bone Archives - Amazing Health Advances

Does Marijuana Affect Weight Gain or Bone Density?

The AHA! Team — Wed, 23 Oct 2024 08:19:02 +0000

Michael Greger M.D. FACLM via Nutrition Facts – Are the apparent adverse effects of heavy cannabis use on the bone just due to users being thinner? It’s been recognized for decades that cigarette smoking can have “a major effect” on bone health, “increasing the lifetime risk of hip fracture by about half.” It also appears to impair bone healing, so much so that surgeons ask if they should discriminate against smokers because their bone and wound-healing complication rates are so high. What about smoking marijuana? As I discuss in my video Effects of Marijuana on Weight Gain and Bone Density, “There is accumulating evidence to suggest that cannabinoids [cannabis compounds] and their receptors play important roles in bone metabolism by regulating bone mass, bone loss, and bone cell function.” Okay, but are they “friend or foe?” “Results from research on cannabinoids and bone mineral density in rodent models have been inconsistent. Some studies show increased bone formation, others have demonstrated accelerated bone loss, and yet others have shown no association. This variation in results may be due [in part] to differences in the mouse strain, sex, age…” If you can’t even extrapolate from one mouse to another, how can you extrapolate from mice to human beings? What if you just measure cannabis use and bone mineral density in people? Researchers tested thousands of adults and asked them about their cannabis use. There did not appear to be any link between the two, which is a relief. However, in this study, “heavy” cannabis use was defined as just five or more days of use in the previous 30 days. The researchers didn’t ask beyond that, so, theoretically, someone who smoked just five joints in their entire life could be categorized as a “heavy user” if they happened to use it five times in the last four weeks. How about cannabis use on 5,000 separate occasions over a lifetime? Now that’s a heavy user—decades of regular use. In that case, heavy use was “associated with low bone mineral density and an increased risk of fractures”—about double the fracture rate presumably due to lower bone density in the hip and spine, although heavy cannabis users were also thinner on average, and thinner people have lighter bones. Hip fracture risk goes down as our weight goes up. Nearly half of underweight women have osteoporosis, but less than 1 percent of obese women do, which makes total sense. Being obese forces our body to make our bones stronger to carry around all of that extra weight. That’s why weight-bearing exercise is so important to constantly put stress on our skeleton. When it comes to our bones, it’s use it or lose it. That’s why astronauts can lose a percent of their bone mass every month in “long-duration spaceflight.” Their bodies aren’t stupid. Why waste all that energy making a strong skeleton if you aren’t going to put any weight on it? So, maybe the reason heavy cannabis users have frailer bones is because they tend to be about 15 pounds lighter. Wait a second. Marijuana users are slimmer? What about the munchies? “The lower BMI that was observed in heavy cannabis users at first sight seems counterintuitive,” given marijuana’s appetite stimulation, but this isn’t the first time this has been noted. “Popular culture commonly depicts marijuana users as a sluggish, lethargic, and unproductive subculture of compulsive snackers,” and marijuana has indeed been found to increase food intake. A single hit can increase appetite, so you’d expect obesity rates to rise in states that legalized it. But, if anything, the rise in obesity appeared to slow after medical marijuana laws were passed, whereas it appeared to just keep rising in other states, as you can see in the graph below and at 3:45 in my video. The reason pot smokers may be slimmer is because of the effect of smoked marijuana on metabolism. We’ve known for more than nearly 40 years that within 15 minutes of lighting up, our metabolic rate goes up by about 25 percent and stays there for at least an hour, as you can see below and at 4:04 in my video. So, that may be playing a role. Is that why heavy cannabis use is associated with lower bone mineral density and increased risk of fractures? Because users just aren’t as overweight? No. Even when taking BMI into account, heavy cannabis use appears to be “an independent predictor” of weaker bones. I originally released a series of marijuana videos in a webinar and downloadable digital DVD. There are still a few videos coming out over the next year, but if you missed any of the already published ones, see the related posts below. For more on bone health, check out the related posts below. Key Takeaways Cigarette smoking is known to have a major negative effect on bone health, increasing the risk of hip fracture and impairing bone healing. Surgeons questioned whether they should discriminate against smokers due to higher complication rates. Cannabinoids and their receptors are implicated in bone metabolism, influencing bone mass, bone loss, and bone cell function. However, research on cannabinoids’ effects on bone mineral density in rodents has shown inconsistent results. Heavy cannabis use, defined as more than 5,000 separate occasions over a lifetime, is “associated with low bone mineral density and an increased risk of fractures.” This risk is about double compared to non-heavy users, potentially due to users’ lower bone density in the hip and spine. Heavy cannabis users, despite experiencing increased appetite (the munchies), tend to have lower BMI and are slimmer. The increased metabolic rate observed after smoking marijuana may contribute to this, but heavy cannabis use remains an independent predictor of weaker bones, even when considering BMI. To read the original article click here.

