Million Dollar Bones
Working to Prevent & Manage Osteoporosis
I am Penelope Wasserman and I have been an advocate and educator for bone health for the past two decades. It can be tricky because we don’t see our bones and often don’t think about them. We also are not taught about bone health at a young age the way we are taught about oral hygiene. However, we can get a new set of teeth later in life, but not a new set of bones. Because our bones reach their peak mass by our early twenties, it makes sense that bone health education mirrors that of teeth health and begins when we are young.
That is why I created Million Dollar Bones in 2011. Although we reach our peak bone mass in our early 20’s, our bones are always remodeling. We have opportunities to help them stay strong and healthy by the choices we make.
Lots of things can be done to maintain strong bones at all ages. A healthy diet, weight bearing exercises with good form, getting enough sleep, getting enough sunshine for vitamin D, finding things each day that make you smile, reducing the amount of stress to your mind, body, gut, ears and eyes, finding things to be grateful for every day, and drinking enough water are all things that help keep our bones healthy.
Million Dollar Bones begins with safe and easy alignment exercises that help you integrate bone health awareness into your daily routines.
“Bone-healthy nutrition and regular, vigorous exercise during childhood and adolescence are the key-ways in which to maximize a child’s genetic potential for strong bones – and a first step to osteoporosis prevention in later life.”
— International Osteoporosis Foundation President, Prof. Cyrus Cooper
Three Important Steps
Nutrition
Food choices are touch points for our health, our culture, and our planet. They are also the most important choices we make. That is why we created Sea & Flour Bread as a way to help make a food, that most people love and eat daily, better for bone health and the health of our planet.
Exercise
Weight bearing exercises help build strong bones, however, you have to have good form while you are doing them to get the benefits and not accidentally strengthen a crooked posture. Our motto is “You can’t spell slouch without ouch!” Osteoporosis exercise specialist Penelope Wasserman teaches safe movement adaptations that develop core strength, alignment awareness, flexibility, increased aerobic capacity and range of motion! Now you can practice at home when you sign up at tap.milliondollarbones.com.
Mindfulness
Our multi-sensory approach to mindfulness helps alleviate the emotional stresses that come with being human. Having new resources for our personal wellness tool kits give us the life skills necessary to find inner peace and calming thoughts. It has been proven that the stress hormone cortisol is damaging to our bones. Using breath work, gratitude, smiling, music, art, dance, and more, we find the unique formula that works for each individual.
About Our Bones
Calcium
Our bones store calcium which keeps our nervous system healthy, our muscles working, our heart pumping and our bones strong.
Inside our bones
is soft bone marrow where red & white blood cells are made.
Support
Our bones support our bodies and help form our shape. They protect our internal organs.
Ossification
is the process where builder cells called osteoblasts lay down new bone material. Clean up cells called osteoclasts get rid of the old bone to make room for new. The osteoclasts work faster than the osteoblasts.
Quality
Our bones are not hard like rocks. They have a bit of elasticity which enables them to withstand normal forces without breaking when they are in balance. That is called their QUALITY.
If our bones are weak
just sneezing can break them! Or sitting and slouching a lot can force the bones in our spine into wedge shapes that make people lose inches in height.
Osteogenesis
Our bones are always growing (remodeling) throughout life, but certain habits like smoking, alcohol, poor diet, stress, & lack of exercise make them weak.
Our bones can stay strong
if we make the healthy lifestyle choices necessary to keep them at their best!
Balance is the key to strong bones. Bones need balance inside and out.
Our bodies need balance, our diets need balance, our minds need balance.
