CRON and Bone

[Guest guest]

Hi folks:

[Of course part of the following is simply an anecdotal two-mouse

experiment. And we all know from 'Beyond', pages ~9 - 25, how much

notice should be paid to THEM!]

Just visited the hospital for more x-rays and advice for my broken

arm. I cannot imagine anyone else will have any interest in this

matter except in as far as it has some relevance to CRON, which in

certain respects it may have.

First point is that I have been told that signs of osteoporosis do

not show up on a regular x-ray until things are so far gone that you

would already have had plenty of other symptoms. So, the fact there

are no signs on my regular x-rays means nothing. No one would expect

there to be. I plan to have a bone density scan in a few weeks which

will definitively answer that question. When I have the results I

will post them, whatever it is they say. I have absolutely no reason

to suspect osteoporosis. This is a precaution and a benchmark for

future reference.

Second, about two weeks after my fall I met someone in a store who

was also wearing a sling. We commiserated and had a discussion. We

had both fallen on ice and broken the humerus about half an inch

below the bottom of the shoulder joint. I was asked how long ago it

had happened. " Two weeks " I replied. She said she had done it nine

weeks ago. " Gulp " I thought, " am I still going to be in a sling

after nine weeks? " She looked to be five to ten years younger than

me, with a BMI, I would guess, of around 26 .......... so was

certainly not a CRONista.

Well it has now been 4 1/2 weeks for me. At my visit today the

doctor reported lots of bone growth all around the break (and the x-

rays were so clear even a blind man could have seen it ..........

well almost). He suggested I no longer needed the sling and should

now start some physiotherapy.

So the message as regards CRON seems to be that someone one year into

a restricted diet, having lost about sixteen pounds, and taking Ca+D

daily, mends about twice as fast (perhaps faster, I do not know when

she finally got out of her sling) as someone in the general

population ten years younger, with a BMI four points higher. (Of

course I am not out-of-the-woods yet. But sfsg). So at this point,

this experience does not seem to support the proposition, sometimes

suggested, that CRON may diminish the body's ability to (re)build

bone.

Nevertheless, it certainly is true that lighter people exert less

stress on their bones. And the bones in turn will tend to adjust to

the less stressful environment. Hence the possible value of weight

vests to make the body think you still weigh the same as you did pre-

CRON when you were thirty pounds heavier.

Rodney.