[HN Gopher] Scientists discover a new hormone that can build str...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Scientists discover a new hormone that can build strong bones
        
       Author : gmays
       Score  : 265 points
       Date   : 2024-07-22 16:42 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.ucsf.edu)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.ucsf.edu)
        
       | jl6 wrote:
       | > To test the ability of the hormone to assist in bone healing,
       | the researchers created a hydrogel patch that could be applied
       | directly to the site of a bone fracture, where it would slowly
       | release CCN3 for two weeks. In elderly mice, bone fractures don't
       | usually heal well. However, the CCN3 patch spurred the formation
       | of new bone at the site of the fracture, contributing to youthful
       | healing of the fracture.
       | 
       | So, uh, did this research involve breaking mice bones?
        
         | sva_ wrote:
         | You know when they kill a mouse in the lab they call it a
         | 'sarcrifice'. There's some harrowing stuff and I personally
         | would probably not be able to do it.
         | 
         | I think most ppl who do it just happened to find themselves in
         | a part of their academic career where they have little choice
         | if they want to proceed.
        
           | Thorrez wrote:
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument_to_the_laboratory_mou.
           | ..
        
             | amelius wrote:
             | Where is the monument to the Beef Cow?
        
               | snakeyjake wrote:
               | Kansas City, MO, USA
               | 
               | https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1003469,-94.5952033,3a,56
               | .6y...
        
               | Kon-Peki wrote:
               | What is the backstory to that monument?
               | 
               | Here is another:
               | 
               | https://chicagostudies.uchicago.edu/back-yards/back-
               | yards-un...
        
               | pvaldes wrote:
               | > Where is the monument to the Beef Cow?
               | 
               | With or without monument, It always will have a very
               | special place on my stomach.
        
               | krisoft wrote:
               | Everywhere. Cattle is a very popular topic of sculptures.
               | Just to mention two from the top of my head:
               | 
               | This one is in Oxford: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki
               | /File:Bull_statue,_outside...
               | 
               | This one is in Budapest:
               | https://www.kozterkep.hu/1005/boci-szobor
               | 
               | And of course there is that swiss artist who creates
               | parades of cows around cities:
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CowParade
        
               | saintfire wrote:
               | Basically the entire United States.
        
           | sleepydog wrote:
           | I knew someone who had to conduct dozens of these
           | "sacrifices" as part of her neuroscience PhD. She used a
           | mouse-sized guillotine like this one:
           | 
           | https://www.wpiinc.com/var-2645-rodent-guillotine.html
        
         | m3kw9 wrote:
         | Naw, they found mice that tripped while running, it's that
         | simple man.
        
           | jaggs wrote:
           | Oh thank you, thank you...
        
         | greenchair wrote:
         | key word elderly provides an alibi.
        
         | cjbgkagh wrote:
         | Absolutely, there is probably some jig to hold the mouse and do
         | the break reliably in the same way each time. I knew a
         | researcher that did research that involved killing newborn baby
         | rabbits and he said that he hated that part of the job but kept
         | reminding himself that he is working on a cure for very sick
         | human children that currently had no hope of treatment. It was
         | exploratory research so there was only a small chance of
         | success and many years later there was success in a unrelated
         | field so in the end his work was redundant - but he couldn't
         | have known that at the time.
         | 
         | By my morals it's ok to kill animals for the benefit of humans,
         | animals kill animals for sustenance and for now we are still a
         | part of nature. In the future perhaps we won't need to and I'll
         | happily support that. For now in order to get to that future we
         | must do the unpleasant thing with an understanding that it
         | should be not be done egregiously, gratuitously, or needlessly.
         | Not for the sake of the animals, although that is a given, but
         | for the sake of the humans involved in harming those animals as
         | I think doing such things does take it's toll.
        
