What Do Black Bears Know About Bone Health?
The Health Blog’s occasional encounters with bears have prompted various modes of reflection. One thought that’s never crossed our mind: Why doesn’t that bear have osteoporosis?
But that’s just what Seth Donohue thought nearly a decade ago, when he saw a bear while hiking in California’s Sierra Nevada, according to WSJ’s Lab Journal. People’s bones become weaker if they are bedridden for just a few weeks, but bears hibernate for months on end without suffering from brittle bones when they wake up.
So Donohue, a biomedical engineer at Michigan Technological University sought out other researchers who were studying bears — some in the wild, some in captivity — and began to study what kept bear bones strong. He found what he believes to be their secret: a potent form of parathyroid hormone.
He’s even convinced industry that he may be on to something. Apjohn, a company founded when Pfizer shut down some Upjohn facilities in Kalamazoo, has partnered with Michigan Tech to commercialize the finding. For that project, they’ve created a company called Aursos, whose name comes from the Latin word for bears...
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Why Black Bears Don't Take Boniva or Fosamax
From The Wall Street Journal
Labels:
bears
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