Hibernators
have some helpful
tips for keeping
humans healthy
By Tina Hesman Saey
On February 2, groundhog weatherman Punxsutawney Phil roused from hibernation to predict six more weeks of
winter. Scientists may snicker at people who think they can learn about the
arrival of spring from a furry rodent,
but researchers aren’t laughing when
it comes to learning about human
health from animals that check out for
the winter.
Yet sometimes humans do have to
deal with more moderate versions
of hibernators’ challenging circumstances— following periods of weight
gain, immobilization or blood loss, for
example. So, many scientists think some
tricks of the hibernation trade might be
a boon to human medicine.
Trying to find ways to treat human diseases with the help of animals is nothing
new. Researchers often attempt to solve
medical riddles by first creating versions
of disorders, such as muscular dystrophy
or stroke, in mice or other lab animals
and then figuring out what goes wrong.
But even when researchers know what’s
broken, a fix is not always obvious. Hibernators, though, have already found ways
to cope with body and lifestyle changes
that would lead to disease in humans.
In one effort to tap into hibernators’
solutions, Ole Fröbert, a cardiologist at
Örebro University Hospital in Sweden,
and his colleagues are investigating the
body transformations that Scandinavian
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