How Many Bones

They wiggle, wobble, shake, and sometimes break.  They hold us up, and give muscles structures to push and pull against. Our bones are a vital part of our existence, and as most of us have our bones inside us our whole lives we fail to notice how much they grow and change throughout our lives.

We may think we are born with the same bones as we have as an adult, but this is actually a misconception. “An adult has 206 bones, but a newborn baby has nearly 300 bones in her body. This is because babies have more flexible cartilage (a firm tissue softer than bone) in the body. As the child grows, some of the cartilage hardens and turns to bone, and some bones fuse together.” (choa.org) As we grow and change many processes happen to bone structures to mold and shape them.

Bone remodeling happens on a microscopic level, and is preformed by three specialized bone cells. “Osteocytes, the most abundant bone cells, form a three-dimensional interconnected network throughout the osseous tissue.” (journals.plos.org) They sense anything that happen to the bone such as microfractures and send out a signal to the other two type of cells to repair damages. Osteoclasts are specialized in breakdown removal of dysfunctional bone. Osteoblasts repair and rebuild bone structure as needed. Our body maintains a microscopic equilibrium when doing this by ensuring that no more bone is taken away than being rebuilt.

As we grow older and our metabolic rates slow our bones start to degrade more than they repair. This causes slouching and shrinkage as we age and may even raise medical concerns. It is important to maintain a healthy diet, and to take vitamins for bone health to slow this process. Our bones carry us our whole lives without much of a thought as to the changes they go through. After all if we did not have them we would have no structure.

“7 Ways Kid Bones Are Different From Adult Bones.” Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, https://www.choa.org/medical-services/wellness-and-preventive-care/parent-resources/all/7-ways-kid-bones-are-different-from-adult-bones. Accessed 17 Feb. 2020.

Arias, Clemente F., et al. “Bone Remodeling: A Tissue-Level Process Emerging from Cell-Level Molecular Algorithms.” PLOS ONE, vol. 13, no. 9, Sept. 2018, p. e0204171, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0204171.