate they are). There is eye opening information in this episode about how some medications can impact bone health and how protecting your bones may end up as a matter of life or death. The second half of the episode focuses on what you can do to improve your vitality and prolong bone health. Dr. Neustadt covers so much valuable information during this episode, it is a must listen! The Salad With a Side of Fries podcast is hosted by Jenn Trepeck, discussing wellness and weight loss for real life, clearing up the myths, misinformation, bad science & marketing surrounding our nutrition knowledge and the food industry. Let’s dive into wellness and weight loss for real life, including drinking, eating out, and skipping the grocery store.IN THIS EPISODE: ●  [5:59] Why did Dr. John Neustadt move from the tech field to naturopathic medicine with a focus on bone health?●  [14:18] Why is bone health worth prioritizing before our older years?●  [17:17] How can a broken hip lead to mortality? ●  [19:00] What tools are commonly used to measure bone health?●  [25:10] Dr. Neustadt gives an approachable biology lesson to understand the structure and function of bones. ●  [27:50] What metrics or tools can we focus on to better understand the health of our bones?●  [33:16] How can you prolong your bone health? ●  [41:11] When it comes to supplements for bone health, is calcium enough? KEY TAKEAWAYS: ●  [15:00] If you're a woman 45 years or older, your risk for an osteoporosis fracture is equal to your combined risk of breast uterine and ovarian cancer.●  [26:17] Minerals give bones their hardness, but it’s collagen that gives bones their flexibility and ultimately, their strength. ●  [30:09] Medications such as antidepressants can make your bones more brittle and likely to break due to serotonin destroying the bone. It disrupts the natural balance of bone building cells. Research shows that for people taking antidepressants for 1-5 years, 1 in 19 people are expected to break a bone. QUOTES:  “The real thing we're trying to work with and prevent is fractures because they're so deadly. Every 30 seconds somewhere in the world, somebody with osteoporosis is breaking a bone. In fact, globally, osteoporosis is second only to cardiovascular disease as a health concern, and it accounts for more days spent in a hospital than other diseases like heart attacks, diabetes and breast cancer.” - Dr. John Neustadt“It's been discovered not that long ago that it's part of our endocrine or hormonal system. There are some hormones involved like osteocalcin that have been shown to help with blood sugar and glucose and insulin. So that does more than just help us walk and lay down and stand up and move around.” - Dr. John Neustadt“The most predictive and consistent predictor of a future fracture is somebody's gait and mobility. Can they walk unassisted? Can they stand up from a seated position easily? How fast can they walk? Anything we can do to prevent somebody falling can prevent somebody's fractures? Then what we want to do is create the environment in the body that will actually help to maintain and grow strong bones, to maintain strong bones, promote healthy bone density, but also just to promote health within the bones entirely.” - Dr. John Neustadt“There are multiple studies now that show that all you have to do is walk an average of 7,000 to 7,500 steps a day. The benefits seem to plateau at 7,500 steps per day. And that's associated with a 50 to 70 percent reduct