Crazy! Bone Density is Influenceable?

Crazy! Bone Density is Influenceable? I once dismissed bone density as too slow and mechanistic to belong with other interoceptive systems – a geological process operating over years, surely too opaque to warrant inclusion in a spectrum ranging from heartbeat awareness to movement coordination. But research shattered that assumption. Osteocytes aren't just responding to mechanical stress; they're sophisticated sensors detecting even minute strains and coordinating responses with great complexity. Recent research tracking "skeletal interoception" – bones release signals that the hypothalamus monitors to regulate bone formation – this reveals a real-time brain-bone communication loop I hadn't imagined. This wasn't slow background metabolism, but active human sensing and negotiation involving bone cells, immune signals, and nervous system modulation, with responses beginning in hours. The accessible sensations of weight distribution, skeletal pressure, and load awareness suddenly made sense as conscious glimpses of this ongoing interoceptive intelligence. My initial skepticism dissolved into recognition that bone density represents exactly the kind of distributed organismic intelligence that challenges our "autonomous" myths – a learning system constantly adapting through sophisticated internal sensing rather than following preset mechanical programs. It is at the very bottom of my list of 'influenceable' patterns, but ... still on the list.

Avdalovic et al., JBMR Plus, 2023

Yue et al., Bone Research, 2023

Cell Metabolism Review, 2022