[Reprint] The Science of Bones

 

Bones communicate with the rest of the body to support overall health – here’s the science behind your skeleton

Healing after a fracture is just one way your bones contribute to your body’s overall health. seksan Mongkhonkhamsao/Moment via Getty Images

Priya Bhardwaj, Washington University in St. Louis

Each year, doctors treat more than 6 million bone fractures in the United States. And while it takes only a few seconds for a bone to break, the processes that keep your bones strong and allow them to heal are taking place continuously throughout your life.

Beneath their hard surface, your bones are alive with activity, continuously being broken down, rebuilt and reshaped. Far from being static structures that simply support the body, bones are dynamic, living tissues that respond to physical activity, hormones and the body’s changing needs.

I am a research scientist who studies bone biology and mineral metabolism. To me, one of the most striking things about bone is how dynamic it is, despite its static appearance. Research over the past 15 to 20 years has demonstrated that this is even more true than scientists had previously realized.

More than just structural support

For decades, scientists have known that bone provides support, stores minerals and continuously remodels itself. This remodeling is the process bone uses to renew itself, maintaining its strength while allowing the skeleton to adapt over time.

Different kinds of bone cells work together to maintain bone structure. Cells called osteoclasts remove old or damaged bone, while osteoblasts build new bone in its place. Osteocytes, which are cells embedded within bone, help sense mechanical strain and coordinate how bone responds. Together, these cells help the skeleton stay strong.

But over the past two decades, new research has emerged that is changing how scientists and physicians think about skeletal health. More than just a structural framework, bone also functions as a highly active tissue that helps regulate the body’s mineral balance, supports blood cell production and communicates with multiple organ systems.

Growing evidence also suggests that in order to perform these functions, bones produce signaling molecules that influence energy metabolism and balance the minerals the body needs.

Lifelong support

The balance between bone formation and bone breakdown changes throughout life.

[Abstract] Preventing Dementia?

 Medical research has made tremendous strides in our understanding of how to prevent--or, at very least, delay--dementia. Many of these factors are within our control. Even better, many of them also lower the risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Here's the abstract from The Lancet. <-- Click the link to register for access to the entire article.

The 2024 update of the Lancet Commission on dementia provides new hopeful evidence about dementia prevention, intervention, and care. As people live longer, the number of people who live with dementia continues to rise, even as the age-specific incidence decreases in high-income countries, emphasising the need to identify and implement prevention approaches. We have summarised the new research since the 2020 report of the Lancet Commission on dementia, prioritising systematic reviews and meta-analyses and triangulating findings from different studies showing how cognitive and physical reserve develop across the life course and how reducing vascular damage (eg, by reducing smoking and treating high blood pressure) is likely to have contributed to a reduction in age-related dementia incidence. Evidence is increasing and is now stronger than before that tackling the many risk factors for dementia that we modelled previously (ie, less education, hearing loss, hypertension, smoking, obesity, depression, physical inactivity, diabetes, excessive alcohol consumption [ie, >21 UK units, equivalent to >12 US units], traumatic brain injury [TBI], air pollution, and social isolation) reduces the risk of developing dementia. In this report, we add the new compelling evidence that untreated vision loss and high LDL cholesterol are risk factors for dementia.

[Reprint] How Childhood LGBTQ+ Stigma Can Harm Adult Relationships

This is so important to those affected by LGBTQ+ stigma and those who love them, I am reprinting it in its entirety (under Creative Commons license).

Childhood experiences of LGBTQ+ stigma can harm romantic relationships decades later – psychologists explain how to reconnect with yourself and your partner

Difficult experiences you had as a child may be putting a wedge between you and your partner. Dmytro Betsenko/Moment via Getty Images

Melissa Gates, Binghamton University, State University of New York and Christina Balderrama-Durbin, Binghamton University, State University of New York

Childhood rejection, discrimination and bullying can affect your well-being as an adult. If your friends, family or community pushed you away because of your sexuality or gender, these childhood experiences of prejudice can also affect your future relationships.

