Our bones are the foundation of our bodies, protecting vital organs like the brain and heart while providing a solid structure against which muscles can work. They are also responsible for producing most of our red blood cells and play a critical role in the immune system. Bone problems are becoming more prevalent, however, and this has led researchers to investigate potential means of mitigating these problems. Peptides have emerged as one of the forerunners in the fight to preserve bone health with peptides like ipamorelin, transforming-growth factor-beta, bone morphogenic proteins, and others showing a great deal of promise.
Increasing Prevalence of Bone Problems
Despite the common perception of bones as static, and unchanging structures, research has shown them to be exceptionally dynamic. Bone isn’t simply deposited as we grow and then stops, but rather is in a constant state of flux. The balance between bone growth and bone breakdown is necessary to maintain blood calcium levels, allow bones to respond to changes in stressors, promote bone healing following injury, and much more. As it turns out, diseases that affect bone are actually diseases that alter this careful balance and thus treating them is more complex than simply encouraging bones to grow.
Bone deterioration and disease are becoming more and more commonplace for several reasons. First, as the population ages the incidence of bone-related diseases like osteoporosis is increasing as well[1]. Aging is the single greatest risk factor for bone loss, but it isn’t the only contributor to the problem. Other reasons for increased bone disease include vitamin D deficiency, increased prevalence of diseases that impact bone health, increasing use of medications that degrade bone health, nutritional issues, and increasingly sedentary lifestyles.
Of course, bone loss and degradation are not the only problems to confront our skeletal system. Fractures that result from trauma are also a major cause of lost time at work as well as lost quality time. Many fractures take eight to twelve weeks to heal, so anything that can be done to speed up this recovery process would help to drive down both societal and medical costs.