11 Surprises About Your Bones

You probably already know that:

Your bones act as the framework for the rest of your body. They support your muscles and protect your organs. Without your bones, you'd be a formless blob. Bones contain minerals like calcium, and drinking calcium rich milk and eating calcium rich foods are vital for good bone formation.

Here are some things you probably don't know about your bones:

1. The bones you had 5 years ago are not the bones you have today. Your bones are constantly being broken down and rebuilt. This is called remodeling and is how your body keeps them healthy. Without remodeling, bones become fragile because damaged bone doesn't have the opportunity to be replaced by healthy new bone.

2. Osteoporosis is not a natural part of aging. There are many things you can do to prevent osteoporosis, and the sooner you begin protecting your bones, the less chance you'll have to deal with osteoporosis later in life. Watch your diet, get plenty of vitamin D via sunshine, and daily exercise.

3. The body is very frugal. If you don't use it, you'll lose it. This is why, all other factors being equal, weight bearing exercise is the single most important part of maintaining bone health.

4. Once you lose bone density, you can rebuild it. The best way to do this is to be sure you're getting enough of the proper minerals required for building bone, as well as vitamin D and exercise.

5. There are glands that are responsible for bone remodeling. They're called Parathyroid glands. The lie against your thyroid gland in your neck and release a special hormone called parathyroid hormone that controls the amount of calcium that is removed from your bones into your blood stream.

6. By the year 2020 it is estimated that without treatment, half of the population aged 50 yrs or older will suffer from Osteoporosis.

7. Boron used to be considered a non-essential mineral, but research is linking it with the ability to slow the breakdown of bone. Boron plays an important roll in the metabolism of magnesium and calcium and is essential for the body to convert and utilize vitamin D. Because we didn't know this before, there are no established recommended amounts of boron for the diet. Boron is easy to get in fruits vegetables and nuts, and a serious overdose of boron can be fatal.

8. Magnesium is the most abundant mineral in the body, and over 50% of it is stored in the bones. Magnesium is equally important to the body for bone formation and maintenance, and over 300 chemical reactions in the body depend on it. Magnesium deficiency is very common.

9. Paget's disease occurs when the body begins to lay down more bone than it is able to remove. The bone is weak and this condition can be very painful.

10. There are 14 bones in your face alone!

11. A fun mneumonic for the bones of the spine is to remember the times that you eat throughout the day: 7, 12 and 5. There are 7 cervical vertebrae, 12 thoracic and 5 lumbar vertebrae.

Do you know any other fast bony facts to share?