I was listening to Peter Attia’s last podcast on bone health with Belinda Beck and was hit by the idea of “osteoporosis as a childhood disease.” Wait, what? But it makes sense if you think of childhood and adolescence as setting the foundation for peak bone mass in your twenties. At peak bone mass, you will have the greatest bone density, after which After that, it’s about hanging on to as much bone mass as possible through an active lifestyle, nutrition, and weight lifting.

But if childhood activity levels directly affect peak bone mass, wouldn’t childhood inactivity increase the risk of osteoporosis? And what does this mean for a generations of kids glued to phones instead of running, jumping, or playing sports?

This lack of activity during the critical years of bone development could be a generational public health crisis in the making. And yes, one may argue that obesity is protective with respect to bone loss, but it’s unclear whether obesity combined with childhood inactivity is protective or a significant future risk. These are questions worth asking and reasons to get your kids out of the house and playing.