Which bone is the most fragile? “I have a wide bone”: what scientists say about the density and weight of bones

VIVA CALCIUM, or how to avoid the fate of Semyon Semenych

“Slipped. Fell. Lost consciousness. Woke up - a cast,” - so simply, in one phrase, Semyon Semenovich Gorbunkov, the hero of the popularly beloved film, explained to those around him his broken arm. Remembering all the adventures of the hero that followed the unfortunate turning point, one involuntarily wants to smile and joke. However, when this happens in real life, we have no time for jokes. We begin to look for an answer to the question: “Why did this happen to me?”

So why do some people have very strong bones, while others are fragile? Why are boxers, for example, able to withstand the strongest blows, while others break their arms and legs simply by falling out of bed at night?

The main reason is the amount of calcium in the body: the lower the calcium level, the more bones are susceptible to destruction. Per condition bone tissue factors such as a person’s lifestyle and nutrition also influence. To maintain healthy bone tissue, a complex of 20 different microelements is required. And with a chronic lack of these substances, osteoporosis develops.

Osteoporosis- an age-related disease, as a result of which the bones lose calcium, the skeleton becomes thinner, and the likelihood of fractures increases.

Calcium loss occurs within long period, unnoticed, without external manifestations. In most cases, the disease is detected after the fracture has occurred.

The process of restoration and renewal of bones is ongoing - both day and night. Bone mass in adults reaches its peak at age 30, after which it begins to decline, and bone mass becomes lighter and lighter with age.

Research shows that by age 50, many of us are in real danger of losing up to 25% of our bone mass due to osteoporosis.

Every seven to ten years, the skeleton of an adult is completely renewed. This means that if you are now thirty, your skeletal system has changed for the third or even fourth time. The question naturally arises: if our bones are renewed and replaced, then why don’t new teeth grow to replace the pulled out teeth?

Do not be misled by the statement that the human skeleton is renewed every 10 years. "New" does not mean "equal". The density of bone tissue decreases every year, the new structure gradually weakens, the bones become lighter and more fragile. Compare this process with age-related changes your skin, and you will understand what is really happening to your skeletal system!

WHO IS IN THE RISK GROUP?

Anyone can develop osteoporosis, but it happens more often in women than in men because women have much less developed bone mass. With age, due to hormonal changes, the amount of calcium in the body decreases significantly. Today every third elderly woman suffers from brittle bones.

But in Lately Osteoporosis, a disease characteristic of old age, has become significantly “younger” and is now often found in young people. Research shows that every fifth girl consumes much less calcium in food than needed.

How to prevent the development of osteoporosis?

The main culprits of the disease are a diet poor in milk proteins, abuse of coffee and carbonated drinks, and lack of calcium. Millions of people consume great amount calorie-free food, the calcium content in which is reduced or completely reduced to zero. Coffee, carbonated drinks, alcohol, smoking, red meat and salt are real calcium stealers and increase the risk of early osteoporosis. Therefore, after 35 years, you should reduce your coffee consumption to 2 cups a day, and do 20-minute exercises daily. physical exercise and include calcium in your diet.

Calcium can be easily obtained from food... Ideally, yes, but, unfortunately, coffee and alcohol destroy calcium reserves, and foods with excessive fat and fiber slow down the process of its absorption by the body. Fasting, strict diets and irregular eating habits also lead to loss of this vital mineral. Only 20-30% of calcium obtained from food is absorbed by the body, the rest is excreted through the process of natural self-purification. But vitamin D can significantly increase the body's absorption of calcium.

Calciferol- the second name for vitamin D. Its main function is the regulation of calcium metabolism in the body. With the assistance of vitamin D, calcium is absorbed in the intestines, absorbed and forms the skeleton. The same vitamin promotes the release of calcium from bones when there is a lack of it in the blood. Taking vitamin D in combination with calcium slows down the development of osteoporosis. Vitamin D is produced in the body under the influence of sun rays. For those who rarely go outside, as well as those living in regions with unfavorable natural conditions, you should remember the need to replenish your body's supply of vitamin D.

A person's need for calcium remains throughout his life. Every day an adult should consume at least 800 mg of calcium (this approximately corresponds to its content in 1.2 liters of milk). Women, according to nutritionists, need one and a half times more of this mineral to ensure that their bones are always strong. A woman's need for calcium especially increases during pregnancy and while breastfeeding.

Calcium in nature

Calcium is a natural microelement found in abundance in the bowels of the earth and living organisms. In nature, calcium is always found in various natural compounds. One of these most commonly found compounds is calcium carbonate, or chalk. It can be used in food.

