Scientists claim that after decades of focusing solely on the bodies of males, we are only now beginning to fully understand the magnitude of what is happening with women’s bodies during pregnancy and beyond.
Researchers in biology have discovered that a novel hormone preserves bone mass while nursing.
Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco and UC Davis claim that their new research, which involved studying mice, provides an answer to a long-standing mystery of how nursing women’s bones maintain their strength even as they lose calcium to milk.
Professor Holly Ingram claims that the hormone CCN3 causes “huge increases in bone mass” by inhibiting specific oestrogen receptors in the brain.
When CCN3 was used as a patch, it even helped older bones repair more quickly, indicating that the hormone may be able to treat conditions like osteoporosis, which women are more susceptible to after menopause.
“One of the remarkable things about these findings is that we could have completely missed out on this finding if we hadn’t been studying female mice,” Professor Ingram continued.
It emphasizes how crucial it is to examine male and female animals at every stage of development in order to fully comprehend biology.
“Powerful” alterations in women’s brains and the ability of mothers’ blood to repair are being discovered elsewhere in the body.
