Bear Bones and Hormones: A Key to Reversing Osteoporosis?

AScribe Health News Service, May, 2006

Byline: Michigan Technological University

HOUGHTON, Mich., May 24 (AScribe Newswire) -- Michigan Technological University researcher Seth Donahue has synthesized a hormone that may be giving bears immunity from osteoporosis.

Bears typically emerge from hibernation with bones as strong as two-by-fours; in humans, such behavior would turn our bones to the relative equivalent of peppermint sticks. Why bears are able to dodge the osteoporosis bullet despite snoozing away so many months of the year has been a puzzle. Now, Donahue, an associate professor of biomedical engineering, may have solved the mystery.

In people and bears, staying active promotes strong bones. So does parathyroid hormone, but when people are sedentary, parathyroid hormone...

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