A thrilling high when you’re faced with danger, a boost of energy when you’re going for an intense run – we tend to associate these rushes with adrenaline, a hormone synonymous with our fight-or-flight response. But it turns out adrenaline might not be what activates our brains’ stress reaction after all.
In fact, our bones might be doing more work than we originally thought. A new study, published today in Cell Metabolism, finds that adrenaline is just one component of our response to stress. Of perhaps greater importance in life-or-death situations is a hormone called osteocalcin, which is secreted by our bones.
You may have heard that bones exist to hold up and support our bodies. But to Gerard Karsenty, a researcher at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and an author of the study, we’re looking at them the wrong way.
The rigid belief that bones only provide structural support ...
