Effects Of Aging On The Skeletal System

Osteoporosis, meaning porous bone from the Greek language, is bone disease that gradually and steadily wears down bone tissue and its living cells. This wearing down will eventually cause the cells of bone tissue to degrade and die, leaving their “scaffolding” to be the only things only bone together. Without living cells to take up a home in this scaffolding, minor injuries such as falls, bumping into objects, and pressure that would normally be completely and would not pose any threat to bone tissue suddenly becomes a real hazard that can easily pose a threat to one’s well-being. Osteoporosis affects a person skeletal system.

Osteoporosis is an age-related disease of the skeletal system characterized by both low bone mass and bone structural degeneration (Nunes, 2011). Understanding osteoporosis is important because it is continues to be overlooked and undertreated, causing high numbers of bone fractures each year –in the elderly, these bone fractures can be debilitating or even life threatening (Eastell, 2009). Osteoporosis manifests when an imbalance between bone resorption and bone rebuilding occurs – this is due to changes in osteoclast and osteoblast activity. I chose this topic because osteoporosis affects millions of people, and research will allow me to better understand this common yet complex, and very perilous bone disease.

Osteoporosis is a skeletal disease that decreases bone density and reduces bone mass. This illness leads to injuries such as Colle’s fracture, compression fracture of vertebral bodies, and fracture at the neck of the femur. The purpose of the article is to illustrate age-related bone loss in different populations that inhabited Poland from the Neolithic to early modern times. The focus of the study is to determine if age-related bone loss in those populations differ from nowadays. Due to difference in life condition such as housing, diet, and work the authors think that in the Neolithic era the population had better bone mineral density (BMD) than people from the Middle Ages and today.

The process of bone remodeling may be considered a preventive maintenance mechanism that maintains a healthy skeleton because of continually removing older bone and replacing it with new bone. When this balance is altered, resulting in greater bone removal than replacement, bone loss occurs (5).

Osteoporosis is a bone disease that occurs when the body loses too much bone, too little bone, or both. Because of this, bones become weak and may break from a fall, or worse, break from sneezing or minor bumps (National Osteoporosis Foundation). Osteoporosis means “porous bone”. A healthy bone under a microscope looks like a honeycomb, when osteoporosis is taking place, the holes and spaces in the honeycomb are much larger than in the healthy bone. Bones that are osteoporotic have lost density, and contain abnormal tissue structure. When bones lose this density, they weaken and are more likely to break.

Bones provide body structure, protect organs, anchor muscles, and store calcium. Good health habits such as eating nutritious foods and exercising regularly are important for maintaining healthy bones. They can also help prevent thinning and loss of density in the bones (osteoporosis).

The skeletal system is made up of 206 bones. All of these 206 bones help the body to perform the following functions: framework, protection, levers, production of blood cells, and storage. These functions work in very important ways. For example the framework helps support the body's muscles, fat, and skin. (Simmers) Protection also helps the vital organs be protected by the converse of bones. Levers connect everything together. Because there

The adult human skeletal system consists of 206 bones, in addition also a network of tendons, ligaments and cartilage that connects them. The skeletal structure executes fundamental roles — mainly support, without it you would literally be a pile of bones; movement, muscles connect to the bones along with the network that surround them and help to move the body parts; protection, the organs and areas that are more prone to injury are protected by the skeletal system, furthermore, the maintenance and support of the skeleton system includes blood cell production, calcium storage and endocrine regulation.

The human body is made up of 206 bones that we rely on everyday. They are extremely vital! Also bones are responsible for producing red blood cells in the bone marrow. With that being said bones are a huge contributor to the overall health of each individual. Unfortunately bones also get diseases just like any other body system. The diseases of the bones can range from osteoporosis, bone cancer and many other diseases.

Bones serve five main purposes: to form a sturdy framework for the body, to protect delicate structures, to work as levers with attached muscles to produce movement, to store calcium salts, and to produce blood cells. Long bones are hard and dense, which provides strength and structure. Long bones contain both yellow and red bone marrow, both of which are vital for blood cell production. They also allow muscles to work to their maximum potential. Their size enables them to protect delicate structures. Its size enables it to assist the body. With age, the human body experiences a loss of calcium salts. The bones become weaker and it becomes more difficult to move. Humans can also experience a loss of balance.

Osteoporosis is a large threat to the aging population. When looking at people over the age of 50 years old one in three women and one in five men are diagnosed with osteoporosis (Fisher 2011, p. 136). It used to be believed that osteoporosis was a condition that post-menopausal woman had but now we know that it is also in pre-menopausal women and men (Dave, 2013, p. 373). When someone has osteoporosis the bone mass is reduced and they have an increased risk for fractures and broken bones. Some risk factors associated with osteoporosis are age, history of trauma/fracture, low intake of calcium and vitamin D, backache, and low physical activity. It is a disease where the bone loses density. The bones need more calcium and mineral to keep

The human skeleton has 6 main functions that provide the body with good health. They are as follows:

Bone serves the organism at multiple levels: As a system, bones permit the organism to locomote effectively and to maintain posture by bearing loads without deformation, by providing rigid attachment sites for muscles and acting as a system of levers to amplify small movements. As an organ, bones protect the viscera and house the hemopoietic tissue (red marrow). As a tissue, bones serve as a reservoir of readily mobilizable calcium, an

Quadriceps and Hamstring group of muscles play a very important role in everyday activities. These group of muscles help us to walk, run, jump, squat etc1 Ageing however is an unavoidable phenomenon. Aging is known to decrease muscular strength. (Grimby and Saltin,1983;Borges 1989) .It is associated with increase in the subcutaneous fat, intramuscular fat and non-muscle tissue.(Rice et al). Ageing human skeletal muscle has shown increase in the proportion of type 2 fibers (glycolytic) along with decrease in the contractile ability. On the other hand training has shown to improve the strength in elderly (Annianson & Gustafsson), 1981; Frontera et al 1990;C. L Rice et al). The muscle weakness and wasting has been evaluated by dynamometer and compound ultrasound imaging, Nuclear magnetic resonance etc.

Bones support, move, and protect the body; they also give us our features. But without bone cells we would have no bones. Bone cells are the living units that make up your bones and keep them functioning. Bone cells have two major roles, which are the production of new bones and resorption or destruction of old bone. They also carry out other small roles. There are four main types of bone cells: Osteogenic, which are bone cells that respond to traumas, osteoblasts, which form bone matrix around themselves by laying down collagen fibers and depositing the hard mineral material, osteocytes, which respond to the bodies need for lower or higher circulating level of minerals contained in the bone and osteoclasts, which break down bone tissue.