What’s the biggest threat to your retirement? It might not be inflation or market volatility. It could be losing your strength, mobility, and independence.
In this episode of The Agent of Wealth Podcast, co-host John Williams is joined by Susan Brady, a physical therapist, integrative health practitioner, and bone health expert with more than 30 years of experience. Susan shares why building wealth for retirement is only part of the equation — and how maintaining your strength, mobility, and independence can help you fully enjoy the years you’ve worked so hard to reach.
In this episode, you will learn:
- Why exercise becomes even more important as we age — and why everyday activities alone aren’t enough to preserve muscle and bone.
- How nutrition, gut health, and proper protein intake play a critical role in maintaining bone density and preventing fractures.
- Why falls — not just osteoporosis — are one of the biggest threats to independence in retirement, and practical ways to reduce your risk.
- How Susan’s holistic BONES Method helps people build stronger bones naturally through lifestyle, nutrition, movement, and personalized care.
- And more!
Tune in for actionable strategies to protect your health, stay active, and maintain the independence needed to enjoy a long, fulfilling retirement.
Resources:
nurturedbones.com | Bautis Financial: 8 Hillside Ave, Suite LL1 Montclair, New Jersey 07042 (862) 205-5000 | Schedule an Introductory Call
Disclosure: The transcript below has been edited for clarity and content. It is not a direct transcription of the full episode, which can be listened to above.
Welcome back to The Agent of Wealth, this is your co-host John Williams…
When most people think about retirement planning, they focus on finances. But having enough money is only part of the equation. The ability to enjoy retirement often depends on something just as important: your health, mobility, and independence.
As we age, staying active becomes increasingly important — not just for physical health, but for maintaining the freedom to travel, pursue hobbies, spend time with family, and continue living life on our own terms.
Today’s guest has spent more than three decades helping people do exactly that.
Joining us is Susan Brady, a physical therapist, integrative health practitioner, and bone health expert with more than 30 years of experience. She specializes in helping women build stronger bones naturally and takes a whole-body approach that combines exercise, nutrition, gut health, and lifestyle strategies to support long-term health and independence.
Susan, welcome to the show.
Thank you, John, so much for having me. I’m really excited to be with you today and have a great conversation around health in general — and healthy bones in particular.
We are as well.
As some of our listeners may know — and if you don’t, now you do — we’re wealth managers and financial planners. As we help people transition into retirement, it becomes increasingly clear that retirement isn’t just about finances.
Before we dive in, I also want to mention that we’re currently accepting new clients. If you’d like to learn how we might be able to take some of the stress out of managing your money, we’d be happy to have a complimentary conversation with you. The easiest way to connect is by visiting bautisfinancial.com/call to schedule a time.
With that said, Susan, I’d love to lay a little groundwork. I hate to put it this way, but what exactly is it that you do when working with clients?
I think the easiest way to answer that is to tell you where I started and how I got to where I am today.
As you mentioned, I started my career as a physical therapist more than 30 years ago. I was working in a rheumatologist’s practice, treating patients with significant musculoskeletal pain, inflammation, and other chronic health issues.
One patient, in particular, came in regularly for physical therapy. She would get temporary relief, but nothing really gave her long-term improvement. Eventually, she stopped coming.
Then one day, after I hadn’t seen her for a while, I ran into her in the hallway of the doctor’s office. I asked how she was doing, and she said, “Oh, I’m so much better.”
I was amazed. I asked, “How did you get better?”
She told me she’d discovered that when she removed wheat and sugar from her diet, her pain and swelling dramatically improved. Whenever she ate those foods again, all of her symptoms came back.
You have to remember, this was the early 1990s. Nobody was really talking about the connection between the food we eat and how we feel physically. Today, we hear about it all the time, but 35 years ago, people really didn’t understand that relationship.
That experience completely changed the direction of my career.
From there, I earned a Doctor of Integrative Medicine degree along with a post-master’s certificate in nutrition and integrative health. Those programs took a very holistic approach. We studied not only nutrition and how food affects the body, but also sleep, stress, exercise, and lifestyle patterns — and how all of those factors influence our health and overall wellness.
When I eventually started my own integrative nutrition and health practice, I was inundated with women who had osteoporosis and were looking for a more natural, holistic approach to building stronger bones.
Typically, when someone is diagnosed with osteoporosis, they receive a DEXA scan, or bone density scan. If the results show osteoporosis, their doctor will often recommend calcium, vitamin D, and a prescription medication.
