Federal University of São Paulo Division of Endocrinology and MetabolismUNIFESP, Division of Endocrinology and MetabolismSciEL

Kater, Claudio Elias

Arquivos Brasileiros de Endocrinologia & Metabologia

Repositório Institucional UNIFESP

576 Arq Bras Endocrinol Metab vol 50 nº 4 Agosto 2006UNFORTUNATELY, IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS in one language may nothave a precise counterpart in another language. In Portuguese (thelanguage spoken in Brazil, for those who may not know it) there are se-veral commonly used expressions that include “the bone” to strengthen itsmeaning. For instance, “osso duro de roer” (“a hard bone to nibble”) and“estou no osso” (“I’m busted” or “got to the bones”), both free author’stranslation, may not have an apparent direct translation into English, butare quite easy to understand.In English, “bone idle” (“bastante preguiçoso” or “ocioso”), “a bo-ne of contention” (“um motivo de disputa entre pessoas ou partidos”),which is similar to “the apple of discord” (“o pomo da discórdia”), and“bone up on something” (“estudar com profundidade alguma coisa”)relies on the hardness of the bone to put emphasis on the expression.Now, if we move to a third language, as in the case of the French,“le os” – the bone - may also have equivalent meanings as in English andPortuguese. But “c’est si bon” (“it’s so good” or “isto é tão bom”), assung by many good old French, American-English and Brazilian singers(let me remind you of just a few ones: Yves Montand, Mireille Mathieu,Charles Trenet, Louis Armstrong, Eartha Kitt, Cauby Peixoto, etc) there’snothing to do with what we are talking about. But, this does not stop me to do a little play on words. In French-Anglais, naturally.With a little twist, “C’est si bone” may be freely understood hereboth as “it’s so hard” and “that’s the bone”. For decades, the skeleton was thought to serve only the purpose ofbody-bearing, and as a by-product, to frighten distracted young kids onFridays, the 13th.Bones used to be a stiff calcified and inert material used, at best, tocalm down your dog or to be launched in the space by Stanley Kubrick’s2001 monkey-men.If one is interested in food and cooking, as I am, one must recallthat the bone and “its circumstances” are integral part of any respectabledinner’s “menu”, as the chicken bones soup, the “ossobucco”, and thefamous T-bone steak (although the bone here functions mainly as a fancyframing for the meat).My brother and I used to dispute and choose the “better” or “big-ger” half of our after meal ice cream dessert by using the chicken’s remain-ing wishbone.For a long time none besides the orthopedics were interested inbones, especially if they were broken. Not long ago, so-called “weakbones” (what was a weak bone at that time anyway?) were treated simplywith calcium supplements. And every mother’s hidden desire was to bearchildren with “strong bones”. Even nowadays, “big bones” are also a motiffor excuses. Many of the obese patients I’ve seen, defend their rather heavyeditorial C’est si BoneClaudio E. KaterAssociate Professor of Medicine,Division of Endocrinology andMetabolism, Federal University ofSão Paulo, SP. Editor-in-chief, Brazilian Archivesof Endocrinology and MetabolismC’est si BoneKater577Arq Bras Endocrinol Metab vol 50 nº 4 Agosto 2006phenotypes by saying they have “large bones”! They’dbetter watch out on fatty foods, too. On the otherhand, many of the famous models seen swayingaround in magazines and TV shows are just “skin andbones” people! “Sorry the skinny, but a little chubbyin the belly is fundamental”, used to sing the poet(Vinicius de Morais, the famous brazilian writer whowrote “Girl of Ipanema”, together with Tom Jobim).All of a sudden, however, the bones have grownup and come to age; bones are now everywhere. Fromthe orthopedists it moved around to the rheumatolo-gist, the gynecologist and the endocrinologist. Eventhe dermatologist may soon join the club, who knows? Our good old guest editors hang the bone totheir names and contacts: Francisco Bandeira, insteadof Francis Flag, is now nicknamed “fbone”, as per hise.mail address, whereas