This is a collaborative post: Your bones are an important part of your body – they give you structure, help you to move, and protect your internal organs from damage. This guide will take you through six interesting facts about your bones.
1. Healthy Eating Helps Bones
To stay strong and healthy, your bones require assistance from various vitamins and minerals. These vitamins and minerals can be found in a whole variety of foods, making it easy to give your body what it needs (providing that you follow a healthy and balanced diet).
Calcium, vitamin D and magnesium are all minerals that contribute to bone health. Ensuring that you are getting these vitamins, especially at a young age, will help your bones to stay strong and healthy. While many people have no troubles accessing these nutrients through their diet, supplements like magnesium supplements are available to assist with your intake. These supplements are particularly beneficial for those that require extra bone support.
2. Bone Health Is Important As You Grow Up
Did you know that your skeleton completely rebuilds itself every two years as a child? This is because your cells work at a quicker rate, building bone a whole lot faster than the cells removing tissue. When you become a teen, your bones stop growing, but these cells continue to build bone strength. This is why it is so important to get the nutrients necessary for bone health at such a young age.
3. Bones Lose Strength With Age
From the age of 30 onwards, your bones start to lose their strength. This is because the osteoclast cells in your bones start to remove more bone tissue than they can replace. As a result, your bones become less dense and therefore lose strength.
While the above situation rarely causes any trouble, some people may become more susceptible to bone breakages as a result.
4. Bones Are Dynamic
Just because you can’t see your bones, doesn’t mean they aren’t working hard. As mentioned previously, there are two types of cells within your bones that are constantly ensuring your body is healthy. Osteoclast cells remove older bone tissue, and osteoblast cells replace the old tissue with new tissue. It is this dynamic process that ensures your bones remain strong and healthy.
5. There Are Two Types Of Bones
Your body is made up of two types of bones:
- Cortical bone
- Trabecular bone
Cortical bones are dense and hard – they are the large bones that give your body structure. Trabecular bones, on the other hand, are soft and spongy. They can be found inside your large bones, your pelvis, your ribs, and your skull.
6. Ears Have Bones
Believe it or not, the smallest bones in your body can be found in your ear. These bones go by the names of the malleus (hammer), incus (anvil) and stapes (stirrup). Collectively, they are called the ossicles (which is Latin for ‘tiny bones’). Although small, the ossicles help to transmit sound vibrations from the air to the fluid in your inner ear.
So – did you know all six of these interesting bone facts? While you can’t see your bones, it’s safe to say that they play a huge role in your quality of life!