           | amelius wrote:
           | But, were the animals at least unconscious when the
           | experiments (and preparations thereof) took place?
           | 
           | Anyway, if you've ever seen a cat play with a half-dead mouse
           | you might change your previous opinion on these experiments.
           | 
           | On the other hand, this research might lead to people putting
           | patches on their jaws to stop the cosmetic effects of ageing.
           | 
           | Ethics is a difficult discipline ...
        
             | cjbgkagh wrote:
             | Unfortunately they were conscious, they were painful deaths
             | and it was the experiment that killed them. They were not
             | euthanized after the experiment which is more the norm. I
             | was told there was no viable alternative to obtaining the
             | data. I only found out because I was helping process the
             | data and I asked where the data was from.
             | 
             | What I don't like is that the inefficiencies in science
             | means that many, and perhaps most, of the experiments that
             | are being done are probably unnecessary and only being done
             | due to bureaucratic inertia. I lament the horrible state of
             | science and the needless suffering that causes both humans
             | and animals.
             | 
             | So on one hand I think it's possible to justify the what is
             | in effect torture of animals if a case can be made that the
             | science obtained from it could be worth it. On the other
             | hand I don't think it's normally the case that this is true
             | and science should do a better job in justifying this
             | torture. If unable to then it should stop.
        
         | cheeseomlit wrote:
         | Stories of mice being used in gruesome experiments always give
         | me a bit of moral outrage, but when there's one in my house I
         | have no qualms about killing it with extreme prejudice. So,
         | they should just round up all the home-invader mice for
         | experimentation- my conscious would rest easier knowing they're
         | all just repaying their debt to society
        
           | themaninthedark wrote:
           | My recollection is that laboratory mice are a very tight
           | family line with very well understood DNA (and behavior?
           | maybe), so you would gain a lot of variability and thus lose
           | scientific rigor and may need longer, more complicated tests.
        
         | pvaldes wrote:
         | Probably. And then giving the mice the superpowers of
         | wolverine.
         | 
         | Everybody loves this when it happens to a human in a film, no
         | matter how much radioactive spiders will be crushed. If this
         | makes you feel better while watching your plaster dry, I would
         | bet my money on that sedation was applied and, if that old mice
         | is still alive, it feels now like a two months old heartthrob.
        
         | bregma wrote:
         | Tell me about the rabbits again George.
        
       | bulbosaur123 wrote:
       | The billion dollar question: can this somehow help develop
       | treatment for making bones longer?
        
         | isoprophlex wrote:
         | I'm missing something, what good are long bones, specifically?
         | Seems to me strength is the most important parameter,
         | especially in aging populations..?
        
           | toomuchtodo wrote:
           | Height, dating marketplace. Status in general.
           | 
           | https://english.elpais.com/culture/2022-07-19/dating-apps-
           | an...
           | 
           | https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/miriamfauzia/height-
           | dat...
           | 
           | https://www.eviemagazine.com/post/only-15-women-
           | interest-58-...
           | 
           | https://theblog.okcupid.com/the-big-lies-people-tell-in-
           | onli...
        
             | isoprophlex wrote:
             | Okay wow that's immediately obvious. Thanks... My mind got
             | stuck at octogenarians growing absurdly long bones in the
             | autumn of their lives
        
             | hooverd wrote:
             | Online dating seems miserable! Although the misery makes
             | sense to me. It's a highly competitive arena with very low
             | friction. It reminds me of using Facebook Marketplace vs
             | Craigslist. FBM is full of the worst, flakiest people to
             | coordinate a transaction with. The added friction from CL
             | cuts down of the number of drive-bys and lowballers
             | somewhat.
             | 
             | * I met my first real partner online- but that was on
             | MySpace pre-appification of everything. I haven't dated
             | anyone I met online since, so maybe I'm just talking out of
             | my ass here.
        
             | Wohlf wrote:
             | If everyone is 6 foot no one is. 7 foot would just become
             | the new baseline.
        
         | gffrd wrote:
         | Reminds me of this article from a few years ago about guys
         | getting leg-lengthening surgery: https://www.gq-
         | magazine.co.uk/lifestyle/article/leg-lengthen...
        