Calcium in the body

A person cannot do without calcium. 99% of all calcium in the body is found in the bones and only 1% in the blood. However, the importance of this percentage is difficult to overestimate. It affects the rhythm of the heart, muscle contraction, and information transmission nervous system, regulates blood clotting. Circulatory system cannot do without calcium, so as soon as the body begins to lack calcium, it borrows it from the bones. If such borrowing occurs constantly, it leads to the development of osteoporosis - bone tissue becomes thinner and becomes dangerously fragile.

Sources of microelements important for bone health:

Calcium- cheese, sardines, salmon, broccoli, tofu, legumes and sesame seeds, green vegetables.

Magnesium- dates, lemon, grapefruit, sprouted wheat grains, nuts, seeds.

Vitamin D- herring, mackerel, salmon, sardines, tuna.

Zinc- crabs, lean meat, sesame and pumpkin seeds, nuts, brewer's yeast, sardines, barley, oatmeal.

Vitamin C- guava, Brussels sprouts, pepper, kiwi, papaya, mango, broccoli, strawberries.

Bor- green leafy vegetables, fruits.

Vitamin K - cauliflower(raw), kale, peas, tomato, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, beans, yogurt.

Experts advise...

The best way strengthening bones - regular exercise with weight lifting, running. No less effective means is a daily 30-minute walk at a brisk pace.

Sun: sunlight promotes the body's production of vitamin D, necessary for the absorption of calcium.

Food: Eat more vegetables, fruits, salads and reduce your intake of animal proteins. This will allow you to maintain normal level acidity in the stomach. It is advisable to replace meat with fish.

Beverages: Typically, carbonated drinks contain significant amounts of phosphate, which helps leach calcium from bones. Since carbonated drinks negatively affect the process of bone formation, children should limit their consumption.

Basic acids: Omega-3 fatty acid in fish, sunflower and safflower oils promote the absorption of calcium.

Limiting sugar, cigarettes, alcohol: sugar, nicotine, and alcohol cause an imbalance of estrogen/progesterone in the body, which, in turn, negatively affects the process of bone renewal.

“Take care of your hand, Senya,” Gesha Kozodoev said instructively to Semyon Semenovich. And he was right, but it’s too late. Take care of your bone tissue now to avoid anecdotal but unpleasant situations in the future. They can actually be easily avoided. You just need to take care of your body and balanced diet. How to do this - you now know.

The question of how horses sleep arises from the fact that the animal can very often be found standing with its eyes closed and its hind leg tucked. People who have had only a little contact with horses often jump to the premature conclusion that these elegant animals sleep in a standing, upright position. The animal does not react to anything, except that the tail and ears sometimes twitch. Therefore, it seems that this is his typical form of sleep. This is true, but not entirely. Technically speaking, horses sleep standing up, but this state is rather half asleep.
Thanks to the special structure knee joints(if necessary, they can be blocked, fixing ligaments and bones), the animal can evenly distribute the body weight between the four legs, almost without feeling its heaviness when the muscles relax. In this state, with a slightly arched lower back, lowered head, tail tip and slightly drooping lower lip, the animals doze. But it’s difficult to call it deep sleep, because how a horse usually sleeps can vary.
Let's figure out why horses sleep standing up. The reason for such vertical napping is the need to maintain safety. The animal does not see protection in enclosures and other protective measures taken by humans. Instinct tells him that at the first danger he must quickly take off and run, hiding, for example, from predators. And they are in the real world, in wildlife, can appear at any time. And the animal can emerge from such a slumber almost instantly. If the horse had slept horizontally, it would have taken some time to get up and wake up completely, and these seconds could have been fatal. This is why it is more profitable for horses to sleep standing up most of the time.
But this does not mean that sleeping on your side is not necessary. On the contrary, only he is complete for this creature, while a standing horse is more likely to simply rest and restore its strength. The best option make sure you are safe and lie down. It is believed that otherwise the phases deep sleep cannot be achieved, which means that if the animal does not lie down, then it simply risks not getting enough sleep. It is difficult to escape from a predator when you are sleepy. Therefore, horses sleep lying down only if they are confident in their safety, and it is quite difficult to be sure of this, especially if there is no herd of relatives around who can warn of danger if it arises.
Let's look at how long horses sleep. The duration of their sleep is very different from that of humans. From four to fifteen hours of sleep occurs in a standing position. Lying down, horses can rest from several minutes to a couple of hours, and real restoration of strength occurs mainly in a lying position, which is why it is a priority. It is interesting that these animals have a sensitive slumber, even if the horse dozes while standing for fifteen hours in a row, this period is still broken up into small fragments of doze of several minutes each. Therefore, when horses doze while standing, it is extremely easy for them to wake up; they can quickly react to any changed situation.

