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Space Science

Stimulating Bone Growth In Astronauts 66

Posted by michael from the you-too-can-be-a-heavyworlder dept.
Anonymous Coward writes: "This story will be very interesting for women and space geeks. A State University of New York at Stonybrook researcher has invented a machine that stimulates bone growth in subjects by just having them stand on a vibrating platform. A sheep using the gizmo 20 minutes a day had 20% denser bones after only a year. The idea was to help post-menopausal women, but now it might be used to strengthen astronauts' bones before and during flights. As you know, bones in zero gravity tend to get weaker and more brittle. The weird part is how the device works. Muscle builds by responding to damage, but that's apparently not how bone gets stimulated into growing. It seems that muscle contractions occur within frequencies of 20-50Hz and bones "hear" that oscillation as a message to build up. According to the article, the platform mimics that signal by vibrating undetectably within those frequencies. Cool, huh? Here's the story."
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Stimulating Bone Growth In Astronauts More

Stimulating Bone Growth In Astronauts

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  • Or maybe we could just shake mars on a plate and give it stronger bones.

    ... and if I were any taller, I'd have to try out for pro basketball. And duck when I walked in my door. There is a point beyond 6 feet where additional height doesn't do much but decrease the available footroom during commercial air travel.

    You'd swear those seats were designed to hold munchkins. Or those impossibly thin flight attendants. They look like they could use some bone strengthening to keep them from snapping in two from a strong breeze.

    --
    rickf@transpect.SPAM-B-GONE.net (remove the SPAM-B-GONE bit)

  • First of all, this could be a huge benefit to space explaoration as bone loss has always been a major hazard. I think the best time to do this might be during sleep. You could outfit each sleeping unit with a little platform under the feet that would be pulled snug against them with a spring or elastic. This might also reduce the amount of time astronauts have to spend exercising in space, freeing them up to accomplish more things on a mission.

    Not to mention all the benefits that might result for those here on earth as well. I believe there are several diseases that result in loss of bone mass, in addition to the effects of aging and menopause.
  • Since the whole idea of sending humans into space is to send humans into space, what would be the point of sending not-quite humans into space?
  • As someone who suffers from more or less permanent shin splints as a result of years of running long distances in boots, this is good news. It would be nice to have something which repairs greenstick fractures, stress fractures and hairline cracks of the shin bone.

    Ok, I'll ask the obvious. Why would you run for years in boots? Drill sargent? Or just unaware that better footware exists?

    -josh

  • How in the world could a device that relies on GRAVITY be used during flight? Seems like that would be more of a feat then the device itself.
  • WTF? Does this mean my pounding 1200 watt car stereo system actually has practicle use? So by listening to music with lots of low frequency harmonics at low volumes I'm making my bones stronger?

    RIGHT ON!!! I can't wait to use that one next time I'm pulled over for a noise ordinance violation by the cops!

    "But officer, my doctor said I've got brittle bones!"
  • "So by listening to music with lots of low frequency harmonics at low volumes..."

    Whoops...make that high or loud volumes.
  • I had exactly the same thought...

    Given the structural integrity of my apartment, my neighbors and I could probably keep the entire building from suffering osteoporosis in old age. Just one problem: It probably doesn't help the foundation rebuild itself.
  • 20-50 Hz, eh? So all those kids cruising [harvard.edu] in boomers [acoustics.org] must have really strong bones...
  • sorry, 2 different processes there.
  • mass and inertia still apply. strap the person to a vibrating heavy platform and they'll still bounce up and down - gravity or no gravity.
  • Hmmm... I think I'll back away from the unnecessary jabs at Chinese people. I think you probably meant the Chinese government, rather than the Chinese as a people.

    Back to the topic, I think that genetically engineering a crew is a great idea, as far as the technical aspects go. In order to survive in space, you'd need some kind of hard skin, maybe an exoskeleton. You'd also need a good supply of oxygen, which you may be able to get from chlorophyll, as long as you's relatively close to the sun.

    But what could you do about radiation? Are there any organisms that are really tough in that respect? (Insert joke about cockroaches surviving nuclear holocaust)

    People's attitudes will have to change a lot before this happens because these new creatures will be intelligent and human-ish, but they won't really look like us. Nowadays people have problems when someone's skin is a different color. What's going to happen when they try to converse with a big green insect-like humanoid?

