Article on Homeostasis

The article on homeostasis talks about a cause of osteoporosis in which the body harms itself. Calcium used to be absorbed from seawater, however evolution led to land mammals, who needed a new way of getting calcium. 99 percent of the calcium in your body resides in your skeleton. A process called calcium homeostasis draws calcium from the bones, however this can lead to osteoporosis, which is the loss of bone density.

Calcium homeostasis is necessary for maintaining blood levels, blood clotting, and muscle contraction. Parathyroid hormone (PTH), monitors the calcium level and when the level drops, it produces osteoclasts. Osteoclasts dissolve bones and retrieve calcium for the body. Vitamin D helps the small intestine absorb food. During a vitamin D shortage, calcium is not absorbed as efficiently, causing PTH to produce more osteoclast. Which helps lead to osteoporosis. The author of this author suggests you injest 1-1500 mg of calcium per day to prevent this.

My reaction to this article is that i think more people shold be taught that you need vitamin d in order to prevent your body from dissolving your bones. I think more people would drink, or injest vitamin d in some way if they knew of this risk. There are millions of dollars spent on advertising drinking milk, why not just spend money advertising drinking orange juice? it would help prevent osteoporis. I dont think many people are aware of the dangers of osteoporosis.