Well, Actually… Separating Women's Health Facts from Fiction
Health advice is everywhere, and unfortunately, so are half-truths.
Every week it seems there's a new headline, social media post, or wellness trend telling us what we should (or shouldn't) be doing with our bodies. It can be hard to know what's backed by good evidence and what's simply been repeated so many times that it sounds true.
That's what Well, Actually... is for.
In each edition, we'll take one common health myth, look at what the science actually says, and explore how that idea became so popular in the first place.
Because understanding why something isn't true is often just as helpful as knowing what is.
The Myths
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Well, actually…
Women can build muscle in their 50s, 60s, 70s and beyond.
Age doesn’t switch off your ability to grow muscle. Building it may become slower and less predictable, but research has documented muscle growth in older women. Even adults in their 80s and 90s have gained strength, muscle size and mobility through resistance training.
There is no muscle-building expiry date.
What is happening at the cellular level?
When you lift a challenging weight, your muscle fibres sense the tension. This activates signals inside the cells that tell your body to start building new muscle proteins.
Ribosomes—the cell’s protein-building machinery—use amino acids from food to create those proteins. Small repair cells called satellite cells may also help repair and support the growth of muscle fibres.
When your body builds more muscle protein than it breaks down over time, the fibres become larger.
You don’t build muscle during the workout itself. The workout provides the message. Food and recovery give your body the materials and time it needs to respond.
What changes with age?
Older muscle may not respond as strongly to exercise and protein. Researchers call this anabolic resistance.
This doesn’t mean your muscles are resistant to growth. It means the same workout or amount of protein may create a smaller response than it would in a younger person.
Fast-twitch muscle fibres tend to shrink with age, and some of the cells and signals involved in muscle repair may become less active. Changing estrogen after menopause may also affect muscle maintenance and recovery.
But ageing is only part of the picture. Many adults also move less, stop lifting challenging weights, eat less protein or don’t eat enough total food to support muscle growth.
Some age-related muscle loss is biological. Some happens because the muscles are no longer being asked to stay strong.
How did this myth spread?
Muscle mass does tend to decline with age, especially in people who are inactive. Building muscle may also take longer in older adults.
The myth began when “building muscle becomes harder” turned into “building muscle is no longer possible.”
Older women have also often been encouraged to stick to light weights and cardio. If the muscles never receive a strong enough challenge, they have little reason to grow.
What to remember
Women can build muscle after 50. Older muscle may simply need a clearer and more consistent message:
resistance training that gradually becomes more challenging;
enough protein and total food;
adequate sleep and recovery; and
enough time and repetition for the body to adapt.
You don’t need to leave every workout shaking or crawling. But you do need to challenge your muscles beyond what they already find easy.
Age changes the strategy. It does not remove the possibility.
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Well, Actually…
Health advice gets repeated so often that it can start to sound like established science—even when the evidence behind it is surprisingly thin.
In this series, we’ll take one common health claim, look at what the research actually shows, and explore how the idea may have become so convincing in the first place.
The myth
“Drinking water during meals dilutes your stomach acid and reduces the digestive enzymes in your saliva, so you should avoid it.”
Well, actually…
Water does mix with the contents of your stomach, so technically it can make the stomach temporarily less acidic.
In one small study, drinking 200 mL—just under one cup—of water raised stomach pH in healthy adults. However, the effect lasted only a few minutes before the stomach became acidic again. The study didn’t show that water impaired digestion, reduced nutrient absorption, or caused digestive symptoms.
Your stomach isn’t a fixed container of acid that can be permanently watered down. It’s a responsive organ. When food arrives, nerves and hormones signal the stomach to release more hydrochloric acid and digestive enzymes. Food itself—especially protein—also raises stomach pH at first because it buffers, or temporarily neutralizes, some acid. The stomach then adjusts its secretions as digestion continues.
The saliva part of the claim is also misleading.
Salivary amylase is an enzyme that begins breaking down starch while you chew. Drinking water may help you swallow, but I couldn’t find human evidence showing that having water with a meal reduces the amount of enzyme your salivary glands produce or interferes with digestion in a meaningful way.
In fact, salivary amylase can continue working after food reaches the stomach until the environment becomes acidic enough to deactivate it. Most digestion and absorption then continue in the small intestine with enzymes released by the pancreas.
How did this myth spread?
The idea probably comes from a simple analogy: if you add water to something acidic, you dilute it.
That’s true in a glass. But your stomach isn’t a glass—it continually senses what has entered and adjusts its acid and enzyme production accordingly.
A brief change in stomach pH is real. The leap from that change to “water disrupts digestion” is the part the research doesn’t currently support.
What to remember
For most people, there’s no good evidence that sipping water with meals harms digestion.
You don’t need to force yourself to drink large amounts, especially if doing so makes you feel overly full, bloated or worsens reflux. But you also don’t need to sit through a meal feeling thirsty because you’re afraid water will switch off your digestion.
As always, comfort matters. Sip according to your thirst and pay attention to how your own body responds.
Want some help connecting the dots?
If bloating is part of the picture, my free guide Why Does Everything I Eat Make Me Bloated? is a good place to start. It’ll help you look at food and some of the less obvious things that can change how your gut feels.
And if what you're dealing with feels bigger than digestion — changing sleep, stress, energy, hormones or simply not feeling quite like yourself lately — private women's health coaching gives us the space to look at the whole picture together and figure out where to start.
→ Explore Private Women's Health Coaching
Always here to support you,
Sophia xx
