a post by Ed Cara for the GIZMODO blog [via World of Psychology]
Anyone who’s ever said they felt scared to their bones might have been speaking more literally than we knew. A new study out Thursday [12 September] seems to show that in both mice and humans, bones secrete a hormone in reaction to stressful situations. What’s more, this bone hormone appears to be crucial to our fight-or-flight response, in a way completely separate from other well-known stress chemicals like adrenaline.
Gerard Karsenty, a geneticist at Columbia University, and his colleagues have long been interested in studying how our skeleton keeps us alive and healthy — not just by supporting us physically, but through the interactions it has with the rest of the body. Their work has centered on osteocalcin, a hormone produced by some of the same cells that make up bone. His and others’ earlier research has suggested that osteocalcin helps regulate diverse functions such as metabolism, muscle function during exercise, and fertility.
Continue reading but be prepared for feeling sad/angry/upset about the mice being stressed.
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