Healthy bones, healthy man. Just like the Bible says (of course).

Don't say you read it first in Science News or in the journal Cell. For folks who had the Old Testament scriptures. it has been good reading for about 3,000 years !

If you have been reading the Bible much, maybe you have had the same nagging feeling as I that scripture affirms a close relationship between the healthy bones and mental-spiritual-physical health.

Examples (quotations from NIV) are :

Psalm 31:10. "My life is consumed by anguish and my years by groaning; my strength fails because of my affliction, and my bones grow weak."

Psalm 32:3. "When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long."

Proverbs 14:30. "A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones."

Proverbs 15:30. "A cheerful look brings joy to the heart, and good news gives health to the bones."

Proverbs 16:24. "Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones."

Proverbs 17:22. "A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones."

Habakkuk 3:16. "I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept into my bones, and my legs trembled."


Now science continues to affirm the Bible in emphasizing the importance of bones in general health. Science News, August 11, 2007 (Vol. 172, p. 83) has an article "Skeletal Discovery: Bone cells affect metabolism". New research in mice "shows that bone cells exert a surprising influence on how the body regulates sugar, energy, and fat."

A research team led by Gerard Karsenty of Columbia University has identified a reciprocal relationship between (1) fat cells which secrete a hormone that influences bone-forming cells called osteoblasts, and (2) osteoblasts emitting a hormone osteocalcin that controls fat tissue.

SN reports: "'This could have important ramifications for cardiovascular disease because of the effect on the metabolic syndrome,' a condition related to diabetes, comments Dana T. Graves of Boston University. 'The fact that bone cells regulate energy metabolism, and that they do it through osteocalcin, is a major finding,' he says."

So there you have it. While the Bible is not specifically given by God as a book of science, it is always accurate when it touches on things observable in our physical world. The Bible is a good place to begin for every endeavor, whether it be biomedical research or seeking a happy destiny of the soul. Those who ignore God's Word do so at their own peril.

Respectfully submitted,

D.U.