         | rideontime wrote:
         | This is getting downvoted, but they only need to find one
         | short, insecure billionaire to make this comment come true.
        
           | toomuchtodo wrote:
           | Bezos and Zuckerberg are both 5' 7" (170cm), interestingly
           | enough.
        
             | FuriouslyAdrift wrote:
             | Tom Cruise, too (or shorter... allegedly)
        
           | shermantanktop wrote:
           | Unfortunately (or fortunately?) the track record of
           | billionaires throwing money at problems unrelated to how they
           | made their billions is not great. Yachts are easy to buy,
           | cancer cures and life extension technologies are not so easy
           | to buy.
        
           | YurgenJurgensen wrote:
           | This becoming viable would do to high-status men what white
           | lead makeup did to high status women in the 19th century.
           | Being tall isn't as important as being taller than average,
           | so you'd create an arms race among those who could afford the
           | treatment. Which itself would strengthen the association
           | between being short and being poor. And we all know how this
           | ends, with a 7 foot tall millionaires dying of heart attacks
           | as their circulatory system doesn't naturally scale with
           | their height.
        
         | AprilArcus wrote:
         | No, once the epiphyseal plates close further growth of long
         | bones is impossible. Only intervention during puberty can
         | influence final adult height.
        
           | rjurney wrote:
           | So feed it to kids!
        
         | moffkalast wrote:
         | Smh, these slenderman cosplayers are really going too far.
        
         | bregma wrote:
         | According to the unsolicited email I regularly receive, there
         | are already products on the market for making bones longer. And
         | lasting all night, which would I guess make it significantly
         | easier to get out of bed in the morning.
        
       | hzay wrote:
       | This is great. My mother had osteoporosis and I hope they come up
       | with a therapy she can use!
       | 
       | However as a currently breastfeeding mother, I'm asked by doctors
       | to take calcium supplements every day (I only remember it once a
       | week or so), and they threaten me with future osteoporosis if I
       | don't take it. But these researchers are saying that
       | breastfeeding mothers' bones aren't affected despite calcium
       | depletion?
       | 
       | Fwiw I've also read research that the bones are indeed affected
       | (as measured by density) but they rebound after you stop
       | breastfeeding. I remember that the most depletion happened in the
       | lumbar region, and that the rebound didn't happen fully if there
       | was "parity" (multiple kids).
       | 
       | So idk. I hope their premise is correct.
        
         | everybodyknows wrote:
         | > (I only remember it once a week or so)
         | 
         | Yikes. How about one of those 7-compartment SMTWTFS pill boxes?
         | Store it alongside your morning coffee supply.
        
         | zdragnar wrote:
         | The conventional wisdom and common recommendation is to
         | supplement with calcium, but I saw at least one study stating
         | that it is not necessary:
         | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9584497/
         | 
         | I rather suspect that if you are already eating a diet
         | deficient in calcium, breastfeeding may exacerbate the issue,
         | and since the supplements tend to have a poor bioavailability,
         | taking them even if you don't need to isn't going to be
         | harmful. Eat a healthy balance of foods and you are probably
         | fine.
         | 
         | I may have a nurse for a mother, but I am very much not a
         | doctor.
        
           | ImHereToVote wrote:
           | Meat is a great source of bioavailable calcium.
        
             | jnathsf wrote:
             | is this true? Outside of seafood that's not what I'm
             | seeing. Mostly dairy and plant-based foods have the most
             | calcium [1]
             | 
             | [1] https://www.bonehealthandosteoporosis.org/patients/trea
             | tment...
        
