#bone remodeling

We often hear about the importance of sleep for our overall health, but did you know it plays a crucial role in maintaining strong and healthy bones? It’s true! The connection between sleep and bone health is a fascinating one, and understanding it can empower you to take proactive steps towards lifelong bone strength and vitality. In this comprehensive exploration, we’ll delve into the intricate…

Stress fractures take place when the bones have small cracks in them due to various reasons such as strenuous physical activity or repeated stress on similar bones.

It interferes with one’s ability to move and causes excessive pain. However, there are cases where they heal naturally over time when a person rests and avoids stressful physical activities. It is best to go to a specialist for treatment as soon as possible.

The main reason for a stress fracture is the excessive stress on the bones of the lower leg over a certain period of time. The below areas are most susceptible to stress fracture:

Fibula – calf bone

Tibia – Also known as the shinbone or leg bone

Metatarsals – Foot bones

One aspect of health that is often misunderstood or ignored is bone health. The skeletal system is the body’s second largest organ consisting of 206 bones in adults. Many people perceive our bones as a static, rigid structure when the exact opposite is true. Our bones are a dynamic organ that is a state of constant renewal and rebuilding. This is called bone remodeling.

The skeleton serves many physical and physiological functions. It provides structural support, movement and a protective armor for our vital organs. The bones are the site for production of red blood cells to deliver oxygen to our cells and produces white blood cells for a healthy immune system.  Recent advances point to the skeleton as an endocrine organ that modulates glucose tolerance and testosterone production by secretion of a bone-specific protein, osteocalcin.

Our bones are the mineral bank for our entire body. All vital organs and tissues require minerals to be released from the bones daily. Our body’s organs receive calcium from the bones.  For example, the heart needs 100 mg of bone calcium a day for steady beats. The brain needs 150 mg of bone calcium to keep sharp and our intestines require 600 to 900 mg of bone calcium daily.

Through the process of bone remodeling minerals are released from old bone by specialized cells called osteoclasts and new bone is replaced by bone builder cells, osteoblasts. Good bone health is a balance of this resorption of older bone and formation of new bone for stable and strong bones. Healthy bones are vital to our joints and our whole body.

Bone and joint health is a major problem in our society. The Surgeon General of the United States reported that astounding numbers of Americans have bone and joint issues. Twelve million have osteoporosis with 40 million having low bone mass (osteopenia) and 66 million with joint problems such as arthritis, cartilage loss and calcium deposits. That represents nearly 1/3rd of the population. The cost to U.S. society in 2004 was $840 billion dollars (JAMA, 2009).

The National Osteoporosis Foundation states that 54 million Americans have osteoporosis and low bone mass. Studies suggest that one in two women and one in four men age 50 or older will break a bone due to osteoporosis.

In December 2012, a study on the Global Burden of Disease and the worldwide impact of all diseases and risk factors found musculoskeletal conditions such as arthritis and back pain affect more than 1.7 billion people worldwide, are the second greatest cause of disability, and have the 4th greatest impact on the overall health of the world population when considering both death and disability. Bone and joint disorders account for more than one-half of all chronic conditions in people older than 50 years of age in developed countries, and are the most common cause of severe, long-term pain and disability.

 You will not fall and break your bone

You will break your bone ...and fall

 Osteoporosis is a silent disease because we don’t perceive our bones weakening. Breaking a bone is often the first sign of loss of bone density or osteoporosis.  Osteoporotic bone breaks are most likely to occur in the hip, spine or wrist, but other bones can break too. Twenty percent of seniors who break a hip die within one year from complications related to the broken bone or the surgery to repair it. Many require long-term nursing home care.

Half of all Americans over the age of 50 are expected to have osteoporosis by 2020, according to the National Osteoporosis Foundation. While our bones naturally age as we do, there are things you can do to prevent osteoporosis and joint problems regardless of age.  

Natural ways to help your bones and joints:

Exercise, particularly anything that uses your body's weight to move, can help build strong bones. I suggest walking, jogging or dancing.

