Myokine
Also called: myokines
What it means
Myokines are chemical messengers released by working muscle that can signal bone cells, linking muscle activity and bone health through more than just mechanical force.
Since muscle and bone chemically signal each other, keeping muscles active may support the conversation that helps bone stay engaged too.
Myokines are chemical messengers released by your muscles when they work. They let muscle and bone communicate beyond just the physical pull and load of movement. One myokine, irisin, signals bone-building cells to get active. In return, bone sends back osteocalcin, a hormone that helps muscle use energy, showing this is a two-way conversation between tissues.
Not every myokine helps. Myostatin is another one of these signaling molecules, and it suppresses activity in both muscle and bone at the same time. This chemical crosstalk helps explain something doctors have noticed clinically: age-related muscle loss (sarcopenia) and bone loss (osteoporosis) tend to show up together so consistently that researchers now think of them as two sides of the same underlying process.
Understanding myokines helps explain why keeping your muscles active matters for more than just strength. Since muscle and bone are chemically linked, not just mechanically, what happens in one tissue can genuinely influence the other.
How sure is this?
Graded Emerging Evidence: Promising research, but findings are still developing and may be primarily from laboratory or animal studies. Read each study with its grade in mind. One study is a piece of the picture, not the whole of it.
Where the Academy teaches it
This page is the short version. The lessons teach it in full, with the context around it and a quiz to lock it in.
Questions people ask about this
Your doctor's advice to lift weights is genuinely good advice — keep doing it. Resistance training builds muscle, improves balance and coordination, and lowers your risk of falling, which matters enormously since most fractures after 50 start with a fall. The honest nuance is that it's one important piece, not the whole picture, when it comes to directly challenging bone.
Read the full answer →Related words
Irisin is a chemical messenger (myokine) released by working muscles that signals bone-building cells to become active.
Myostatin is a molecule made by muscle that slows down growth in both muscle and bone tissue.
Osteocalcin is a hormone made by bone that helps regulate blood sugar, muscle energy use, and other body functions…
Sarcopenia is the gradual loss of muscle mass and strength that comes with aging, and it's closely tied to bone health.
Osteoporosis is a condition where bone breakdown outpaces bone building, causing bones to become thinner, more…
Education only, not medical advice. Decisions about tests, medications and treatment belong with your own doctor. OsteoStrong does not diagnose, treat or cure any disease.
