Bone Loss and prolonged space travel

Bone loss in space is serious buisness. I'm not sure why I am so drawn to it, the idea that weightlessness causes your bones to deteriorate. At first I thought maybe it was sort of like muscles, where if you don't use them they shrink. but if bones were like muscles, would it be possible to rebuild them? In going about this comic thing, I want to avoid solving real problems with something like "oh we don't need to worry about bone loss in space, we have a magic machine/pill/gravity that takes care of that for us!" no no. Well, even if I do something like that, I want to at least havee some basis in fact. But I digress.

Like I was saying, bone loss in space is a lot more complicated than I previously thought. For some reason, in space the cells that bulid bones don't work as much, while the cells that destroy bones still function, resulting in bone loss. In addition, Radiation may cause bone loss(check out this one) The cool thing is that if scientists can figure out how to promote bone growth or reverse the effects, such technology could be used to help people with osteoperosis or other bone problems. Perhaps perhaps. Once the bone is lost, it is difficult to regain it.

See more:
Why Astronauts Suffer Bone Loss
Space Bones
Lost in Space: Bone Mass

So while there are about a million things that make space travel difficult, bone loss is probably one of the less glamorous. Still, it is a serious problem that can make life back on gravity unpleasant. At least no astronauts have come back with space parasites just yet, at least not to my knowledge(though I might have to explore this in better detail. perhaps next time?) No bueno.