Bone Bits
Binding together the clever and quirky
Reading the Old Bones
Forensic anthropology and paleopathology were featured on that popular TV show “Bones”. They made ‘bone readings’ a common practice, at least across the crime who-dun-it procedurals.
But reading tossed skeletal bones is a divination technique belonging to many cultures, a very old practice. [The official terms for divination by casting bones are osteomancy and ossomancy. ] HooDoo Bone system [https://soulmindbody.net/esu/RlkOF] arose in Africa and came along with its migrants to other continents.
The skeleton is your base set. Each type of bone has its own meaning, and this varies by tradition. However, generally, head bones belong to Orunmila, and the head is the container of the Ori. So depending on the context, skulls or parts of skulls could refer to the Supreme God or to the state of the person’s soul. Vertebrae belong to Eshu. Just as the spine carries messages from the nerves to the brain and back, Eshu is the gatekeeper between the physical and spirit realms. Humeri belong to Yemaya. Phalanges and claws belong to Ogun. Teeth represent specifically divine movement through a particular Orisha. Canine teeth and upper beaks represent war or conflict. Pelvic bones belong to Oshun and/or Yemaya. The baculum belongs of course to Shango. Horn tips belong to Oya.
It takes some time to learn the symbolism of the Vodun or African mysticism, but once you get it, you’ve got it.
New Learnings from Research Readings
Anatomy taught in med school was thought to be a stable body of knowledge; generations of doctors-in-training all went through the same detailed dissections of a cadaver. So… not much changes over time, right?
Apparently that is wrong. In past newsletters I wrote about the discovery of the brain’s lymphatic system - glymphatics. Now we have news of a previously unknown vascular system in … bones.
Dr. Anika Grüneboom, discovered a network of very fine blood vessels that traverse perpendicularly across the entire length of the compact bone, bone cortex, connecting bone marrow directly into the blood supply of the periosteum. Both arterial and venous blood flow through this newly discovered system of vessels supplying bones with oxygen and nutrients. In addition, immune cells in bone marrow reach the bloodstream via the vessels.
And those newly uncovered blood vessels may be why it is best to exercise when you break a bone. Yep. Do not rest. Get outta that bed. Head to the gym. A study looking at 166 tibia fractures discovered that early weight-bearing exercise brought about a more rapid mending.
The reason exercise has this effect can be easily explained. When we break a bone, oxygen and blood flow are both extremely important for helping the fracture heal. So when we exercise, our blood vessels enlarge, allowing more oxygen, nutrients and growth factors to flow to the fracture site. Exercise also triggers the release of an energy molecule called adenosine triphospate (ATP). Studies with bone cells in a petri dish show that mechanical stimulation (similar to what would happen during exercise) triggers the release of ATP —and this encourages the formation of new bone, a vital step to bone healing. … Studies show that osteocytes—a type of bone cell—are activated by the muscle contractions that happens during weight bearing exercise. This then causes the osteocytes to instruct other bone cells to create new and stronger bone tissue allowing them to patch the edges of the broken bone.
And what are these crucial nutrients that the vessels bring to the bone break? The divalent cations: magnesium, copper and zinc.
Yes, these divalent metal cations can stimulate the skeleton ‘interoception’ circuit. Interoception refers to the representation of the internal world, and includes the processes by which an organism senses, interprets, integrates, and regulates signals from within itself. [see previous newsletter “Vagaries of the Vagus” ] The brain communicates with internal organs via the peripheral nervous system and non-neuronal systems. CNS senses bone density through prostaglandin E2 as an ascending interoceptive signal and regulates bone formation through sympathetic nerves as the descending
interoceptive pathway. These cations regulate bone formation by promoting prostaglandin E2 secretion from macrophages. Sprouting nerve fibers then sense the inflammatory cues and convey signals back to the central nervous system. Hypothalamus then tamps down on the sympathetic tone [vasorelaxation?] enhancing the new bone formation. Magnesium may also have a role in promoting CGRP-mediated osteogenic differentiation of stem cells.
“I can’t feel a thing; All mournful petal storms are dancing inside the very private spring of my head.”
— Franz Kafka
So Dear Reader, whether with old bones or renewed, keep on dancing and divining that future…
REFERENCES
https://medium.com/forensic-anthropology/what-can-be-read-in-bone-remains-a81fb7562fde
https://soulmindbody.net/esu/2011/03/reading-bones/
Anika Grüneboom et al, A network of trans-cortical capillaries as mainstay for blood circulation in long bones, Nature Metabolism (2018). DOI: 10.1038/s42255-018-0016-5
Exercise could help broken bones heal faster (2022, January 28) https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-01-broken-bones-faster.html
Wei Qiao et al, Divalent metal cations stimulate skeleton interoception for new bone formation in mouse injury models, Nature Communications (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-28203-0
Yifeng Zhang et al, Implant-derived magnesium induces local neuronal production of CGRP to improve bone-fracture healing in rats, Nature Medicine (2016). DOI: 10.1038/nm.4162