           | jijijijij wrote:
           | > taking them even if you don't need to isn't going to be
           | harmful
           | 
           | I think, the transporter for calcium is the same used for
           | some other minerals. So, if you're not mindful (about
           | timing), you may be competitively blocking the absorption of
           | e.g. zinc, which is much more precious nutritionally - zinc
           | is very important for immune function and healing, while
           | deficiency is common.
           | 
           | Calcium supplements can cause constipation, which may be not
           | very fun after giving birth... Not to mention the
           | implications of (lack of) quality control in the supplement
           | market, by proxy, for a rapidly developing human being. Which
           | substances are part of the formulation, other than calcium
           | salts? Does the adult portion of copper or X accumulate in a
           | mother's milk?
           | 
           | Not saying, you shouldn't take calcium supplements. But
           | really, _any_ supplement can be harmful, if consumed without
           | need or consideration. (Fun fact: Vitamin A supplementation
           | increases lung cancer risk!)
        
         | DidYaWipe wrote:
         | You still need to provide calcium to the body to deploy to
         | one's own bones. This hormone apparently directs that process.
         | It can't do that in the absence of sufficient calcium, of
         | course, so supplements still seem like a good idea.
        
         | jimmaswell wrote:
         | My water supply appears to be flush with calcium - I have to
         | poke my shower head's holes out every few months. I wonder if
         | it's good for me or if it's in too large of excess. Would
         | probably help if I remembered the vitamin D more often, since
         | you need that to absorb the calcium.
        
       | ck2 wrote:
       | This will incidentally be helpful to space travel to Mars and
       | living there.
       | 
       | Among the dozen other serious health problems with zero/low
       | gravity like oh serious eye problems, humans sadly aren't going
       | to Mars anytime soon.
       | 
       | Then again this would need to be tested on the moon or in orbit
       | first, might not make a difference even with the hormone.
       | 
       | (vitamin K2 might help too)
        
         | cactusfrog wrote:
         | Bone density loss in space is estimated at a loss of 1-2% of
         | total bone density per month of microgravity exposure. The
         | worst cases of terrestrial bone loss are around 5% of total
         | bone mineral density per year.
        
         | DennisP wrote:
         | We know microgravity is terrible for us but we don't have data
         | on 1/3 gravity. We might be fine. Or maybe we'd be fine if we
         | took this drug, did some weight training, and added twenty
         | minutes of centrifuge every day.
         | 
         | For the trip, there are several ways we could set up spin
         | gravity.
        
           | Terr_ wrote:
           | For more on this "we don't really have the data for anything"
           | problem, a humorously approachable read is "A City On Mars"
           | [0]. Also the "nobody knows how laws would work" and other
           | interesting complications.
           | 
           | [0] https://www.acityonmars.com/
        
         | __MatrixMan__ wrote:
         | One step closer to being able to make Belters.
        
         | inglor_cz wrote:
         | If you lose 10 per cent of your bone density on the way to
         | Mars, but then live in the conditions of 0.33 G, doesn't it
         | cancel out?
         | 
         | The real nasty problem would be getting back to Earth.
        
         | jijijijij wrote:
         | I just wanted to say, I really appreciate your tangent here.
         | Space travel didn't come to my mind at all and your comment
         | made me feel the tiny things contributing to larger stories,
         | for a moment. Caught me weirdly off-guard.
        
       | ImHereToVote wrote:
       | By all accounts seems like this is a cure to age related bone
       | loss. Almost everyone suffers from age related bone loss of some
       | degree. Would like love to hear news about commercialisation of
       | this.
        
         | cjbgkagh wrote:
         | In my 20 mins of searching; it looks like it's CCN3 is produced
         | by humans (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NOV_(gene)) and
         | presumably humans have the receptors for it as well - though
         | I'm uncertain if the same effect in mice will translate to
         | humans. Since naturally occurring genes and genetic sequences
         | are not patentable even if they don't commercialize you could
         | probably get a 3rd party to make it reasonably cheaply. So if
         | it is found to work I wouldn't even worry about
         | commercialization.
        
         | rjurney wrote:
         | So long as its safe. Almost always, these things don't pan
         | out... or at least the first molecular iteration. That's the
         | primary reason medicine is so expensive.
        