  • Or you don't connect the zero-G area to the rotating station. Just park zero-G workshops nearby. It changes the problem from rotating couplers into safe and convenient short-range transport (teleoperation can be used in either case, so that is not specific to either problem).
  • Yes. But there may be other solutions than the rotating-couplings problems. I was thinking outside the sealed and pressurized box.
  • Does this mean I could grow horns on the top of my head?
  • Now vibrators have another use! ;)
  • "Vibrators in Space", film at 11.
  • The problem I see with engineering new humans to be space travelers is the same problem I see with engineering new humans to be anything: What if they don't want to do it? You've made this great, radiation resistant, strong boned, etc. new human, who decides they don't really want to be a spaceman, but instead would prefer to sell pretzels out of a cart on the corner. Are you going to try to force them to go to space anyway? Seems like they might not be too energetic about their mission goals...

    I think the only way something like this could work would be if you could change people after they have already been born and already decided they want to become space travelers. Perhaps using genetic therapy or something like that. Otherwise you are just betting on the fact that the new human will be ok with the role you have chosen for it, which seems like a bad bet to me.

  • This discovery (and a device taking advantage of it) was reported in Science News at least 8 months ago.
  • It's only completely zero at the very centre - the further away you get, the more gravity you've got. This rather limits how many zero-G experiments you can do, and zero-G experiments are the reason for having SS-Alpha.

    Grab.
  • Interconnection isn't so much of a problem - that's just an engineering issue, albeit a difficult one. What _is_ a problem is the energy expenditure to start and stop rotation. The only effective way of doing it is reaction jets (the same way rockets and satellites steer), and that requires a supply of gas to do it, which means a lot of resupply problems and lots more hugely expensive Shuttle launches.

    Incidentally, stuff isn't left lying loose, it's all fairly well restrained (mostly with Velcro). If you left anything lying loose, there's too much chance of it getting somewhere it shouldn't - say, a floating spanner banging into a crucial button at the wrong time!

    Why d'you need gravity anyway? There's those vibrating pad things that claim to stimulate your muscles, which the gullible use thinking that they're a substitute for exercise. Kit up with those, and you're in business.

    Grab.

  • Say no more, say no more, eh? 'know what I mean?

  • Hmm, 60 Hz is close enough, im gonna start electricuting myself daily as a substitute for exercise.

  • And, it doesn't depend on gravity. The vibrations is what cause increased bone density (not growth).

    OK genius, how do I feel the vibrations in zero G? I'll just drift away from the vibrating plate since the vibrations are the result of the plate exerting a force on me, directed away from the plate. With nothing to hold me back, I'll not feel the vibrations. That's why it depends on gravity. As other posters stated, rubber bands of some kind would solve this problem easily. An even easier solution would be to make a vibrating device that fits inside an astronaut's shoe. VibraSoles?

  • Somewhere in here is the perfect /. troll... get to work you slackers!!!!1

  • Could this be used to help cancer patients regrow bone marrow after a transplant?
  • Natl. Geographi already covered this a while back (1 or 2 issues back or so). The experiment was with turkeys, I believe.

    And, it doesn't depend on gravity. The vibrations is what cause increased bone density (not growth).

    It may also be a treatment against osteoporosis.
  • Electroshock "exercise" pads don't build any muscle.
  • "Hey Bill, why the heck is your computer chair vibrating?"

    "sSsHhUuTtt UuPpp MmmaAaNnnN, Iii'Mmm WwwWoorRkKiIInnNgGG OooUuuTtTt."

  • I can see it now.

    Bone density picks up a little....

    everything else falls even faster.

    Thanks, fellas.

  • Removing the balancing weights from your car tires and then drive 85 mph around Atlanta on I-285.

    The vibrating platform is a cool idea, I must admit, but I think that bone growth is more attibuted to proteins that act as tensile meters. If there is a spot on the bone connected to a ligament that is stressed, the protein says, "build here."

    Imagine what the vibrating platform can do for the spider goat!
  • A lot of the gymnasts are also on diets that do not allow them to gain as much weight. It has to do with them staying the right size so that the centre of balance is maintained.

    Look up the statistics of eating disorders and halting of the menstrual cycle in female athletes, particulary in russia, and china. That, of course is not to say that other countries don't do it, it's just that they are the examples that come to mind.
  • Other problems that we will probably see down the road for geeks aren't just osteoporosis, but I would actually be very worried about the integrity of the IV discs, and the lack of decent activity to nourish the discs.

