Bones and Muscles

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Last Updated: Thursday, 06 February 2025 14:09
Published: Tuesday, 07 November 2023 02:35
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Bones and Muscles:

Very imp part of our body are bones and muscles.

Bones:

Childhood and adolescence is the period of greatest bone density. All through your life, your body is continually removing old bone and replacing it with fresh bone. This process is called remodeling. Until 30, we tend to gain more bone mass than we lose. After 30, reverse happens. Up until about age 40, all the bone removed is replaced. After age 40, however, less bone is replaced and we start losing bone mass. Once bones start getting brittle and weak, it can lead to disease like rickets and osteoporosis. it's very difficult to make them stronger again, so try to keep bones healthy in your young age. According to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), 50 percent of Americans over age 50 have weak bones. 80% of them are women, as their bones are smaller and thinner. Additionally, levels of the female hormone estrogen, which helps protect bones, declines sharply after menopause. No wonder, for women, we see so many more bone issues. So for women, protecting bones is even more important.

Bone mass vs Bone density: Bone weight is about 15% of body weight, but that is not a useful metric. Bone density is more important metric for bone health. The DXA (central dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry) test measures your bone density compared to the bone density of a healthy young adult. Your score on the test is called your T-score. The normal healthy adult gets a T-Score of 0. If your T-score is more than one point (called a standard deviation) below 0, you may have weak bones, explains NIH. If your T score is between -1 and -2.5, you have low bone mass. If your score is -2.5 or lower, you have osteoporosis. Women are more prone to osteoporosis because of smaller bones.

Article from John Hopkins about bone maintenance => https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/osteoporosis/osteoporosis-what-you-need-to-know-as-you-age

Few tips to keep bones healthy:

  • Calcium + Vitamin D: Your bones store roughly 98 percent of the calcium in your body. Because calcium is important for many body functions, if you don't have enough, your body will take calcium out of your bone bank, thus weakening them. Take 1g of Calcium everyday (For people over 50, 1.2g is recommended). Foods like cheese, yougurt, milk, salmon, etc contain calcium. While calcium is the biggest bone-health player, your body also relies on Vitamin D, Vitamin K, Potassium and Magnesium to build strong bones. Vitamin D is needed to help calcium get absorbed into body. There are 2 sources of getting Vit D - one thru exposure to UV rays from sun, and other thru food. Very few foods (eggs, Orange Juice, cereals, salmon, etc) contain enough Vit D, so Vit D supplements are needed. Recommended amount is 1000 IU of Vit D every day. Upper safe limit is 4000 IU per day. 1000 IU is 25 microgram (0.025 mg or 25 mcg) of Vit D, so very small amount of Vit D is enough. Vit D helps with many other functions of our body too (helps build your immune system), so make sure you get enough. Indians have very low levels of Vit D, so make sure you take supplements with 2000-5000 IU. I've myself taken 50,000 IU Vit D supplements (once a week, prescribed by Doctor), as Vit D levels have been too low. That barely got me into the acceptable range. Recommended range for Vit D is b/w 30-100 in your blood test.
    • For vegetarians, 1 glass of milk (250ml) has 25% calcium and 25% Vit D requirement of an adult. Here milk is fortified with Vit D (sold in USA). Even Orange Juice come with fortified Calcium and Vit D, so take those.
    • Vit D: Vit D exists in 2 forms - Vit D2 and Vit D3. Vitamin D2, or ergocalciferol, is found in fungi (mushrooms) and yeasts. Vitamin D3, or cholecalciferol (koli-kal-ciferol) is produced by the body via sunlight (Thru sunlight, the skin converts 7-Dehydrocholesterol into Vit D3) or ingested via food. Liver converts this cholecalciferol into 25-Hydroxycholecalciferol, which the kidneys then convert into 1, 25-DiHydroxycholecalciferol. This is also called calcitriol, which is the active form of Vit D. This moves into the small intestine, which then increases the number of calcium binding proteins. That helps with calcium absorption. Vit D3 is more important. When we say Vit D, we always mean Vit D3. Video on Vit D: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLDYbSX5MLA
  • Exercise: Higher bone density is needed for stronger bones, and exercise helps with that. Lifting weights, running, biking all make your bones stronger.

 

Cartilage: This is a covering over the bone, seen in the thigh bone, where it meets the shin bone.

 

Muscles:

Few terms for diff kinds of muscles:

  • Ligaments => Soft tissue structures that connect bone to bone.
  • Tendons => These are much like Ligaments except that they connect bones to muscles. Muscles move the bones by pulling on the Tendons

 

Knee Basics:

Knees are the most important part of the bone structure and the most fragile. They are the first ones to give up due to old age, or plain wear and tear. It's important to consider knees in it's own section.

Knee bone basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q-Jxj5sT0g

Meniscus tear: This is one the common tears that you can get very easily. Once you get it, it's very difficult to fix by itself. Doctors will want to do surgery, but don't fall for it.

Good advice on this link: https://kingbrand.com/Meniscus-Information.php?msclkid=fb0a365fb9521e7e41d353ed1bb57eaa

 Parts of Knee:

  • Meniscus: These are C shaped shock absorbers between the thigh bone and shin bone, and help with the impact when the 2 bones aremoving aginst each other. It's made of cartilage, and hence has a poor blood supply. A tear in meniscus can cause lockup, giving out, pain when squatting, lifting weight, etc. Lock up or giving out is when you cannot straigten your knee completely while running. The torn parts of meniscus get in between the 2 bones, and cause pain. A Surgery is done to shave off these lose parts, and get them out of your body, which relives the pain. But then you have less of miniscus left, which may increase your chances of getting  arthritis down the line.