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Digital composite of Highlighted bones of exercising woman

Love your bones this Valentine’s Day and EVERY day

Hands up who remembers a friendly skeleton dangling in their school science room? Keep your hand up if you remember TV’s favourite skeleton – the lovable Archie who was the star of the Scotch videotape headcleaner adverts. If your hand is still in the air – and ‘Re-record, not fade away’ is now in your head – you better read on. These clever ads started in 1983 and were set into the ‘future’ year of 2021….. And if you remember 1980s ads as clearly and fondly as we do, you’re exactly the age when you really should be thinking about showing some love to your own skeleton.  Here’s why.

Your skeleton has five very important functions.

It holds you up

Your skeleton supports your body – without it, you’d be a pool of jelly and skin!

It protects your major organs

Your bones also protect your major organs with your cranium housing your brain, your vertebrae encasing your spinal cord, your ribs protecting your heart and lungs and your pelvis keeping your reproductive organs safe.

It allows you to move

Your bones form joints and act as levers which, when your muscles pull on them, move your limbs and your whole body. Bones are often funny shapes with channels and bony points to help the muscles attach firmly.

It produces blood cells

Certain bones in your pelvis, sternum, vertebrae and clavicle contain red bone marrow which produces red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets – all essential to life.

It stores minerals

Bones are mineral stores for calcium and phosphorous. When your body needs these for various functions, your bones release them and then mineralise to stock up new stores.

Did you know?

  • There are 206 bones in your skeleton
    • 106 of these are in your feet and hands!
  • You have two types of bone
    • Cortical ‘hard’ bones
    • Trabecular ‘spongy’ bones.
  • The smallest bone is in your ear
  • The longest bone – your femur – is in your leg.

What are bones made of?

Bones are made up of a thick outer shell and a strong inner mesh that looks like a honeycomb and consists of protein, calcium and other minerals.  They are formed in a process called bone remodelling – or bone turnover – which is when cells called osteoclasts break down and remove old bone and cells called osteoblasts form replacement new bone.

Bone is highly specialised, living tissue, which is constantly changing and being renewed. When we’re younger, our bone building cells (osteoblasts) work faster than our bone removing cells (osteoclasts) causing our bones to increase in density and strength. Bones continue to grow in strength until our mid-late thirties when maximum strength known as peak bone mass is reached. Bone density is then maintained up until our midlate thirties before starting to decrease as part of the natural ageing process.

Thinning bones

As we get older, our bone tissue starts to get thinner. In some people, older age or other health conditions see this thinning process escalate, making bones become porous and fragile to the point they can break.  The disease osteoporosis actually means ‘porous bones’.

Building back bone

The good news is that with the right nutrition and stimulation, bone tissues can be rebuilt even into later life. It’s best to do this naturally by ensuring ingredients such as collagen and essential minerals are available to create healthy bone matrix which is what makes bones flexible as well as strong.

Importance of flexible bone

Flexible bones are like timber in a strong tree – they can absorb and withstand any impact from a knock or a fall.  Collagen is key to bone flexibility and the specific bioactive collagen peptides found in bonebalance™ are specially designed to reach the bone tissue. Once there, they have a ‘signalling effect’ on the osteoblasts (bone building cells) to counterbalance the breakdown of collagen in the bone matrix. In addition, bonebalance™ slows the degeneration of bones by reducing osteoclast (bone breakdown cells) activity. The result is a considerably better formation rate of collagen-rich bone matrix and, therefore, flexible as well as dense bones.

Re-build bone – don’t fade away

If you want your skeleton to be like Archie – able to last long into the future and not fade away – it’s time to show your bones some love this Valentine’s Day and EVERY day.