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Miniature 3D Bone Marrow Model Could Lead to Personalized Treatment for Blood Platelet Disorders

AHA Publisher — Fri, 04 Jun 2021 07:00:18 +0000

eLife via News-Medical – A new miniature 3D model of human bone marrow has been described today in the open-access eLife journal. The model may help clinicians predict which patients will benefit from a new therapy for blood platelet disorders, such as Inherited Thrombocytopenias – a group of familial disorders that inhibit the production of platelets. It could also enable further study of these disorders and give scientists a new tool to test experimental treatments. Platelets are cells that are necessary for the blood to clot and stop bleeding. Having too few platelets can lead to internal or serious bleeding after surgery or injuries, which is usually treated with therapies that cause clotting. Recent studies have shown that a drug called Eltrombopag increases the production of platelets, but not all patients appear to benefit from it. “Patients with the same apparent form of platelet disorder may respond differently to treatment with Eltrombopag,” says first author Christian Di Buduo, Research Assistant Professor at the Department of Molecular Medicine, University of Pavia, Italy. To help determine which patients might benefit from the drug, Di Buduo and colleagues developed a mini 3D model of human bone marrow that combines a scaffolding of silk protein and culture of patient-derived cells to recreate the human bone marrow environment where platelets are produced. “This device is a significant improvement over previous models, requiring only a very small sample of blood to recreate platelet production,” Di Buduo explains. The team then tested what happened when they added Eltrombopag to a blood sample from a patient with a platelet disorder that had previously been treated with the drug. Their results showed that the number of platelets produced in the model corresponded to how each patient had responded to treatment with Eltrombopag. The increase in the number of platelets collected from the model was comparable to the increase in the number of platelets in patients’ blood following treatment. The authors say the model could eventually lead to personalized treatment for platelet disorders by helping clinicians match patients to the best treatment. “This easy-to-reproduce system may also help scientists better understand what goes wrong in these disorders and how treatments work, as well as provide them with a new tool for testing new drugs that may lead to improved therapies in the future.” (Alessandra Balduini, Senior Author, Principal Investigator and Professor at the University of Pavia) To read the original article click here.

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3D-Printed ‘Hyperelastic Bone’ May Help Generate New Bone for Skull Reconstruction

The AHA! Team — Mon, 24 Jun 2019 07:00:00 +0000

Wolters Kluwer Health via Science Daily – Defects of the skull and facial bones can pose difficult challenges for plastic and reconstructive surgeons. A synthetic material called hyperelastic bone–readily produced by 3D-printing– could offer a powerful new tool for use in reconstructing skull defects, reports a study in the May issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. Defects of the skull and facial bones can pose difficult challenges for plastic and reconstructive surgeons. A synthetic material called hyperelastic bone — readily produced by 3D-printing — could offer a powerful new tool for use in reconstructing skull defects, reports a study in the May issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®. The experimental material accelerates bone regeneration across skull defects in rats, according to initial results by Ramille N. Shah, PhD, and colleagues of Northwestern University and University of Illinois Health, Chicago. The researchers write, “Hyperelastic bone has significant potential to be translated to craniofacial reconstructive surgery, where the need for cost-effective bone replacement grafts is enormous.” Promising New 3D-Printed Bone Replacement for Skull Reconstruction The researchers report initial experiments with hyperelastic bone in rats with surgically created defects of the top of the skull. The surgically created defects were of a “critical size” unlikely to heal on their own — similar to those seen in patients who have undergone surgery for brain tumors. Hyperelastic bone is a “3D-printed synthetic scaffold,” consisting mainly of bone mineral (hydroxyapatite) plus a widely used, biocompatible material (polyglycolic acid). Hyperelastic bone consists of an intricate latticework, designed to support the growth and regeneration of new bone. It[TO1] can be quickly and inexpensively produced using current 3D printing hardware platforms and is malleable enough to be press-fit or cut into shape during surgery. In the experiments, some cranial defects were reconstructed using hyperelastic bone and others using the animal’s own (autologous) bone. Autologous bone is the preferred material for reconstructing bone defects, but can be difficult to obtain — requiring bone to be taken from a “donor site” elsewhere in the body — and sometimes isn’t available at all. In other animals, reconstruction was performed using a scaffold made of polyglycolic acid only, without bone mineral. The 3D-printed hyperelastic bone provided good bone regeneration. On follow-up CT scans, hyperelastic bone was about 74 percent effective after eight weeks and 65 percent at 12 weeks, compared to autologous bone. In contrast, defects treated with the polyglycolic acid scaffold showed little new bone formation. Microscopic examination showed that the hyperelastic bone scaffold was gradually surrounded first by fibrous tissue, then by new bone cells. Over time, the scaffold would be gradually replaced completely by new bone, incorporating the implanted bone mineral. “Hyperelastic bone has significant potential to be translated to craniofacial reconstructive surgery, where the need for cost-effective bone replacement grafts is enormous,” Dr. Shah and colleagues conclude. With further development, they believe this 3D-printed material may provide a valuable alternative to autologous bone and commercially available bone substitutes. “Our study underscores the promising translational potential of this novel strategy for tissue engineering applications, particularly bone regeneration,” the researchers add. They emphasize that further experimental studies will be needed to confirm the use of hyperelastic bone for specific types of craniofacial reconstruction. Story Source: Materials provided by Wolters Kluwer Health. Note: Content may be edited for style and length. Journal Reference: 1. Yu-Hui Huang, Adam E. Jakus, Sumanas W. Jordan, Zari Dumanian, Kelly Parker, Linping Zhao, Pravin K. Patel, Ramille N. Shah. Three-Dimensionally Printed Hyperelastic Bone Scaffolds Accelerate Bone Regeneration in Critical-Size Calvarial Bone Defects. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, 2019; 143 (5): 1397 DOI: 10.1097/PRS.0000000000005530 To read the original article click here.

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