Total Health Breakthroughs: Free Natural Health Newsletter and Alternative Health Articles

Bones have gotten a bad rap.

Admit it. Your only associations with bone health are negative. Fractures. Osteoporosis. Maybe cancer. And that’s probably about it.

The mainstream media is full of stories about good heart health, good brain health, even good skin health. But nobody ever talks about “good bone health.”

Even metaphorically, we never talk about bones for anything good. Think about it:

“I’ve got a bone to pick with you.”

“I’m working my fingers to the bone.”

“It hit me a bit too close to the bone.”

Bones always mean bad news. Skeletons are scary, whether on X-rays, at the front door on Halloween, or in our closets. We associate them with graveyards, physical (and moral) decay, and death.

And yet, no body part is more alive, or more essential to life. Without bones, you would die within minutes — make no bones about it.

In this article, the first in a series, I will tell you why I have a soft spot for bones. First, I’ll tell you about all the things that bones actually do in the body. Then I’ll tell you about the single greatest threat to bone health. Finally, in the next issue, I’ll give you the latest breaking news about what you should (and should not) be doing to keep your bones healthy and strong.

Here’s hoping it’s the only breaking bone news you ever get.

Boning Up on Bones

Pop quiz: there are six major functions of bone. How many can you name? (Without cheating.)

Bet you can’t get all six.

Ready?

Go.

Okay, pencils down.

Here are the answers:

1. Protection. Your skull protects your brain. Your vertebral column protects your spinal cord. Your rib cage protects your lungs and your heart. Your pelvis protects several organs. And all of your bones protect the soft marrow within.

2. Support. Your bones physically support the weight of your body. They also support your muscles, your organs, and even your teeth.

3. Movement. Muscle alone cannot create movement. Your bones give your muscles leverage. Without bones, you couldn’t even breathe — your ribs allow your chest to expand and contract. No ribs, no breathing. (That’s why I said without bones, you’d die within minutes.)

4. Blood Formation. Most blood cells are made in your bone marrow. That includes not only the red blood cells that carry oxygen, but also most circulating cells in the immune system.

5. Acid-Base Balance. Your bones release acidic and alkaline mineral salts as necessary to maintain the pH balance in your blood. The optimal range for human blood pH is very narrow — just 0.1 on a 14-point scale — and so your bones have to work constantly to make sure that your blood stays in this range.

6. Electrolyte Balance. Your bones serve as your body’s main mineral storage in the same way that fat is your body’s main energy storage. When your body is hard up for minerals, it turns to your bones to get its fix.

How many did you get?

The first three were easy. The last three were tougher. I would guess that very few of you got all six.

And yet, all six functions are vital for life. Now do you see what I mean about bones being underappreciated?

Simple Economics

Most people think of bones as static, unchanging. If they’re all that’s left over after death, it stands to reason that they don’t change that much during life, either. Right?

Wrong. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.

When you think of bones, think of a busy catalog warehouse. The building stays in the same place. The warehouse is almost always full, and the catalog usually stocks the same items. But the turnover rate is very high.

As items leave the warehouse, more are ordered. Replacements come in to take their place on the shelves. They wait there until another order comes in. Then the cycle repeats itself.

That’s basically how bones work. The items in question are minerals like calcium and phosphate, and your bones are the body’s main mineral warehouse.

In a healthy body, business is good. In fact, up to 10% of your bones may be turning over at any point in time. As long as you take in enough calcium and phosphate to keep up with your body’s “orders,” your bones stay in business. It’s a simple matter of supply and demand.

The difference between your bones and a real business is what happens in case of a mismatch between supply and demand. Real businesses go under when demand is low. When demand exceeds supply, on the other hand, prices go up and the business thrives.

Your bones do just the opposite. No matter how low demand gets, they never go out of business. But when supply can’t keep up with demand — well, that’s when the real problems start.

The Single Biggest Threat to Bone Health

By now you may have guessed that the problem I’m referring to is osteoporosis, which develops whenever there is an imbalance between the rates of bone resorption and formation — in other words, whenever demand exceeds supply.

If you aren’t getting enough calcium, your body raids your bones to get what it needs, leaving them weak and brittle.

That means that when it comes to bone, it’s not an either-or. You use it and lose it.

Without question, osteoporosis is the single biggest threat to bone health. But it’s much more than that. It’s also one of the biggest public health threats in the U.S. today.

According to the National Osteoporosis Foundation (NOF), some 44 million Americans are at risk. That’s more than half of the country’s 50-and-over population. Ten million Americans already have the disease. (Of those, 80% are women.) It’s a big problem, and getting bigger all the time.

And yet, for a problem affecting this many people, it often flies under the radar. Osteoporosis is a silent disease. There are no symptoms aside from the dramatically increased risk of fracture.

That risk, however, is extremely serious. In 2005 alone, the NOF estimated that osteoporosis-related fractures accounted for $19 billion in healthcare costs.

The most common sites for such fractures are the hips, wrists, and spine. Breaking these bones severely impacts mobility at any age, but it is especially problematic for the elderly — who, keep in mind, are disproportionately affected by osteoporosis. The older you are, the longer your bones take to heal from a fracture.

Recovering from a major hip fracture, for example, can take several months, during which time older individuals often cannot live alone. For many, a hip fracture marks the beginning of a steady slide into dependence and poor health. As many as 20% of hip fracture patients do not survive a year.¹

That frightening statistic makes prevention even more important. So how do you prevent osteoporosis?

That’s a great question — one that I will answer on Tuesday. Stay tuned for more about the right and wrong ways to prevent osteoporosis. (It turns out that some of the most common “cures” are even worse than the disease itself!) After all that your bones have done for you, reading Tuesday’s issue would be a great way to start showing your appreciation.

To Your Health,

Michael Noltemeyer
Managing Editor
Total Health Breakthroughs

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