There’s no cell service in the Santa Monica mountain range. This was a problem when I got lost hiking, and it is partly why the mobile DEXA scan truck arrived a day late. 🚐🌀

Being off(ish) the grid eventually became a blessing when I watched the sun set below the mountains, without distraction.

Here, at Science & Soul: A Women’s Longevity Retreat, I joined two dozen women looking for connection, restoration, and growth. 🌱 They wanted clarity, too.

Women’s health is getting much-deserved attention, and new research and tools are incentivizing change on a massive scale.

Between the need to follow a “clean” everything (be it diet or laundry detergent) and break down hundreds of conflicting rules, the pressure to live perfectly is exhausting.

And this is the paradox of women’s health: Women want real science, made simple. Community, without judgment. And a life that feels better than it scores on a test.

Yet many women still feel:

Women are 50% more likely to be misdiagnosed after a heart attack, and more likely to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease (66%). Plus, they spend an extra two years in worse health.

How do we build a life that feels good now and still supports us later?

How you move, not what you do

Dr. Pardee calls longevity a bank account. “Muscle is the rainy day fund.” 💪🏽🦴

From a longevity perspective, we need strength training and cardio (recommended by the American Heart Association) for optimal fitness. Based on current data, Dr. Pardee says this would be an ideal routine:

☝️ Don’t worry, this is really just about one hour of exercise every day.

If it feels like a lot, any intentional movement is good. That’s why Schuyler Grant, our yoga instructor, didn’t do ‘classic’ yoga, and instead fused yoga with grip strength, hip mobility, and breath work.

‘Grip your fingers into the ground and pretend like there’s a cupcake beneath your palm. Don’t smush it!’

One of the best tools women can use is DEXA, an imaging tool that measures body composition. I’m active and younger (25 years old), so I got it with head held high.

Then I got my results. 

My bone density is in the lowest 2% of people my age. While post-menopausal women have a three-times higher risk of osteoporosis than men, I might already have it.

Feeling like a hip fracture in the making, Dr. Pardee suggested strength training, gain some weight, and eat more (you guessed it) protein. 💪

80% of heart disease is preventable. For baseline prevention, DEXA and bloodwork can be powerful places to start.

DEXA. Consider working with a personal trainer or functional doctor to translate knowledge into action.

The aim:

Bloodwork. Ask your doctor to add apolipoprotein B (ApoB) and lp(a) to your blood panel test. ApoB is a better determinant of heart disease risk than cholesterol, Dr. Pardee explains.

Key lab markers to request (and target results):

Exercise, reducing saturated fats (red meat, dairy, and solid oils), and a heart-healthy Mediterranean diet go a long way in reducing risk, too, says Dr. Pardee. Statins and medication can pick up the slack when diet isn’t enough.

DEXA might have been the shiny toy, but most women came for connection.

Connection, Dr. Pardee says, is the most robust predictor of long-term happiness and life satisfaction.

Here’s just how much it matters:

Friends are ”shock absorbers” for the nervous system, according to a study published in the Journal of Interprofessional Education & Practice.

Close relationships reduce heart attack risk, high blood pressure, obesity, Alzheimer’s disease, and risk of death from any cause.

Connection boosts sense of worth. Self-worth can be traced back to happiness, long-term disease risk, and relationship quality.

Visualization tools can boost worth, confidence, and self-acceptance. Try this exercise from Dr. Villafranco.

For one minute, think about one of the happiest memories you have of someone you love. Notice the environment and the event, and how they make you feel. After a minute, open your eyes.

Be honest: How focused were you on their wrinkles or age spots?

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Our yoga teacher says people do yoga to “accumulate poses,” but whether it’s yoga or life, it is more important to focus less on how much and more on why.

Finding our “why” was the focus of the weekend. Many of the participants realized it isn’t about doing more, either. It is about tuning in to real science, to one another, and to their bodies.

And for me, it was Pamela ‘Jane Fonda’ Ridgway’s tough love that put everything into perspective: “Stop taking everything so seriously!’

We asked, you answered:

It’s a ‘no’ for most people, preferring to stick to time-tested basics for living a healthy life!