Many LGBTQ+ people encounter difficult experiences as children, including abuse, neglect and challenges at home, because of their sexuality or gender. Other negative experiences – including bullying, witnessing your peers be harassed or ostracized, and the need to conceal your identity to protect yourself – may make it especially challenging to accept your sexuality or gender as an adult.

Developing a negative self-view as a result of these harmful experiences during your formative years is not uncommon. Feelings of shame or unworthiness can carry into your 20s, 30s and beyond, harming your mental health along with your ability to form and maintain romantic relationships.

Fortunately, making meaning of your early experiences can help you heal, reconnecting and strengthening your relationships as a result.

Internalized stigma harms relationships

Our psychology research team focuses on understanding the connection between childhood anti-LGBTQ+ experiences, well-being and relationship health.

We found that a factor called internalized stigma can notably affect the romantic relationships of LGBTQ+ people. Internalized stigma refers to when society’s negative views and biases toward a part of your identity shapes how you think and feel about yourself. This can influence how you view romantic relationships and how you interact with your romantic partners.

People with higher levels of internalized stigma report more conflicts and less satisfaction in their relationships. Research suggests that internalized stigma can negatively affect key aspects of romantic relationships that keep people satisfied with their partners, including trust, connection and intimacy.

Book Review: When a Werewolf's Friends Set Him Up on a Date

 Blind Date With a Werewolf, by Patricia Briggs (Ace)

When Asil, an ancient, deadly, and drop-dead gorgeous werewolf, becomes the recipient of five blind dates arranged via online dating apps by his anonymous “Concerned Friends,” the fun begins. These “friends” are concerned about Asil becoming a recluse, which these social encounters are supposed to rectify. They have not only created a profile for him in his human form, but they have pretended to be him in corresponding via email with his prospective dates. There are rules to this game, of course, including the length of time each date must last and how much bloodshed is acceptable. Intrigued, Asil accepts the challenge…only to discover that his first date, Kelly, is a gay man, while Asil is firmly straight. (Oops!) But Kelly is a pleasant dinner-and-dance companion, as much confused by the mix-up as Asil. It also turns out that the “vampire”-themed event is attended by actual vampires out for their next victims. Then, of course, chaos ensues and bodies pile up.

Although this book features a recurring series character, it works well as a stand-alone. The author has done a wonderful job weaving together episodes into a dynamic flow, and balancing inner and outer dramatic tension. The unifying theme is the relationship between the human Asil and his inner wolf, which adds deep psychological resonance to this urban fantasy.

How Long Can Life on Earth Survive?

 Live Science, one of my favorite news sources (yay, science!) recently published this fascinating report. It's perfect for futuristic science-fiction world-building!

From the article: Life on Earth could continue for another 1.8 billion years, according to new research. This figure, which is based on complex climate models, is far longer than many previous studies indicated.

As the sun evolves, it is getting brighter. Our star is currently producing about a third more energy than it did at the dawn of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago. And it will continue to get hotter until it eventually dies in about 5 billion years.

 In 1982, James Lovelock and colleagues estimated that Earth's photosynthetic biosphere — which includes all plants and forms the basis for most of the planet’s biology — would end about 100 million years from now. Successive studies have pushed back the deadline for the death of all life on Earth. Published  in the journal JGR Atmospheres, researchers suggest that plant life could continue about 1.8 billion years into the future. That nears the time when Earth would lose its oceans to space, either through radiation splitting water atoms or runaway evaporation, in about 2 billion years.

Life on Earth relies on photosynthesis, the process used by plants, algae and some bacteria to turn sunlight into energy. The mechanism chemically converts carbon dioxide and water into sugars and oxygen. It requires both CO2 and sunlight.

But at certain temperatures, plants' photosynthetic machinery shuts down. Eventually, the sun will warm Earth to the point that plants are no longer able to photosynthesize, which would in turn cause entire food webs to collapse and all life to perish.

Another issue is that as the sun dies and it gets brighter, there will be less carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, effectively starving plants.