Tag Archive for: bone

Hold on to Hope

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Basic science research is critical to finding cures for degenerative conditions and diseases; a recently published study illustrates how that happens. Researchers identified a cell receptor that regulated muscle and bone cell metabolism called GRP133 about 15 years ago. Recent research has shown that a protein called AP503 can be a receptor agonist for GRP133, necessary to activate the production of bone and muscle-cell production. Recent research in mice has shown that it can reverse osteoporosis and sarcopenia in mice. (If you’re thinking that this sounds like the GLP-1 agonists for diabetes and weight loss, you’d be correct.)

This may prove to be a whole or partial solution for osteoporosis—in about 10 or 15 years, that is. There’s a lot of testing that has to happen before it’s ready for human use. The key is to make sure that there are no other side effects of taking AP503, which could cause more serious problems than it solves. But for now, it provides hope.

One of the feelings this time of year brings is hope. No matter what your health issues are, from the inconvenient—such as going bald—or a serious disorder, we hope there will be a solution, partial or complete, as basic science continues and leads to new ways of treatment. Since the completion of the genome projects decades ago, I’ve believed that.

The key is to do everything you can do today to live long enough to see the science come to fruition with the solution.  There is hope.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: Signal Trans Target Ther. 2025 Jun 30;10:199. doi: 10.1038/s41392-025-02291-y

How Exercise Affects Menopause: Muscle and Bone

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In Tuesday’s post, we looked at how menopause affects exercise. Today and Saturday we’ll look at the reverse because exercise can have powerful effects on the changes we associate with menopause.

As a woman ages, she loses bone mineral content due to decreasing hormone levels. Her muscles change as well; fast-twitch muscle fibers become more like slow-twitch fibers. Women can’t run as fast . . .

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Broken Bones and Heel Spurs

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Two questions I regularly get asked about bones: What can I do to help heal broken bones? And what can I do about heel spurs? Without question, you must see a doctor to get a diagnosis. This is something you shouldn’t self-diagnose or try to “handle” it yourself. Once you’ve done that, here’s what I would do.

For broken bones, once the bones are set and you have a cast or other immobilizing device, there are some nutrients that may help:

  • Glucosamine: 1,500 – 3,000 mg per day. Seem odd? Not . . .

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Baby Bones

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If you read the message regularly, you know I frequently mention my pretend grandson Riley. He’s 18 months old and he has one speed: fast. As a result, he occasionally falls. While sometimes he does fall hard enough to hurt himself, he doesn’t break any bones as I might if I fell that often. Why not?

Most of a baby’s bones begin as cartilage. A baby has about 300 bones at birth. As they grow, their bones begin to get solid; the cartilage cells gradually become bone cells by absorbing minerals such as calcium. Some bones fuse . . .

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Why Bones Need Stress

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Something unusual happened during a recent run: I fell. Nothing serious, just a few scrapes and a sprained wrist. It got me to thinking that I haven’t talked about bones in a long time; there are 206 of them in adults, and they have to last us our entire lifetime. This week’s messages are all about bones. I’ll approach it from a different way than you can find by doing an Internet search.

The critical thing to understand is that bone is live tissue. We tend to think of it as something solid, and it is. But . . .

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