Facts that bones remodel throughout your entire life

      FACT #1: Limb lengthening surgery is an excellent example to prove that bones remodel, re-build, grow, thicken, and lengthen due to a stretching force (either by bone growth electric stimulator, or by heavy ankle weights).

    FACT #2: The Padung or "long-necked" Karen is one of the Karen groups residing in Thailand's Mae Hong Son province. The Term "long-necked" signifies the practice of adorning their women with brass rings around the neck. Bones in the neck are forced to grow longer because additional rings are added every few months which provide a repetitive and powerful force. One woman in Plam Piang Din Village wears 37 brass rings around her neck and she’s an old lady. Click here for pictures!

    FACT #3: In USA sports, professional baseball pitchers throwing arm is usually 1 to 2 inches longer than his other arm. (it is due to the vigorous exercise that the "throwing" arm exerts a more powerful force on the bone thus results in the remodeling of the arm). Click here for pictures!

    FACT #4: In professional Jai Alai almost every player's right arm is about 1 to 2 inches longer than his left arm (this is considered as of a direct result of repetitive exercise motions). Click here for pic 1, pic 2, pic 3

    FACT #5: Bone is a LIVING TISSUE (ask any medical student) and adapt in response to exercise and constantly adjust to the demands placed upon it.

Bone is constantly being formed and resorbed. Bone growth occurs when calcified matrix is formed faster than it is resorbed. Diameter growth occurs when matrix deposition occurs on the outer surface of the bone. Linear growth in long bones occurs at epiphyseal plates. These plates are between the epiphyses and diaphysis of the bone. Columns of chondrocytes on the epiphyseal side divide continuously causing this growth (Silverthorn, 2001).

As the collagen layer thickens, older collagen calcifies and older chondrocytes deteriorate. Osteoblasts lay down a bone matrix on top of a cartilage base. The shaft lengthens as new bone is added at the ends. As long as the epiphyseal plate is active, long bone growth continues (Silverthorn, 2001). Eventually, when the level of sex steroid hormones ceases to increase, the epiphyseal plate is inactivated. This causes long bone growth to stop (Silverthorn, 2001). And this may be the case that many people believe that growing taller after puberty is impossible. Source: www.bae.nesu.edu

    FACT #6: Bone will constantly remodel throughout life (ask any doctor). It is necessary to tell the bone where the areas of stress are going to be so that it can remodel and strengthen in preparation for the event. Bone cells, in particular osteocytes, are extremely sensitive to mechanical stress, a quality that is probably linked to the process of mechanical adaptation.

"Throughout life, bone is constantly renewed through a process called remodeling. This process consists of two stages: resorption and formation. During resorption, old bone tissue is broken down and removed by special cells called osteoclasts. Once this has been done, bone formation begins and new bone tissue is laid down to replace the old. This task is performed by special cells called osteoblasts. Osteoblasts produce collagen, enzymes, and other proteins that make up the organic portion of the bone matrix.”

    FACT #7: Vigorous exercise and healthful diet with adequate calcium, protein, and vitamin D are essential in achieving sufficient bone mass during the bone adaptation process.

    FACT #8: Just like muscle, bones respond to certain kinds of training by hypertrophying. Source: http://www.apsu.edu/glassr/10

    FACT #9: Bones are richly supplied with blood from periosteal vessels. Bone growth requires adequate amounts of nutrients, protein, calcium, vitamin D, etc.

    FACT #10: By putting enormous stress on bones, cartilage inside bones may become bones.

    FACT #11: The actual amount of growth in a bone depends upon the NEED for it (ask any researcher or doctor. As force is applied, the bone will remodel itself to better handle the force. In a basketball player, for example, the bones of the lower legs and feet strengthen to handle the impact of jumping.

Although this will alter throughout life, the main effects will be seen during the period of growth, when remodeling is most evident. It is in this period that the actual length of a limb bone is being determined. The actual amount of growth in a bone depends upon the need for it.

If u sit with weights on a high platform, the shin bone will need to reach deeper & deeper to the ground b/c the weights are pulling it down & that's where the NEED is.. for another instance, if u bike with raised saddle seat, the shin bone will NEED to reach more & more to reach the pedals..

    FACT #12: Loading (stressing) a bone produces in it a small electrical field called piezo electric force, that needed to stimulate new bone formation (for anyone at any age who has sufficient calcium & vit. D).

The vibrating platform appears to work by triggering bones to generate tiny electric fields. These tiny currents may turn on genes that affect bone remodeling and growth. That's when a series of experiments showed that bone is piezoelectric, meaning that bending or deforming its crystal structure creates local electric currents. Physiologists quickly linked these currents to bone growth in studies that seemed to explain why exercise strengthens bones and immobilization weakens them.”
Source: http://www.rense.com/politics5/mag.htm

Bone remodeling appears to be governed by a feedback system in which the bone cells sense the state of strain in the bone matrix around them and either add or remove bone as needed to maintain the strain within normal limits. The process or processes by which the cells are able to sense the strain and the important aspects of the strain field are presently unknown. Bassett and Becker (4.2.1) reported that bone is piezoelectric, i.e. that it generates electric fields in response to mechanical stress; they advanced the hypothesis that the piezoelectric effect is the part of the feedback loop by which the cells sense the strain field.
Source: http://silver.neep.wisc.edu/~lakes/BoneRemod.html

    Lastly, the discovery about piezo electric force inspired scientists to create different devices to encourage the body to make its own electric fields for building bones.” (Source: http://www.rense.com/politics5/mag.htm

    FACT #13: Bone adaptation was entirely defined by three constitutive laws:

- The stress-strain law
- The bone density evolution law
- The bone anisotropy evolution law, etc.

    More facts and proof coming this Fall & Winter 2004

Ryan’s explanation

      For anyone who is 21 years old or younger, the epiphyseal plate remains active and plays a major part in bone growth. Thus, many doctors and researchers believe that growing taller after puberty is not possible because the epiphyseal plate is closed.

      In contrast to the theory above, I believe that for those who are 21 years old or older, vigorous exercise and healthful diet with adequate calcium, protein, vitamin D, and supplements may replace the role of epiphyseal plate. Thus, bone adaptation is forced to occur because stress is exerted and supplements & vitamins continuously supply nutrients and food for bones.

      In other words, anyone who is 21 years old or younger, the epiphyseal plate remains active to give you that natural growth and your height is determined mostly by heredity or genetic factors. Whereas, those who are 21 years old or older do NOT depend on genetic factors but on stress factors & vitamins & supplements.

      Fact: The shape, strength, growth and form of a bone is determined not only by heredity but by the work it has to perform.