Michael's Naturopathic Programs

The skeleton enables humans to stand erect and serves as a foundation for muscle tissue, giving us movement. In addition, the skeleton houses bone marrow, important for the function of manufacturing antibodies.

The bones are a composite of minerals, with calcium being the most abundant. Throughout life, the bones constantly change and remodel, but different rates of bone resorption and formation occur at different times of the life.

At puberty, bones grow at an accelerated pace, resulting in increases of both length and density of the skeletal structure. After puberty, the bones continue to grow in width and mass, for the next 10 to 15 years. A person is considered to be at peak bone mass at 35 years of age. At midlife, the bones continue to remodel, but bone mass remains constant.

After 45 years of age, the bone mass begins to shrink, from about .2-.5 percent per year. Prior to the menopause, women lose bone mass at a greater rate than normal, largely due to hormonal changes.

Experts state that two factors, physical activity and adequate calcium intake, have the greatest bearing on the growth and maturity of the bones. They also hold that inadequate calcium intake, during the years of childhood to young adulthood, could result in the bones not reaching their full maturity. These factors contribute to the risk of a common disease, known as osteoporosis.

Osteoporosis is a disease characterized by low bone mass, where the internal structure of the bone has eroded to the extent that even a slight trauma will cause the bone to fracture easily.