Get some sunshine, at least 20 minutes a day for Vitamin D

Eat the right foods. Green leafy vegetables are calcium rich and alkalizing. Greens give you calcium but are also good sources of vitamin k, potassium, and other minerals and  nutrients needed for healthy bones. 

Avoid sodas and carbonated beverages. Limit caffeinated beverages and alcohol.

Drink half your body weight in ounces of water daily. Bones are 25% water. Being hydrated is one of the best things you can do for joint health.

Supplements can help.

Our Favorites!

Promote strong, healthy bones and enjoy natural probiotic benefits with the Nikken Bone Health Pack. For lifelong bone maintenance. This combination of products help support the body's ability to preserve bone density and assists in the preservation of joints and cartilage.  OsteoDenx is designed to promote both aspects of bone health— the release and absorption of mineral compounds, and the formation of new bone tissue. It can work to complement the body’s natural tissue growth. CalDenx, an optimized blend of calcium and magnesium, and a source of vitamin D, vitamin K and folate, can help provide the materials needed for this bone regeneration. As bone health depends on the absorption of ingested minerals, Lactoferrin Gold 1.8 serves as a digestion potentiator (a gastroferrin), and is lactose-free.

The High Potency CM Complex in Kenzen Joint is an advanced formulation that nutritionally supports collagen, bone and connective tissue repair. This formula has a high concentration of cetyl myristoleate and combines this with glucosamine, methylsulfonylmethane and compounds from the boswellia plant, which has long been used in Ayurvedic and other complementary practice. Cetyl myristoleate possesses natural surfactant and lubricant properties, in support of smooth joint movement.

Relief from surface soreness is essential for good health as well as comfort. It allows for greater mobility and can help improve quality of life at any age. Whether you're a seasoned athlete or just a weekend warrior, Nikken CM Complex Cream can help soothe the discomfort that comes from living an active life. CM Complex is endorsed by the estate of Dr. H. W. Diehl, the National Institutes of Health researcher who discovered cetyl myristoleate.

Osteoporosis: Maintaining the Bone Bank Account

  Osteoporosis is Latin for “porous bone.” It is a silent condition with no outward symptoms. The bones become weakened and brittle, and can break easily; a fractured rib may result from a simple cough. In older adults, osteoporosis can sometimes be an indirect cause of death, but more often it results in decreased quality of life.

Bone Structure

Bone is living, growing tissue. Throughout our…

Exercise and Bone Health

Bone is living tissue that is constantly undergoing a process called remodeling. In remodeling, cells called osteoclasts are breaking down old bone, as cells called osteoblasts are replacing it with new tissue. Many factors can affect the remodeling process and leave you with bones that are less dense and more fragile.

Some factors that affect bone remodeling are:


Low vitamin D— The body makes…

Figure 4 (TOP). Visualization of microdamage in cancellous bone. Red represents microdamage and transparent white represents bone. Shown are two specimens from the same donor subjected to (A) No loading (Group 1) and (B) Fatigue loading in group 5 (Young’s modulus was reduced by 42%). (C) An enlarged view of a damage site in the cancellous bone is shown. 

Figure 5 (BOTTOM). Changes in mechanical properties with fatigue loading. (A) The proportion of creep strain to maximum strain is shown for the six specimens fatigue loaded to failure. Each color represents a different specimen. (B) The alterations in modulus and energy dissipation in one specimen fatigue loaded to failure is shown. Modulus reduction increased progressively throughout fatigue loading, with a rapid loss in stiffness close to failure. Energy dissipation remained relatively constant until in the tertiary phase, where it increased rapidly.