Joao Lindolfo signs up occa-sionally and modestly as “Johnny, the Bonny”. Andlast but not the least, our dear John Bilezikian rulesthe realm unquestionably as BoneBoss!Moving to the scientific scenario, one of theendocrinology and metabolism’s subspecialty areasthat experienced a sharp and vivid advancement with-in the last 2 or 3 decades was the calcium and bonemetabolism. With the development of accurate andprecise equipment to measure bone mineral content(densitometers), for the first time the bone could becorrectly evaluated and the actual “bone strength”measured in a serious and truly dependable fashion.With numbers and values one could now relyon, endocrinology and metabolism branched out toencompass yet a new or rather revitalized subspecialty,calcium and bone metabolism.All sorts of investigations followed and new andinstigating data began to flood the medical literature.A natural follow up was the investigations intothe therapeutics and genetics of the diseases associatedwith bone abnormalities. From regular calcium sup-plements, daily walking and sunlight exposure, whichstill are obligatory and robust recommendations forthose with or prone to osteopenia and osteoporosis,the endocrinologist and all those involved with thetopic, are offered frequent new medications that notonly prevent the progression of osteopenia to osteo-porosis but also stimulate the formation of new bone,recovering patients from the fracture-risk status.The relatively new class of therapeutic drugs, bis-phosphonates, which is still growing to incorporate morepotent once a month (from once a day) medications, andthe recombinant human parathyroid hormone, haveprovided relief for once hopeless situations as meno-pause, hypogonadism, and chronic glucocorticoid users. The present special edition of the BrazilianArchives of E&M (our ABE&M) contemplates a widevariety of topics in the area, bringing together nationaland international experts that produced a fresh and cri-tical issue for all those interested in bone and calciummetabolism, as well as for the general endocrinologistand clinical practitioner who will certainly benefit fromthe information provided herein, assembled by oursuperb guest editors, “The 3Bs” (B for Bone, of course),Bandeira, Borges and Bilezikian. On behalf of the Edi-torial Committee of the Brazilian Archives of E&M andthe Brazilian Society of E&M we salute you for yourefforts and thank you for you time and dedication.  PRÊMIOS ABE&M - 2005(a little bit of Portuguese)Em nome do Conselho Editorial dos ABE&M, é comgrande satisfação que anuncio e cumprimento osvencedores dos Prêmios ABE&M de 2005:Prêmio Prof. Waldemar Berardinelli - Área Clínica“Síndrome de Insensibilidade aos Andrógenos: AnáliseClínica, Hormonal e Molecular de 33 Casos”, de auto-ria de:  Karla F.S. Melo, Berenice B. de Mendonça,Ana Elisa C. Billerbeck, Elaine M.F. Costa, Ana Clau-dia Latronico & Ivo J.P. Arnhold (publicado em: ArqBras Endocrinol Metab 2005;49/1:87-97)Prêmio Prof. Thales Martins - Área Básica:“Efeito Fundador da Mutação E180splice no Gene doReceptor de Hormônio de Crescimento Identificadaem Pacientes Brasileiros Com Insensibilidade ao GH”,de autoria de: Alexander A. de Lima Jorge,  HamiltonC. de Menezes Filho, Theresa S. Soares Lins, DulceRondini Guedes, Durval Damiani, Nuvarte Setian, IvoJ. Prado Arnhold e Berenice B. de Mendonça (publi-cado em: Arq Bras Endocrinol Metab 2005;49/3:384-389).Os prêmios, que incluem diploma e certifica-do, além de um cheque no valor de R$ 3.000,00,serão entregues no dia 06 de Setembro de 2006, nasolenidade de abertura do 27º. Congresso Bra-sileiro de Endocrinologia e Metabologia, em Recife,PE.Somos gratos aos membros que compuseram aComissão Julgadora, Drs. Ana Luiza Maia, Gil GuerraJr, Julio Abucham, Margaret de Castro, Maria AliceBordallo e Ubiratan F. Machado, e aos co-editores,Drs. Ana Claudia Latronico, André F. Reis e Edna T.Kimura, pelo tempo, dedicação e profissionalismoempenhados na escolha dos vencedores.   

C'est si bone

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C'est si bone

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