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Dr. Nicki Byrne on ABC7: Everyday Habits for a Healthier Future
Optispan Medical Director Dr. Nicki Byrne joined Pedro Rivera, Sandra Bookman and Sam Champion on ABC7 Eyewitness News Mornings @ 10 in New York, ahead of her appearance as a featured panelist at the Live Long Women's Health Summit at the Hilton Midtown.
The conversation covered the distinction between healthspan and lifespan, what changes through perimenopause and menopause, how to think about hormone therapy without following a headline, and why walking on its own is not enough.
Read the transcript
Living longer, everybody says they want that, but as you get older, you realize there's a caveat here. You want to be healthy; if you're living longer, you want to stay strong and independent. Yeah, and that is the focus of the Live Long Women's Health Summit. It's happening here in New York this week. It brings together experts talking about everything from hormones and menopause to sleep, strength, and the science of healthy aging. Dr. Nikki Byrne with Up the Span is here, and one of the feature panelists, by the way. She has some evidence-backed ways that you can build a healthier future, so thank you so much for being here. First foremost. Thank you for having me the summit sounds awesome It's you know all about living longer healthier and stronger.
So tell us what is a health span and exactly How is that different from lifespan? Yeah, so health span is the amount of time that we're living where we're healthy. So think physically capable, mentally sharp, and independent. Right now, our medical system is really good extending lifespan, but that's not really the goal. As you said, the goal is really to have those healthy years. So hormones are a big topic conversation for everyone, men and women, but let's zero in on perimenopause and menopause. What should women understand about those changes and and and about how hormones may make a difference there? Yeah, so we have estrogen receptors everywhere in our body. And so what that means is that as our estrogen fluctuates and then declines, we're gonna have symptoms throughout, so poor sleep, mood.
We lose bone mass, our cardiovascular risk increases, and so all of those things can happen. But what I think is really important is this is a really great opportunity for women. So it's a time when women are feeling different and they're motivated to make change at the same time that women's risks are going up. So if left untreated, your bone mineral density can actually decrease by 10% throughout the menopause. And our cardiovascular risk is really going up, and so we have this pivotal moment in time where women are motivated. They can learn about their risks. They can make change, and they can really shape how they age. Yeah, and there's a lot of misinformation when it comes to like hormonal therapy. So talk to us about the risks and the benefits.
Yeah, I think that a lot of people are either scared to start or think that they have to start, and that's absolutely not true. In appropriate patients, especially those who are under 60 or within 10 years of menopause who are having bothersome symptoms, the risk-benefit profile is actually really favorable. But that doesn't mean that there is a one-size-fits-all prescription because every woman is different, her risks are different, and even the type of hormones that we choose and the route that we give it changes someone's risk. And so I don't want women to fear it. I don't want women to start hormones because a headline said to do so. It's really talk to your clinician, talk about your symptoms, talk about your risks, and talk about your specific goal.
So it's a personal conversation, and it's a personal treatment. That makes sense. Maybe, maybe don't run to Dr. Chat GPT immediately. Speak with a person. Something New Yorkers We got the benefit of is that we walk a lot. If you're here in the city, most people probably don't even have a car, right? But why is it that not just walking can fix your issues, or I guess extend your healthier health span? So walking is wonderful; I want everyone to continue walking. We have good data that it helps with your cardiac and your metabolic function, but it doesn't combat everything that happens if we age. So when we age, we lose a lot of muscle, bone mass, strength, and walking just doesn't have enough stimulus on the body.
And so that's why we need to actually add in resistance training at least twice a week. And then I want everyone to add in some sort of activity that really ramps up the heart rate. Okay, this is a part. No, no, go ahead. You go personal to me because I need to five now, so I do tell him my age. I do want to talk about muscles because I think that that we're changing our field on your body composition as you get older, and I think people look better and look different now than our parents' generation did when they were older. It's important to keep a certain level of muscle on your body to age well, and I think people were afraid of lifting weights or doing weight training as they got older.
Can we talk about the benefit of that added muscle mass as you get older? Yeah, so muscle and our physical strength decline really rapidly as we're aging, so it's important to keep it's really important for a metabolic function. It manages how we take up glucose. It's also good for our balance, and honestly, if you want to live independently at 80, you need to start working on your muscle mass your strength in your forties, fifties, and sixties. Yay yes, you've got to be able to get up out of that chair by yourself. You've got to be able to get down on the floor by yourself and get back up. Yeah, what do you recommend for sleep really quick because we have to go, but what do you recommend for sleep?
I recommend the basics. So make sure you give yourself adequate time to sleep. Keep a normal wake sleep schedule during the day, get natural sunlight, get physical activity, and then at nighttime make it dark make it cold. So even if you're waking up at 2:25 in the morning, it's okay as long as you're doing it consistently and you're giving yourself enough time to sleep. How many hours? Seven to nine? I sit down with us this morning. Oh, important information. Nine hours that lifelong women's health summit is taking place at the Hilton Midtown. More information on what is it live long? Woman dot-com. Is that it? Did I get it right? Yeah. Okay. That's great. Nine hours. I'm still just wow
Healthspan is the goal, not lifespan
Asked to draw the line between the two, Dr. Byrne described healthspan as “the amount of time that we’re living where we’re healthy — think physically capable, mentally sharp, and independent.” Her point was that the system we have is built for the wrong target: “Right now, our medical system is really good extending lifespan, but that’s not really the goal. The goal is really to have those healthy years.”
Menopause as a window, not just a decline
Because estrogen receptors sit throughout the body, its fluctuation and decline show up broadly — sleep, mood, bone mass and cardiovascular risk. Left untreated, Dr. Byrne noted, bone mineral density can fall by around 10% across the menopause transition.
She framed that as an opening rather than a loss: “It’s a time when women are feeling different and they’re motivated to make change at the same time that women’s risks are going up … they can learn about their risks, they can make change, and they can really shape how they age.”
Hormone therapy is a conversation, not a prescription
On the misinformation around hormone therapy, her answer went both ways. For appropriate patients — broadly those under 60 or within ten years of menopause who have bothersome symptoms — she described the risk-benefit profile as favourable. But she was equally clear there is no single answer: the type of hormone and the route it is given both change an individual’s risk.
“I don’t want women to fear it. I don’t want women to start hormones because a headline said to do so. It’s really talk to your clinician, talk about your symptoms, talk about your risks, and talk about your specific goal.”
Walking is good. It is not sufficient.
New Yorkers walk more than most, and Dr. Byrne was not about to talk anyone out of it — the data on cardiac and metabolic benefit is good. But walking does not supply enough stimulus to offset the muscle, bone and strength lost with age. Her prescription: resistance training at least twice a week, plus something that genuinely raises the heart rate.
Muscle is what independence is made of
Strength declines quickly with age, and muscle does more than move you — it governs glucose uptake and underpins balance. Her framing was blunt and practical: “If you want to live independently at 80, you need to start working on your muscle mass and your strength in your forties, fifties, and sixties.” The test Sam Champion offered: being able to get up out of a chair, and down onto the floor and back up, unaided.
Sleep: the basics, done consistently
No tricks here. Give yourself adequate time to sleep, keep a consistent wake and sleep schedule, get natural sunlight and physical activity during the day, and make the room dark and cold at night. Waking at 2am is not itself a problem if the pattern is consistent and the window is long enough. Seven to nine hours.
Watch the full segment on ABC7 New York.
