Heather Reilly Hiemstra has always loved rocks — and it turns out the most important ones are the ones you’re built on. In this episode, she sits down with Rush Simonson, founding CEO of Juvent, a 25-year pioneer in regenerative medicine and bone science, to make the case that bone density is not a passive number on a lab report — it’s a living, remodeling biomarker that GenX women can actively rebuild starting today.

If your last doctor’s visit left you with more dread than direction — or if you’ve never been told that your skeleton from 10 years ago is already gone and replaced — this conversation hands you a real program, not a prescription for helplessness.

Conversations include

• The Bone Bank Why your body treats your skeleton as a strategic calcium reserve — raiding it to keep your heart beating when dietary calcium runs low — and what that slow withdrawal costs you over a perimenopause and menopause transition.
  Mechano-Transduction & the Micro-Impact Gap The field most doctors never mention: how the pressure wave from a barefoot heel-strike signals bone to rebuild itself — and why modern running shoes are quietly turning you into an astronaut losing 1–2% bone mineral density per month.
• Juvent: LMMS vs. the Shake Plate How Juvent’s low-magnitude mechanical stimulation platform delivers the physiologic equivalent of two to five miles of barefoot walking in 10–20 minutes, and why the St. Jude clinical trial showed an 11% improvement in tibial bone mineral density in a single year.
• Estrogen, Bioidentical HRT & the Demonization Problem Rush’s clinical case for why estrogen remains one of the most protective hormones in the female body — for bone, brain, and cardiovascular health — and why women who’ve been scared off bioidentical hormone therapy need a second conversation with a better-informed clinician.
• Calcium, Estrogen Mimics & the Supplement Trap Which forms of calcium are actually bioavailable (hint: not calcium carbonate), why plastics and phthalates hijack your estrogen receptor sites before real estrogen can, and what a ”vitamin holiday” can tell you about which supplements you actually need.
• Tune in to get your action plan: get your DEXA scan in your 40s, walk barefoot or in minimalist shoes, pull estrogen mimics out of your kitchen and your cosmetics bag — and remember that the skeleton you have today is not the one you had 10 years ago. It is rebuilding right now. Work with it.

 About Rush Simonson

Over 25 years of leadership and innovation in finance and healthcare have shaped a career defined by entrepreneurial success and a deep commitment to improving lives. As founding CEO and Chairman of Juvent, he brought back to market the Juvent revolutionary resonant micro-impact platform with clinically demonstrated results—including an 11% improvement in tibial bone mineral density within one year, validated through multiple clinical trials, including research from St. Jude Hospital for Children. The technology is now trusted by thousands of clinicians, athletes, and seniors worldwide.

His healthcare innovation extends across multiple ventures. He founded Noujour, LLC, one of the early regenerative medical clinics, where he pioneered Wholenomics—a groundbreaking diagnostic and treatment methodology. As founding CEO of Cytonics Corporation, a proteomics discovery startup, he led a national team of scientists from Stanford University, the University of Pittsburgh, and the Scripps Institute to identify a novel protein complex linked to joint and back pain, ultimately leading to a 20% acquisition by Synthes/J&J valued at over $20 million and a drug candidate now in FDA Phase 2 trials.