Incredible facts

Muscles and bones provide structure to our body and allow us to jump, run, or simply lie on the couch.

We have 17 muscles to smile and 43 to to frown. Therefore, this is an extremely broad and varied topic, but only the most interesting can be mentioned.

Facts about bones

Number of bones

In newborns 300 bones, and in an adult it becomes 206. The reason for many bones in babies is the division of large bones into smaller ones, which grow together with age (for example, the bones of the skull). Nature created this for newborns who need "elasticity" to be born.

Besides:

• The skeleton contains 34 unpaired bones.
• The skull bones consist of 23 units.
• Spinal column consists of 26 bones.
• The ribs and sternum are made up of 25 bones.
• Skeleton upper limbs consists of 64 bones.
• Skeleton lower limbs consists of 62 bones.

Change in human height

We are higher in the morning than in the evening approximately by 1 cm.

The cartilage between our bones is in a relaxed position at the start of the day. However, during the working day we sit, walk or do other activities, which causes the cartilage to shrink at the end of the day.

For example, in astronauts the change in height is even more interesting. During prolonged exposure to weightlessness, their growth increases by 5-8 cm.

The danger with this change in height is that it reduces the strength of the spine. Growth gradually returns to its previous parameters when the astronauts return to Earth.

After a person dies, his height increases by approximately by 5 cm compared to his height during life.

Facts about teeth

The tooth is the only part human body, which does not recover on its own. If you have ever lost a tooth, you probably know how unpleasant it is. Once the outer shell (enamel) is damaged, you will have a quick trip to the dentist.

Interesting Facts:

• Tooth enamel is the most hard fabric, which can be produced by the body.
• Even considering that calcium is necessary, including for bone tissue, 99% calcium is found in teeth.
• Some studies prove that 2,500 years ago, the Mayan people (men) decorated their teeth with precious and semi-precious metals and stones. By this they showed the strength of their individual.

Bone Strength

Human bone is stronger some types of steel and 5 times stronger reinforced concrete. However, this does not mean that your bones cannot break.

Bones also have a very high resistance to compression and fracture.

In older people, the amount of minerals in the bones decreases, causing the bones to become brittle (osteoporosis).

Muscle Facts

Facts about language

Strongest muscle in human body- language. This means that the tongue is the strongest muscle in relation to its size.

Considering daily food intake and colloquial speech it can be argued that the language is becoming stronger every day.

Since the tongue has extreme mobility (about 80 movements), it can soak and chew food, clean teeth with solid food particles, mix saliva with food, and push already chewed food into the esophagus.

Without language we would not be able to speak.

could make up a whole chapter in the Guinness Book of Records. Among them there are record holders who can surprise any skeptic. In addition to the fact that bones protect internal organs and form a skeleton to which muscles and ligaments are attached, due to which a person makes various movements, they produce leukocytes and red blood cells. Over 70 years of life, they supply the body with 650 kg of red blood cells and 1 ton of leukocytes.

1. Each person has an individual number of bones. No academician can answer exactly how many there are in the body. The fact is that some people have “extra” bones - the sixth finger, cervical ribs, and with age, the bones can fuse and become larger. At birth, a baby has more than 300 bones, which allows it to pass through more easily. birth canal. Over the years, small bones grow together, and an adult has more than 200 of them.
2. Bones don't white . The natural color of bones has tones of a brown palette from beige to light brown. In a museum you can often find white specimens; this is achieved by cleaning and boiling them.
3. Bones are the only hard material in the body. They are stronger than steel, but much lighter. If we were made of steel bones, then the weight of the skeleton would reach 240 kg.
4. The longest bone in the body is the femur. It makes up ¼ of a person’s total height and can withstand pressure loads of up to 1500 kg.

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5. The femur grows in width. As you gain weight, it thickens, which allows it not to bend or break under the weight of a person.
6. The smallest and lightest bones are the auditory ones - anvil, malleus, stirrup.. Each of them weighs only 0.02 g. These are the only bones that do not change their size from birth.
7. The strongest bone is the tibia. It is the bones of the legs that hold the record for strength, since they must not only withstand the weight of the owner, but also carry him from place to place. Tibia in compression it can withstand up to 4 thousand kg, while the femoral one can withstand up to 3 thousand kg.