           | nextos wrote:
           | Yes, the trick will be to prevent too much growth and
           | therefore the appearance of rogue mutants that may lead to
           | e.g. osteosarcoma.
           | 
           | Lots of organs in the body lack regeneration capabilities
           | once you age as an evolutionary mechanism to avoid tumors.
           | 
           | Uri Alon's book _Systems Medicine_ has lots of models to
           | explain those differences depending on e.g. organ size.
        
             | Qem wrote:
             | I was wondering just about this, if hormone replacement
             | therapy is really that safe, as one can imagine the natural
             | drop in its levels with age may not necessarily be
             | pathological itself, but a protection mechanism. Like the
             | ageing body were an old boiler you can't just do a
             | overhaul, so as the pipes rust, you turn the pressure down,
             | to keep it operating it within a safe envelope. HRT then
             | would be like an unwitting intern trying to improve the
             | system by cranking the settings up back to the level of a
             | brand new one.
        
               | kridsdale1 wrote:
               | Evolution doesn't work this way. Everything that happens
               | to an organism past the standard age range of
               | reproduction has 0 effect on natural selection. There is
               | no system affecting "graceful decline" of body systems in
               | some protective way for things that happen past 35 in
               | women and maybe 45 in men.
               | 
               | But yes, as a HRT user myself (age 38), I do see it as
               | replacing the fluids in my car to make it operate like
               | when it was peak tuned at age 22.
        
             | fuzztester wrote:
             | >Lots of organs in the body lack regeneration capabilities
             | once you age as an evolutionary mechanism to avoid tumors.
             | 
             | why is this so?
        
               | nextos wrote:
               | Simplifying a lot, once you age, your cells have
               | accumulated lots of genetic and epigenetic defects, so
               | they are more likely to become cancerous if you let them
               | divide quickly.
               | 
               | Besides, you have less lymphocytes looking for
               | carcinogenic cells, as your immune system is older.
        
           | smolder wrote:
           | > That's the primary reason medicine is so expensive.
           | 
           | My aim isn't to make a long thread out of the topic but:
           | while I'd agree it's one reason, I'd dispute it's primary.
           | Demand for medicine is pretty inelastic, meaning there is
           | generally a lot of power on the supply side to set high
           | prices. Then you have the dynamics between health insurers
           | and providers, the burdens of regulation and liability for
           | adverse effects, the tendency to focus research and marketing
           | on novel [patentable] remedies over potentially cheaper ones,
           | and the tendency to focus on remedy over prevention. It's
           | fairly difficult to pick a primary reason.
        
             | rjurney wrote:
             | The reason they have so much power on the supply side is
             | that what they do is incredibly painstaking and expensive.
             | I agree the system sucks.
             | 
             | Sublingual Toradol is available from pharmacies in Mexico.
             | I fly to San Diego every five years, take the tram to the
             | border and walk across to Tijuana to stock up. Toradol is
             | an NSAID they give you via injection in the emergency room
             | for chronic pain and headaches. By mouth it tends to cause
             | GI bleeding worse than any other NSAID. A number of people
             | died before they restricted the pill to five days
             | consecutive use. Dissolving Toradol under your tongue
             | bypasses the GI tract, making sublingual Toradol much
             | safer. I carry a pill pack of four pills in my wallet, and
             | having a pain medication as effective as morphine without
             | sedation in my pocket at all times seriously improves my
             | quality of life. There is something I can DO when my
             | chronic pain flares up enough that it starts to get to me.
             | 
             | In the US the Sprix nasal inhaler is the functional
             | equivalent of sublingual Toradol. I've read the research
             | papers on both medications and I compared the charts for
             | pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics and... the curves are
             | virtually identical. They have the same impact on the body,
             | both delivery mechanisms are equally effective in safety
             | terms.
             | 
             | Sublingual Toradol is generic - the original papers on it
             | are from the 80s. The Sprix is a patented delivery
             | mechanism... wait for it...
             | 
             | * A dose of subligual Toradol in a Tijuana pharmacy: $0.25
             | 
             | * A single dose Sprix nasal inhaler from a US pharmacy: $25
             | last I checked. Only indicated for severe migraines.
             | 
             | That's a price multiple of 100x, as in one hundred times
             | for a functionally equivalent medication. Last time I went
             | to Tijuana the murder rate had multiplied by 10x since the
             | last time I was there, so I went to the pharmacy right at
             | the border. The price per dose was $0.50 there, but its
             | cheaper if you go downtown. It isn't a counterfeited
             | medication, so you don't have to worry about that. I wish
             | more pain patients had access to sublingual Toradol. If a
             | drug company wanted to improve chronic pain care, they
             | could fund clinical trials in the US and get the medication
             | approved. It will never happen in the states. Pure greed is
             | the ONLY reason.
             | 
             | Actually, there's a lot more research on sublingual Toradol
             | since I last checked: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term
             | =%22sublingual+toradol%... See the sublingual film work? No
             | reason for that instead of a pill except you can patent it.
             | BOOM. BURN IT ALL DOWN.
        
