What Do Our Bones Do?
There are more than 200 bones in the human body, and the bones are all connected to form the skeleton. It is your skeleton that supports you, protects you, and gives your body its shape. Not only does the skeleton prevent you from collapsing into a Jello-like blob, it is a movable frame that helps you stand, walk, run, jump, lift, and push.
Bones also protect the soft organs inside your body. For example, the bony skull protects your brain, while your ribs protect your heart and lungs. But your bones don’t do everything themselves; many bones are joined together by muscles. Bones and muscles work together to enable you to move.
Bones are far from solid — otherwise your skeleton would be five times heavier! Each bone has an outer shell of a very strong, dense substance, called compact bone. The inside, called spongy bone, is porous and has hollow spaces within it, like a sponge. It is still strong, but its structure makes bones slightly flexible. The spaces within the spongy bone contain red bone marrow, which is where most of your blood cells are made.
Another function of the bones is to store vital minerals, such as calcium, which the body uses when needed.
What Happens When You Break a Bone?
Broken bones are common medical emergencies for children. Fortunately, and incredibly, your body can heal broken bones all by itself!
When you fracture (break) a bone, your body gets to work producing new bone cells, which will help heal the break. Of course you need a doctor to help it along. He’ll give you a cast or sling to make sure that the bone heals straight and properly.
A broken bone heals in stages. When the bone first breaks, the area gets swollen, as your blood clots to stop the bleeding at the fracture site. Next, collagen fibers start to grow over the broken area. The collagen, together with cartilage (a flexible, connective tissue), bridges the gap between the two sides of the break. This bridge will continue to form and harden until the bone is healed. While the bone is healing, it can’t take the stress that a normal bone can, which is why people use crutches and slings to take the pressure off the bone while it’s healing.
There are several different types of fractures. A complete fracture occurs when a bone is broken all the way through into two pieces. Greenstick fractures happen when a bone cracks only on one side. If a bone breaks and then protrudes through the skin, it’s called an open fracture. Depending on the type of fracture and the size of the bone, the bone may heal in as little as a couple of weeks or in as long as a couple of months or more.
The collarbone is the most commonly broken bone among children, while when adults break a bone, it’s most commonly a bone in the arm.