Our Amazing Bones

Our bones are so amazing! Bones give structure to our body, allow us to move about, protect the most delicate parts of our bodies, and without them, we would all just be blobs.

Your body is made up of 206 bones- that’s a lot of bones. Twenty-six of them are in each foot and another 54 are in your hand and wrist alone. Your bones come in different shapes and sizes. The longest and strongest bone in your body is in your upper leg, and it’s called the femur. The smallest and lightest bone is in your inner ear, and it’s called the stirrup. Although it’s the smallest bone, the structure and inter-workings of your inner ear are important for things like balance, which we normally take for granted. To understand more about the role our head, neck, spine, and ears play in the role of balance (and related symptoms of dizziness), read our newsletter on Balance and Chiropractic.

Generally speaking, your bones are very strong. It has been said that they are four times stronger than concrete! They can withstand an enormous amount of weight. Athletes have been known to lift over 1,000 pounds (over 450 kg)! Fortunately, your bones don’t weigh anywhere near as much as concrete, so you can run and jump and hop and dance and play all kinds of sports without having to drag heavy bones around. Sometimes though, if a force is great enough and hits you in just the right way, you can break a bone. The good news is that your bones heal themselves. You literally make new bone that mends the two broken edges together.

Some of your bones serve to protect other parts of your body. For example, your rib cage protects your organs, your skull protects your brain (i.e from concussions, amongst many things), and your spine protects your spinal cord. Your spine is particularly interesting because it is made up of a set of 26 movable bones. So while it’s protecting your spinal cord, it’s also providing structure and allowing for motion! That’s a lot going on at one time!

With all that going on, sometimes the bones of the spine can become misaligned, and instead of protecting the nerve tissue, they can distort the proper function and communication within the nerve system. This is called a vertebral subluxation, and it can be a big problem because your nerve system is responsible for running all the other systems of your body. If your nerve system isn’t working at its best, then the rest of your body can’t work at its best either. Chiropractors check to make sure the bones of your spine are properly aligned so there is no disruption to you nerve system and your whole body can work at its best. Bones are amazing, and none are more amazing than your spinal bones. Be sure to see your chiropractor regularly to take the best care of your amazing bones.