Science News (8/11/07) reports that Bones regulate Blood Sugar via a new hormone discovered in bone building cells (osteoplasts) --- so anything that interferes with these bone cells functioning properly will also affect our blood sugar levels!!
The hormone is called Osteocalcin and good levels of it are needed to help produce the beta cells in the pancreas that produce extra insulin.
This is an amazing discovery because we have a tremendous amount of diabetes here in this region around Asarco. My own question is whether or not the heavy metals, chemicals and radioactive particles from the smelting could damage bones and affect blood sugar levels. We may never know because Industry has such a dampening effect on finding things like this -- kind of like how the chemical industry helped back the IEUBK lead exposure model that says your exposure to chemicals is less because you spend time inside -- but it never took into account swamp coolers (swamp coolers equalize dust inside and outside the house). Or how everyone talks about how Lead (Pb) around here comes from cars and lead-glazed mexican pottery and candy wrappers, but ignores the largest custom smelter in the world sitting right next to the University.
No comments:
Post a Comment