It could certainly be men as well, but I mostly work with women.
Many of these women would go to Dr. Google, research the medication, see the potential side effects, and decide they didn’t want to take it. Instead, they’d think, “I’m going to do this naturally,” and that’s when they came to see me.
As I began working with more and more women with osteoporosis, I immersed myself in the research. That’s when I identified what I consider the five key pillars of bone health.
Those pillars became the foundation of what I call the BONES Method. BONES is an acronym:
- B stands for Balanced Nutrition.
- O stands for Optimized Gut Health.
- N stands for Nurturing the Soul.
- E stands for Essential Exercise.
- S stands for Smart Supplementation.
That’s been the framework I’ve used for the past 15 years to help women understand how to support their bone health in a more holistic way.
I still work with patients on issues beyond bone health, but these days, the majority of my practice focuses on bone health and gut health.
Over the years, I’ve come to realize just how important gut health is to every aspect of our overall health — including our bones. People talk about the gut-brain connection all the time, but very few are talking about the gut-bone connection.
That’s why I’ve spent so much of my energy recently — especially with my book — educating people about how gut health influences bone health.
Was there a particular moment where everything clicked for you? Maybe you were working on gut health while also studying bone health, and suddenly realized there was a strong connection between the two?
Yes, definitely.
When I talk about gut health, I’m referring to the health of the entire digestive system. Digestion actually starts in the mouth when we begin producing saliva, but the stomach plays a critical role.
We need to produce enough digestive enzymes, hydrochloric acid, and pepsin to properly break down protein. Hydrochloric acid is also essential for absorbing key minerals like calcium, magnesium, zinc, and iron — all of which are incredibly important for bone health.
Calcium, for example, is part of the scaffolding that makes up our bones.
If you’re not digesting food properly because you’re not producing enough stomach acid, you can’t absorb calcium efficiently.
One of my biggest “aha” moments came when I noticed how many women were taking acid-blocking medications, such as proton pump inhibitors, because they were dealing with reflux or GERD.
The natural response is to think, “I have too much stomach acid, so I need to block it.”
But when you block that acid, you’re also interfering with your body’s ability to break down food and absorb essential minerals.
It’s so common for people to simply pop a Tums, Pepcid, or another acid reducer when they have reflux. Yet there are many natural ways to address the underlying issue so you’re not suppressing the stomach acid your body actually needs.
That’s really interesting. I had honestly never thought about it that way.
You feel the discomfort, so you assume your body is producing too much acid. But the flip side is that, by blocking it, you may also be preventing your body from absorbing important nutrients like calcium — which is obviously critical for bone health.
I’d like to shift to the client perspective for a moment to help listeners understand what we’re really talking about.
I imagine many retirees simply assume physical decline is inevitable. They think, “Well, that’s just part of getting older.”
But I’d love for you to talk about what’s actually possible. How much of mobility loss and bone deterioration is preventable through intervention?
I think a lot of it is preventable. One of the biggest mistakes retirees make is assuming that everyday activity is enough to maintain their health and independence.
They’ll say, “I’m active. I garden. I walk the dog. I play golf.”
Those are all wonderful activities, but they aren’t enough to counteract the natural loss of muscle and bone that occurs as we age.
For most of our adult lives, women produce estrogen and progesterone, while men produce testosterone. These hormones help maintain muscle mass and bone density.
When women go through menopause, estrogen declines significantly. As estrogen declines, we lose much of the protection it provides for our muscles and bones.
Men experience something similar during andropause, when testosterone levels begin to decline. Testosterone is also critical for maintaining muscle mass.
Because of those hormonal changes, we have to actively work to counteract the natural losses that come with aging.
You may think your daily activities are enough, but they aren’t. You have to exercise.
To me, exercise is probably the single most important thing you can do during retirement because it’s the only way to preserve the muscle and bone you need to maintain mobility and independence.
In my work with women who have osteoporosis, they’re understandably focused on protecting their bones. But muscle is just as important — not only because it supports bone health, but because it allows us to move safely and confidently while reducing our risk of falls.
As we age, it’s completely natural to lose muscle mass and muscle power — unless we actively work to maintain it.
So now we’ve established the importance of exercise and the positive effects it can have. What’s next? What goes hand in hand with that?
Let’s say someone is listening right now and thinking, “Okay, I know I should be exercising. What else can I do? Where do I start?”
I think the other thing that goes hand in hand with exercise is proper nutrition.