       | lacrosse_tannin wrote:
       | Does it do anything for connective tissue?
        
         | MrDrMcCoy wrote:
         | According to the article, that's the next thing they're going
         | to test for.
        
       | Brechreiz wrote:
       | It's ok if you drink plenty of malk.
        
         | qwertox wrote:
         | Never heard of malk. Googling it just yields a brand.
        
           | FrustratedMonky wrote:
           | A little of the Moloko Plus
           | 
           | "The Korova milkbar sold milk-plus, milk plus vellocet or
           | synthemesc or drencrom, which is what we were drinking."
        
           | aspenmayer wrote:
           | https://simpsonswiki.com/wiki/Malk
           | 
           | https://simpsons.fandom.com/wiki/Malk
           | 
           | https://frinkiac.com/caption/S06E21/319051
        
         | pixl97 wrote:
         | It's got vitamin R
        
       | tbirdny wrote:
       | This is great. But, the root of the problem for most
       | postmenopausal women is simply the lack of estrogen. You need
       | estrogen to make bone. Men and women do. Men are mostly protected
       | from osteoporosis because they convert testosterone to estrogen.
       | Elderly men have more estrogen than postmenopausal women. Their
       | levels go to near zero. It's a tragedy that more doctors don't
       | recommend HRT for older women, at least some level of
       | replacement, maybe not up to peak levels when they were younger.
       | The lack of estrogen causes a lot of suffering.
        
         | a2tech wrote:
         | I sit in a lot of doctor training sessions and the feelings on
         | hrt have changed a lot in the last 5-10 years. It's now well
         | thought of and an acceptable risk. Apparently the quality of
         | life improvement is huge compared to the relatively minor risk
        
           | adamc wrote:
           | Although I knew a woman who had breast cancer and a
           | consequence was taking her off HRT. Which she was dreading.
        
             | mrmuagi wrote:
             | I saw this recent video on a similar topic (prostate cancer
             | and testerone/TRT considerations) [1], and bookmarked it
             | for later. Not knowledgeable to speak further on it though.
             | 
             | [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiVCsm4dNh0
        
         | ravenstine wrote:
         | Men are also more likely to do strength training, which also
         | helps build bone density. Women are also more likely to
         | regularly perform cardio/aerobic exercises, which can reduce
         | bone density when done in excess and without adequate
         | nutrition. Lack of estrogen is of course the root, but I think
         | we can't dismiss behavior differences contributing to the
         | effect. In my experience, many women do minimal to no strength
         | training because they're worried that muscle tone will make
         | them look masculine. Maybe this is a really bad idea to live
         | by.
        
           | amelius wrote:
           | > Women are also more likely to regularly perform
           | cardio/aerobic exercises, which can reduce bone density when
           | done in excess and without adequate nutrition.
           | 
           | What is the biological mechanism behind this statement?
        