    I know myself when I code, that hours will pass with no problem, and I force myself to get and stretch to keep the discs happy. I do this because I know the consequences and have to sit through hours of lectures on the consequences. But what about your average programmer? Are they really aware of how more physical activity they should be getting( this is of course the web designers who are always off snowboarding :) ).

    In fact geek related disorders could almost be a specialist category, just to correct them now so they aren't patients later.

    Hmmm we'll see I guess.

  • Yes. That's what the world needs more vibrating turkeys and sheep. I can't wait to see the goat sex link count on this article...
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Do you _HAVE_ to stand on the vibrating surface? I would think if you are strapped to a chair, and it is vibrating in this frequency, you would get a similar, if not the same, effect.

    --JaffoGLIDE
  • So then what happens when we breed humans with the ability to survive under low gravity conditions and they can't survive on Earth?
    I know, the obvious solution would be to code the ability to adapt to any changes in gravity, but the reality is that we'll probably have to make some sort of trade-off somewhere.

    "The good thing about Alzheimer's is that you can hide your own Easter eggs."

  • Bonsai Kitten [bonsaikitten.com] eaten by carnivore. How long until the webmasters update their site to take advantage of this wonderful new Kitticulture Technique?

    -----
    IANASRP- I am not a self-referential phrase
    -----
  • You don't "generate gravity". You generate centrifugal forces, which has mostly the same net effect for our purposes.
  • It also hugely increases the number of dockings, which is inherently risky. And it results in one more structure to outfit with thrusters, communication equipment, power supplies, life support systems, etc.
  • Imagine the mess of having to adjust all the time. Also, some of the experiments will be more or less continuously ongoing. They basically have two choices.

    Rotating a section, which is expensive, since interconnecting the rotating section safely with the rest of the station would be a nightmare.

    Their other alternative is to rotate the entire station, and stop it during zero-g experiments. Which is impractical both because of the duration of experiments, and because of the mess you'd get each time you started rotation after people had spent a week with g forces, and started leaving things lieing loose, and you suddenly have the station filled with assorted crap floating around.

  • It says before & after flights, but that doesn't really matters.

    Assuming acceleration, you have gravity.
    Assuming free fall, just spin your ship/station, to gerenrate gravity, the way to do this has been understood for decades if not centuries.
  • Not mess at *all*.
    The gravity in the center of the station is always zero.
    And increase all the way to the edges.
    If you want more gravity, you let down a rope until you get to the gravity you need.
    You could *choose* your gravity, by choosing how far from the center you are.
    You don't need to re - rorate it.
  • there's no downside if you don't watch TV

  • "White Finger" problems? (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    It makes me wonder if this might cause an analogue of "vibration white finger" in some areas of the body. This is a disorder of the circulation, where vibration causes the blood vessels to narrow. It most commonly affects people who use vibrating hand tools for long periods.

    What next - Astronaut White Toe Syndrome?
  • Bone deformation induces a pizeoelectric charge on bone (neg on the compressed side I think) and the micro electric environment induces the osteoblasts to lay down more tissue (bone, cart).

    Current bone stimulators for people who have trouble healing fractures rely on this principle (pulsed electric fileds or ultrsonic noise).

    The frequency selected by the vibrating platform guy was no accident - it's the same one that the pulsed electric field devices work best.
  • Greenstick fractures only occur in kids who almost NEVER have a prob healing bone.

    This device and other bone stimulators mostly work by increasing cancellous bone mass.

    Structurally, bone has basically 2 components. It has a hard, dense outer shell (cortical) and a spongier inside stuffing (cancellous). The bone density devices mostly work on the inside stuffing part (cancellous bone) and not much on the outer shell (cortical)

    Shin splints and stress fractures are a cortical problem (outer shell) and don't respond so well to these devices. Rest/activity modification is still the best way to heal these.

    Sorry..
  • Oh, you gravity parochial, you. If they can survive in low gravity conditions, why would they need to visit Earth? There's plenty of room and sunlight Out There. And gold, platinum, zinc [bbc.co.uk]...
  • Standing will make the tiny hits tap against the end of the bone, which is the same direction as the shock of walking.