When I talk about exercise, yes, cardiovascular exercise is certainly important. But, in my opinion, resistance training is even more important. Whether you’re lifting weights, doing Pilates, practicing yoga, or using resistance bands, resistance training is what helps maintain muscle strength.
When you perform resistance training, your muscles actually break down first. Then, during the repair process, they become stronger. But in order for that repair to happen, your body needs the proper nutrients.
One thing many people don’t fully appreciate is the importance of protein. In my opinion, your protein needs actually increase as you age — not decrease. To maintain and build muscle as we get older, we need to make sure we’re getting enough protein every day.
We use a formula that converts someone’s weight from pounds to kilograms, and I generally recommend between 1.2 and 1.4 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight.
For someone who weighs about 130 pounds, that works out to roughly 75 to 85 grams of protein per day.
As you’re saying that, I’m doing the math in my head, and it sounds like a lot of protein.
It is more than most people realize. That usually means getting protein at every meal. Think about someone who wakes up and has a bagel with cream cheese. There’s really not much protein there.
When it comes to nutrition, do you personalize recommendations?
In our practice, everyone has a different risk profile. We would never assume that one financial strategy fits everyone. So I’m curious whether nutrition works the same way.
Can you tailor recommendations based on someone’s genetics or biology? Are there tests available, or is it more of a trial-and-error process?
I don’t do a lot of genetic testing, although there are tests available that can provide insight into the macronutrient balance that’s best for someone.
What I do use is micronutrient testing.
Micronutrients are your vitamins and minerals, and there are excellent blood tests available that can determine whether you have optimal levels of those nutrients.
As we age, we often need more of certain nutrients — particularly during the earlier retirement years. Later in life, in our 80s and 90s, we may need less food overall, but for the age group that makes up much of your audience, these micronutrients remain extremely important.
Many things can affect nutrient levels. Medications can create deficiencies, and chronic health conditions can also alter micronutrient status.
That’s why I really like micronutrient testing. It gives us a much more personalized way to tailor nutrition and supplementation.
That makes a lot of sense.
Let’s talk about exercise again. For someone who hasn’t worked out in years, where should they begin?
Everyone has ideas about getting started, but are there any rules of thumb you recommend?
Absolutely.
Especially with my women who have osteoporosis, the first priority is safety.
I don’t want someone who’s never lifted weights before going out and picking up a barbell and trying to bench press 50 pounds. They’re likely to hurt themselves.
The first step is finding an exercise you actually enjoy because that’s what makes it sustainable.
I could tell someone they need to go running every day, but if they hate running, they’re simply not going to do it.
Exercise isn’t about sticking with something for one or two months. It’s about finding something you can continue doing for the rest of your life.
If you don’t enjoy going to the gym — or you don’t have access to one — you probably won’t keep it up. So find an activity that works your muscles and that you’ll genuinely stick with long term.
Any exercise that challenges your muscles can help improve muscle mass.
Of course, you also have to consider each person’s individual circumstances. Someone with arthritis in their knees or hips, or degenerative disc disease in their back, may need a very different exercise program than someone without those issues.
If you’re just getting started, I think it’s important to work with a qualified professional, especially if you’re beginning resistance training. Proper form is critical because poor technique increases the risk of injury.
Would that professional typically be a physical therapist, given your background, or would it be a personal trainer?
A physical therapist is certainly a great place to start. Personal trainers can also be excellent, but you have to choose carefully. Trainers today generally have more certifications than they used to, but many become trainers because they enjoy bodybuilding or intense fitness.
There’s a big difference between training a healthy 21-year-old who wants to build muscle and working with a 60-year-old man or woman.
Someone who’s older needs a trainer who understands the aging body. A younger trainer may simply not appreciate the physical limitations or aches and pains that naturally come with aging.
When it comes to exercise, I think balance is key.
I generally recommend resistance training about two days a week, cardiovascular exercise three or four days a week, and balance exercises as well.
Balance often declines as we age, but fortunately, it’s something we can train.
Simple things — like standing on one foot while brushing your teeth — can help improve balance over time.
Balance training is especially important in my work because we’re trying to prevent fractures. And to prevent fractures, we first need to prevent falls.
Cardiovascular exercise, particularly walking, also provides gentle impact on the bones, which helps maintain bone density.
Falls are obviously a major concern for older adults.
You hear so many stories about someone breaking a hip, especially women, and how difficult it can be to recover. A single fall can dramatically affect someone’s quality of life.
