Chiropractic Care and Healthy Bones
Exercise is a key component in the lifelong endeavor of
achieving and maintaining vibrant good health. An immediate benefit of
regular exercise is healthy bones. Other action steps we can take to
help ensure that our bones stay healthy are getting sufficient calcium
in our diet and, wherever possible, getting 15 to 30 minutes of
unprotected sunlight several times per week.
Chiropractic care is an important part of this equation. By
getting regular chiropractic care we help ensure that our nerve system
is functioning at peak efficiency. When our nerve systems are fully
online, all our cells, tissues, and organs are able to do what they're
supposed to do when they're supposed to do it. With a properly
functioning nerve system, bone cells are enabled to build solid, dynamic
structures that will last. Thus, chiropractic care helps support all
the other good things we're doing for ourselves, including regular
exercise, a healthy diet, and proper rest. Make sure that regular
chiropractic care is part of your plan for maintaining strong, healthy
bones.
As with the rest of our physical selves, we don't think about our
bones until something goes wrong. Bones are just there, under the
surface and unseen, normally never taking up space in our conscious
thought processes. Trauma, of course, can injure a bone. But in most
circumstances a bone bruise or a fracture heals on its own in due
course. You might need a brace, sling, or cast to protect the bone while
it's rebuilding, but within four to six weeks everything is back to
normal.
On the other hand, many actual diseases can affect bones for a
very long time, perhaps even for the rest of your lifetime. Some of
these serious conditions are preventable. Some are not. Osteoporosis is a
disorder which may have serious consequences, including disabling hip
fractures and crippling fractures of the lumbar vertebras. For many
people, however, osteoporosis is preventable, and it's very important to
know how to do that.
Osteoporosis involves loss of bone substance and disorganization
of bone structure. "Osteo" means bone and "porosis" means pores or
passages. In osteoporosis the biochemical bony matrix is broken down and
bony tissue itself is resorbed, creating "passageways" or holes in the
affected bone. Metabolic factors involved in the process of osteoporosis
include calcium levels and vitamin D levels, as well as the activity of
bone cells - osteoblasts - which produce bone matrix.
As with everything else in the human body, if you don't use it,
you'll lose it. Bone appears to be hard and durable, a finished product,
but in fact bone tissue is highly dynamic. Bone is continually being
built up in response to physiologic, weight-bearing stresses such as
exercise. But bone is continually being broken down in response to
metabolic needs elsewhere in the body. A dynamic tension exists between
these two processes, and in osteoporosis the pendulum has swung to the
side of breaking down bone tissue. The obvious consequences include
weakening of bone's structural strength. Eventually, long bones such as
the thigh bone or strategically located bones such as the lumbar
vertebra have lost so much structural integrity that they break under
pressure of previously normal weight-bearing loads.
Like the rest of the components of our bodies, our bones are a
precious natural resource. Unlike gas or coal, our bones are a renewable
resource. But we must pay attention to the need for these structures to
renew themselves. If a bone isn't being used efficiently,
higher-priority metabolic needs in other locations will cause important
biochemicals to be taken out of the bone. The bone, such a thigh bone,
will begin to lose its structure. The appropriate question is how can we
ensure that our bones are being used efficiently. How can we ensure
that our bones are in fact dynamic structures, rather than merely cages
to protect our vital organs or coat racks on which to hang our muscles.
One of the main answers to these questions, which after all
really are questions regarding how to achieve good health, is regular
exercise.1,2,3 Bones will retain their metabolic structure if
they are required to do so. The body is very smart and locates precious
resources where they are needed. If weight-bearing loads are
consistently placed on your spine and long bones, these dynamic
structures will not only retain their shape and strength but in fact
will build more bony layers and become stronger. And of course, if we
want to have a lifetime of vibrant, vital health, we want to have
strong, healthy bones that will help us make it so.
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