    If you sit on the vibrating surface, the vibrations on the thigh bones will hit at 90 degrees of the impact of walking. Maybe that will stimulate your thigh bones to grow to resist the force of sitting, but not of walking. Is that what you want?

  • It doesn't make your bones *bigger*, just increases their mass by making them *denser*. It doesn't make you taller.

  • Ok, I'll ask the obvious. Why would you run for years in boots? Drill sargent? Or just unaware that better footware exists?

    I wasn't a drill sergeant but there was almost always one close at hand :) The lower limb injuries where I served were really bad during the late 80s. After a few official inquiries, we got better footwear but in some cases the damage had been done.

  • The only reason you need to "stand" on it is so that it can effectively translate the vibrations into your bones (they could just as easily created a mat that you laid down on). They just need the pressure your weight asserts on the surface of the system. This can be done with big rubber bands (already used for exercise regimens to simulate gravity pulling on the muscles and bones) or just by strapping the system to your body while you're floating around doing other work. If it doesn't translate through the rest of the body that well in zero-g, just strap it to different areas at different times. This could be a great risk/cost reducing research project for long range missions like the space station and Mars/interplanetary missions.
  • If I recall correctly, bone cells are stimulated into growing by impact. Perhaps the vibrations essentially simulate multiple mini collisions which fool the bones into thinking that they're being pummelled.

    Just a thought.

  • to gerenrate gravity, the way to do this has been understood for decades if not centuries.

    I'm pretty sure it's decades.

    Too bad they didn't build the centrifugal force thing into the space station; if I remember correctly, someone asked this question to an official involved in the project. He said it would be too expensive (makes sense), plus they wanted zero gravity for certain experiments (which makes little sense whatsoever, with a spinning station you could change the gravity at will)
    --
  • OK, now that we seem to have the bone atrophy thing licked, we have to work on the muscle and heart atrophy. Exercise and possibly those electroshock exercise pads they sell in the back of those magazines should help with the muscles, but afaik the deterioration of the heart is still a concern. The astro/cosmo/nauts work out 4 hours daily in space, and thier heart still weakens in long duration space flights
  • I like this story. It's another great example of how biology can be hacked.

    Really, this is like observing and mimicking the communication in a distributed system (read: computer network). Only that biology uses (and a computer scientist would say: abuses) so many forms of communication that discoveries like this are still possible even today. It even has some kind of hacker spirit - why use a hormone to tell the bone to grow, when the vibration that's there anyway will do?

  • As far as fracture management at university and reports go, bone actually grows according to gravity and muscle pull.

    Bone(hydroxyapatite), when compressed, generates a charge. This charge in turn stimulates more bone to grow.

    What happens in space is that there is not as much force and so the osteoclasts(or osteoblasts, i can't remember), resorb more bone than is grown.

    This is why when a bone is broken it is better to use fracture bracing(orthotics, or casts), and keep the person using the bone, so that the bone is stimulated into healing.

    An example of this is the strength difference between internal/external fixation and using fracture bracing.

    A brief look at any medical journal, or more specifically, prosthetics/orthotics journals.

  • I dont know about all this. With vibrating panels and bones and space

    It just seems a bit shaky to me!

    Lord Arathres

  • This is a pretty interesting application of technology to solve one of the problems of long-term space travel, but the trouble is that if you're staying for long terms in orbit then there are a whole host of problems which need to be tackled in order to stay fit and able to function again when you come back down to Earth and its one gee of gravity.

    The trouble with all of this kind of thing is that whilst it may work it's expensive, time-consuming and often just not effective. If we're going to look towards the future of the race out in the stars, we need to take a more fundamental look at the problem.

    The fact is humans aren't designed for space, and we need to change that.

    But thankfully we are now coming to and era when we can change our design, and scientists and biotech companies are aggressively moving foward with our understanding of our genetic code. Soon we will be able to manipulate ourselves in order to maximise our potential rather than wasting it on flawed designs. And what better way of using this technology than to prepare ourselves for our glorious leap to space?

    We should begin thinking about mass programs of genetic alterations to able us to function better in outer space and under low gravity situations. Things like a more efficient oxygenation system or perhaps even extended our visual range could make a vast difference to our hopes of survival, and by doing it to the germ plasm itself we avoid clunky cybernetic solutions that are unnatural and inefficient.