It makes complete sense that you’re looking not only at bone health, but also at reducing the risk of falls. Many of us are caring for aging parents, so it’s something we think about quite a bit.
Let’s say someone listening thinks, “I really like Susan. I’d like to work with her.”
What does that process look like? How do you onboard new clients, and what can they expect?
Everything I do is personalized.
I do have an online course that’s more general, but when I’m working one-on-one with someone, the plan has to fit that individual — just like financial planning.
Everyone starts from a different place. I begin with a 90-minute consultation where we go through a complete health history. I ask clients to complete a five-day food diary so I can see exactly what they’re eating. That gives me a good estimate of the nutrients they’re consuming. They also complete a digestive health questionnaire because, if I identify digestive issues, that’s often where we’ll begin. I ask about their current exercise routine, their sleep habits, and their stress levels.
Sleep is incredibly important because it’s when the body repairs itself. Someone could be doing everything else right, but if they aren’t sleeping well, they’re not giving their body the time it needs to repair, regenerate, and perform all of its essential housekeeping functions.
Stress is another major factor. When we’re under chronic stress, we produce cortisol, which is a catabolic hormone. That means it promotes tissue breakdown—and bone is tissue just like anything else in the body. If someone is living with chronic stress, that’s something we need to address.
By the end of that first consultation, we determine the person’s highest priority. If they’re not sleeping well, sleep becomes our first focus. In that situation, exercise and nutrition won’t have nearly the impact they could if sleep isn’t addressed first. From there, the plan is completely individualized.
Some clients want a program they can follow on their own and then check back in six months later. Others prefer monthly follow-ups. It all depends on what that particular person needs.
Excellent. I’d love to shift gears for a moment and give you the opportunity to talk about your upcoming book. That’s exciting — it sounds like it’s coming out in September.
Yes, and I’m very excited. There’s been a growing awareness of how important gut health is to overall health.
Even 15 years ago, I knew digestion and gut health were important, and they were always part of my foundational approach.
But I kept seeing women who were doing everything right. They were eating well, exercising, and following all the recommendations — yet they were still losing bone.
That’s when I really elevated the importance of gut health and began diving even deeper into the research.
There’s actually an incredible amount of scientific research connecting gut health and bone health.
It makes perfect sense because, as we’ve discussed, you have to digest your food properly to absorb nutrients.
You can eat the healthiest diet in the world, but if you’re not digesting and assimilating those nutrients, they aren’t reaching your cells — including your bone cells.
The trillions of bacteria that make up our gut microbiome do so much for us.
Not only do they help with digestion, but they also produce important nutrients and play a significant role in regulating inflammation.
Systemic inflammation affects every organ in the body, and it contributes to bone breakdown as well.
I believe gut health has been one of the most overlooked aspects of bone health.
There are plenty of books on nutrition, exercise, and even inflammation as it relates to osteoporosis, but very few discuss the critical connection between the gut and the bones.
That’s why I wanted to write this book — to help people understand just how important digestion and gut health are, and how much they contribute to maintaining strong bones.
Well, congratulations, and best of luck with the release. We look forward to checking it out. I’m sure you’re excited to finally see all that hard work come together.
This has been a fantastic conversation, and it reinforces something we talk about often on this show: wealth is about much more than money.
The ability to enjoy retirement depends on maintaining your health, strength, and independence so you can continue living life on your own terms.
Whether it’s staying active, preventing falls, improving mobility, or supporting bone health, there are practical steps everyone can begin taking today that can make a meaningful difference for years to come.
Before we wrap up, where can our listeners learn more about your work? We’ll include everything in the show notes, but where’s the best place for people to connect with you?
The best place is my website, nurturedbones.com.
You can learn about my programs there, and I also offer a complimentary 20-minute phone consultation so we can determine whether we’re a good fit to work together.
This fall, I’ll also be offering a seven-week coaching program, and you’ll find information about that — as well as my upcoming book release — on my website.
Excellent. We’ll be sure to include those links in the show notes.
Susan, thank you so much for joining me today on The Agent of Wealth.
And to our listeners, thank you for tuning in. Don’t forget to follow The Agent of Wealth on your favorite podcast platform and leave us a review. We’re also currently accepting new clients. If you’d like to schedule a one-on-one consultation with one of our advisors, simply use the link below.
Bautis Financial LLC is a registered investment advisor. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. Investments involve risk and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial advisor and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed herein. Past performance is not indicative of future performance.
Investing for Tomorrow, Not Yesterday