             | ravenstine wrote:
             | Elevated cortisol (in response to the stress of running or
             | whatever) increases bone resorption and inhibits bone
             | growth. This isn't necessarily an issue for anyone doing
             | lots of cardio, but it's an increase in risk. It also
             | reduces protein synthesis, which is important for both
             | muscle and bone (it isn't just calcium).
        
               | magicalist wrote:
               | > _Elevated cortisol (in response to the stress of
               | running or whatever) increases bone resorption and
               | inhibits bone growth_
               | 
               | Cortisol is also released during strength training,
               | though.
               | 
               | Seems like a real issue is _low impact_ cardio, which isn
               | 't negative for bone density (as far as I can tell) but
               | does have a theoretical opportunity cost when you could
               | be doing weight-bearing cardio, which does improve bone
               | density.
               | 
               | Agreed with littlestymaar's comment higher up, though,
               | that exercise rates being what they are, the theoretical
               | opportunity cost may be quite theoretical.
        
               | ben_w wrote:
               | > Elevated cortisol ... increases bone resorption and
               | inhibits bone growth
               | 
               | Would that also be true for caffeine consumption? IIRC it
               | increases cortisol levels, but I don't really know much
               | about what else it does, I've only read the Wikipedia
               | page and gone "Wow, I'm _really_ glad I 've already cut
               | back".
        
           | littlestymaar wrote:
           | This may be true, but it's not really relevant. Most people
           | don't do training at all, especially past 50 yo, where bone
           | density declines in women.
           | 
           | (And that's a significant issue in itself)
        
           | piombisallow wrote:
           | Estrogen replacement increases the risk of cancer in women.
        
             | kridsdale1 wrote:
             | This is not accurate and is the result of a
             | misinterpretation of the Women's Health study of the 2000s.
             | It's much more complicated. The specific type of molecule
             | matters.
        
               | bsder wrote:
               | Citation.
               | 
               | Breast cancer dropped with a _step function_ when HRT was
               | stopped in general for meopausal women.
               | 
               | I haven't seen any studies to the contrary.
        
       | kingkawn wrote:
       | Triggering Paget's disease in 3, 2,...
        
       | hooverd wrote:
       | Ah, bone healing juice.
        
       | manav wrote:
       | Is there a good HN equivalent specifically for science/med/bio
       | news? I do find interesting papers here on the topic although
       | it's not the core focus.
        
         | pps wrote:
         | https://www.reddit.com/r/science/ - you can filter it by field
        
           | rednerrus wrote:
           | If this sub is the state of modern science, we are in a lot
           | of trouble.
        
             | hypeatei wrote:
             | Reddit isn't the state of anything in the real world, it's
             | a bubble.
        
               | 3abiton wrote:
               | Wait till the bots "fully" take over.
        
       | Sparkyte wrote:
       | Can't wait for breaking a hip at 80 to be a thing of the past.
       | Bone health is also a contributor in life expectancy and health
       | of a person altogether. I read a study if you can assure your
       | bones are healthy you can assure your health longterm.
        
         | masfuerte wrote:
         | Is bone health like grip strength? Grip strength correlates
         | with life expectancy because it is a good proxy for overall
         | health, but if you just work on your grip strength you won't
         | get much healthier.
        
           | ilc wrote:
           | No, because if you break a hip, you lose a ton of mobility,
           | which will cause an avalanche of problems.
        
           | samatman wrote:
           | Not entirely, for a pretty obvious reason: breaking a bone at
           | an advanced age is not infrequently the beginning of the end.
           | Not enough to make it primary (in other words, your point
           | about bone density as a correlate rather than a determinate
           | is basically correct), but enough that improving just bone
           | health on a widespread basis should help with life expectancy
           | as well.
        
         | manmal wrote:
         | Wasn't the best contributor to life expectancy vascular &
         | endothelial health?
        
       | UncleOxidant wrote:
       | Wonder if it would help teeth as well?
        
       | danvoell wrote:
       | Amazing! Can anyone hypothesize whether it could have adverse
       | effect towards cancer cells? Im dealing with someone who has
       | osteoporosis due to cancer treatment.
        
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