    Whilst I'm sure this idea will be greeted with outrage from people with an emotional attachment to their biological makeup, it makes perfect sense in the long run. And you can bet that if we don't go ahead and do it a culture with less hangups about their physical bodies will do it in order to get ahead. I'd imagine the Chinese would love the idea...

  • Practical applications (Score:3)

    by mav[LAG] ( 31387 ) on Saturday February 10, 2001 @01:23AM (#442295)
    As someone who suffers from more or less permanent shin splints as a result of years of running long distances in boots, this is good news. It would be nice to have something which repairs greenstick fractures, stress fractures and hairline cracks of the shin bone.

    The only downside is the endless paper-TV ads. "How much would expect to pay for this? $500? $1000? Nope - for an incredible $249 the new BoneGro can be yours!"

  • Re:Bones grow according to piezoelectricity (Score:3)

    by Invicta{HOG} ( 38763 ) on Saturday February 10, 2001 @07:00AM (#442296)
    This is true. I've always thought that the piezoelectric theory of bone growth was fascinating. Osteoclasts do indeed resorb bone (they are from the blood-derived monocyte lineage)and many of the current pharmacologic interventions in osteoporosis either inhibit their activity or stimulate the activity of the bone-building osteoblasts.
    One of the main problems with osteoporosis is that, for women, density is lost in the wrong way. Whereas men usually maintain an appropriate matrix which helps protect against common fractures, women lose many of the stabilizing trabecular bone "cross-beams." I had always wondered if this were in part due to differences in weight-bearing exercises. Maybe so, and maybe the piezoelectric effect induced by this vibration will solve part of the problem. The most important thing in this case is not the density of bone, however, but whether the end result (Colles fractures, spinal compression, hip fractures) are reduced. Hopefully there will be some good trials in the future to address this. Hip fractures, because they are usually in the elderly, are a major public health problem. 25% of women with osteoporotic hip fractures die within 6 months. It's just sad to see people who were formerly able to take good care of themselves waste away after a bad fall.
    So, I suppose, until this and other devices/drugs make osteoporosis a thing of the past, a public service announcement is in order. If you are a white/East Asian female 10-25, GET LOTS OF CALCIUM! It really is the time when your bones are packing away the calcium for the rest of your life. Osteoporosis is quite debilitating, even to geeks. Maybe especially to geeks, since they are maybe more likely to get less exercise! Take supplements, drink milk, do whatever. Just know that you will probably thank yourself 30-40 years down the road...

    Invicta{HOG}

  • A bit rude... :) (Score:3)

    by CarrotLord ( 161788 ) <don...richarde@@@gmail...com> on Saturday February 10, 2001 @03:49AM (#442297) Journal
    But I'm sure I know a few women who would have very well-developed pelvic bones due to vibration-induced growth... hmm... I wonder if we could survey the pelvic bone sizes of women who do vs women who don't... hmm...

    rr

  • BoNe Growth?! (Score:3)

    by Living In The Nexus ( 314774 ) on Saturday February 10, 2001 @02:29AM (#442298)
    Interesting. Women standing on vibrating platforms causes them to have bone growth. Hell, I get bone growth just watching women jumping on tramplenes.

    I traded my ambition for a warmer place to sleep.

  • Re:20Hz-50Hz? (Score:4)

    by Temkin ( 112574 ) on Saturday February 10, 2001 @06:25AM (#442299)

    Hmmm... so that means if I strap a subwoofer to my ass my bones will get stronger?

    And it explains why rap fans are so hard headed....

    Temkin

  • Re:This is just going to increase the world's pop. (Score:5)

    by BeanThere ( 28381 ) on Saturday February 10, 2001 @04:19AM (#442300)

    You'd swear those seats were designed to hold munchkins

    Its not just the seats, its everything. You get a tiny meal on a tiny plate which you have to eat with tiny knives and forks. You get drinks in tiny little cups, and Coke from tiny cans.

    I can't help but get the feeling that if one ever gets to take a tour of Boeing's engineering department, you'll find hundreds of really small engineers toiling away to build better planes for people, all seemingly unaware that real people are much bigger.

  • 20Hz-50Hz? (Score:5)

    by bpd1069 ( 57573 ) on Saturday February 10, 2001 @01:36AM (#442301) Homepage
    Hmmm... so that means if I strap a subwoofer to my ass my bones will get stronger?

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