Microdamage Caused by Fatigue Loading in Human Cancellous Bone: Relationship to Reductions in Bone Biomechanical Performance (DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0083662.g001)

Floor M. Lambers, Amanda R. Bouman, Clare M. Rimnac, Christopher J. Hernandez

Abstract

Vertebral fractures associated with osteoporosis are often the result of tissue damage accumulated over time. Microscopic tissue damage (microdamage) generated in vivo is believed to be a mechanically relevant aspect of bone quality that may contribute to fracture risk. Although the presence of microdamage in bone tissue has been documented, the relationship between loading, microdamage accumulation and mechanical failure is not well understood. The aim of the current study was to determine how microdamage accumulates in human vertebral cancellous bone subjected to cyclic fatigue loading. Cancellous bone cores (n = 32) from the third lumbar vertebra of 16 donors (10 male, 6 female, age 7668.8, mean 6 SD) were subjected to compressive cyclic loading at s/E0 = 0.0035 (where s is stress and E0 is the initial Young’s modulus). Cyclic loading was suspended before failure at one of seven different amounts of loading and specimens were stained for microdamage using lead uranyl acetate. Damage volume fraction (DV/BV) varied from 0.860.5% (no loading) to 3.462.1% (fatigue-loaded to complete failure) and was linearly related to the reductions in Young’s modulus caused by fatigue loading (r2 = 0.60, p,0.01). The relationship between reductions in Young’s modulus and proportion of fatigue life was nonlinear and suggests that most microdamage generation occurs late in fatigue loading, during the tertiary phase. Our results indicate that human vertebral cancellous bone tissue with a DV/BV of 1.5% is expected to have, on average, a Young’s modulus 31% lower than the same tissue without microdamage and is able to withstand 92% fewer cycles before failure than the same tissue without microdamage. Hence, even small amounts of microscopic tissue damage in human vertebral cancellous bone may have large effects on subsequent biomechanical performance.

Highlights:

Microscopic tissue damage (microdamage) in the form of linear microcracks, diffuse damage, or trabecular microfracture occurs in vivo, shows a higher prevalence in older individuals, and is believed to be a biomechanically relevant aspect of bone quality."

"Cancellous bone tissue submitted to cyclic loading displays creep-fatigue behavior in three phases: a primary phase in which stiffness reduces relatively rapidly, a secondary phase in which stiffness declines slowly and a tertiary phase in which stiffness rapidly declines before failure."

"Six specimens were loaded to 5% strain, which we defined as failure (group 7). The value of 5% strain was defined as failure, because from preliminary tests it was found that loading to 5%strain would capture the primary, secondary, and tertiary phase."

"After mechanical testing, specimens were removed from the end-caps using a low-speed diamond saw (Isomet, Buehler Ltd., Lake Bluff, IL) and stained with lead uranyl acetate. Lead uranyl acetate binds to regions of bone tissue in which microdamage has formed and has high x-ray absorption, allowing visualization of microdamage with micro-computed tomography."

"The current study provides the first quantitative measures of stained microdamage accumulation during cyclic loading in human vertebral cancellous bone and shows that microdamage generated by cyclic loading is linearly related to reductions in specimen stiffness and non-linearly related to the proportion of fatigue life.

"Maximum strain was the single best predictor of DV/BV (tested using multivariate linear regressions), which is consistent with a strain-based failure criterion for cancellous bone, however, because creep strain and maximum strain were highly correlated it is not possible to conclude which was causative.

"Bone is a hierarchical structure with energy dissipation mechanisms at different length scales of bone [65]. To resist fracture, bone tissue can deform through fibrillar sliding or through the formation of microcracks, where larger microcracks dissipate greater amounts of energy. Our observation of a correlation between DV/BV and energy dissipation per cycle are consistent with the idea that microdamage contributes to energy dissipation in cancellous bone."

Take home message: 

"Our findings suggest that small amounts of microdamage in human vertebral cancellous bone cause reductions in fatigue life that are much greater than reductions in Young’s modulus. Therefore, even small amounts of stained microdamage may indicate large reductions in the number of loading cycles that the tissue can sustain before failure even when alterations in cancellous bone stiffness are small. Although the current study examined only the effects of microdamage generated by cyclic compressive loading, we expect our estimations of the effects of microdamage on subsequent biomechanical performance to be conservative because alterations in loading mode and mixed mode loading have been shown to be more effective at propagating microdamage."