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8. The most fragile bones a person has ribs. 5–8 pairs do not have connecting cartilages, so even with a moderate impact they can break.
9. The most “bony” part of the body is the hands along with the wrists. It consists of 54 bones, thanks to which a person plays the piano, smartphone, and writes.
10. Children don't have kneecaps. In a child under 3 years old, instead of a cup there is soft cartilage, which hardens over time. This process is called ossification.
11. An extra rib is a common anomaly in humans.. Every 20th person grows an extra pair. An adult usually has 24 ribs (12 pairs), but sometimes one or more pairs of ribs grow from the base of the neck, which are called cervical ribs. In men, this anomaly occurs 3 times more often than in women. Sometimes it causes health problems.
12. Bones are constantly renewed. Bone renewal occurs continuously, so it contains both old and new cells at the same time. On average, a complete update takes 7–10 years. Over the years, the process slows down, which affects the condition of the bones. They become fragile and thin.
13. Hyoid bone - autonomous. Each bone is connected to other bones, forming a complete skeleton, except for the hyoid. It has a horseshoe shape and is located between the chin and the thyroid cartilage. Thanks to the hyoid, palatine bones and jaws, a person speaks and chews.

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It’s hard to say where the excuse “I have a big bone” came from. But you can publish a text about how much the skeleton weighs and how much its weight can vary from person to person. different people.

Dry, fat-free and dehydrated human skeleton(that is, what will remain of you and me in this world) average weighs only about 4 kg for men and about 2.8 kg for women. In percentage terms, the skeleton occupies approximately 6-7% of the body weight of an adult.

Bone density makes adjustments

We all know from the course school curriculum, what is density - so, with the same volumes, the skeletons of different people can have slightly different weights, i.e. Some people will have denser bones, some less. How big a difference can there be and what does it depend on?

Bone mineral density can change with age (including due to osteoporosis), with concomitant diseases, nutrition (decreases with poor nutrition, and vice versa - with sufficient nutrition). Bone density also depends on weight loss or weight gain: scientists have calculated that For every 1 kg of body fat lost, an average of about 16.5 g of bone minerals is lost, in fact, when gaining the same 1 kg of fat, approximately the same amount is restored (Jensen et al., 1994,), against the background of the existing training volume.

Here are the average normal values bone density, including data on athletes and athletes who are developing bone adaptation to impact loading, and an approximate calculation of the difference in grams between these values, so that you can clearly understand what bone mass density actually means for overall bone/skeletal weight .

Data on bone density in adults (173 people, 18-31 years), different types sports: runners (R), cyclists (C), triathletes (TRI), judokas and wrestlers (HA), football and handball players and basketball and volleyball players (TS), student athletes, non-specialized in sports (STU), and non-training (UT) ).

Average values ​​for bone mass density in adults are in the region of 1.0 – 1.2 g/cm2. Roughly speaking, this can be translated as +/-10% for different people depending on the factor.

These values ​​vary depending on age, gender, race, level and type physical activity, nutritional status, body condition, presence of diseases, etc. But on average, it’s something like this.

Data on skeletal weight and bone density of people of different age groups:

BMC – skeletal weight in grams, BMD – bone density in g/cm2. BF – black women, WF – white women. BM – black men, WM – white men.

Let's take the data from the last table as an example and take the cutoff values: the lowest bone density (in white women, the case of the lowest density is 1.01 g/cm2) and the highest bone density (in a dark-skinned man, the case of the highest density is 1.42 g/cm2). This gives us a difference between the person with the lowest (lightest bones among hundreds of subjects) and the person with the highest bone density (heaviest bones of all) of only about 0.7 kg at an average skeletal weight.

By the way, even growth hormone does not make significant adjustments to bone density. Scientists conducted a controlled 15-year study in which growth hormone injections were given to more than 100 people. Bottom line: over 15 years, the average increase in bone mass was only 14 grams.

Wide but light

Ultimately, what we have is that the total mass of human bones, excluding fat and liquid content, is something like 4-5 kg ​​in adult men and 2-3 kg in adult women.

Within these same boundaries, the mass may fluctuate, depending on the bone mass density, but again this difference will not be so significant, in any case - up to 1 kg, depending on the bone mass density.

By and large, conversations about “ broad bone”, “powerful backbone”, which radically affect the overall weight of a person’s body, “fat power” and genetic predisposition To increased recruitment the weights, in fact, are not entirely comparable with the real state of affairs.

Yes, the difference in height and build certainly gives its own shifts in various indicators of bone mass from person to person, but these indicators do not differ by 5-10 kilograms, but amount to on average no more than 2-3 kg from person to person.

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