Your Skeleton On Halloween, And Every Other Day Of The Year
DENVER (CBS4) - Just in time for Halloween, or any other time of the year: some not-so-scary trivia about the human skeleton:
The average adult has 206 bones. Yet the average newborn has more than 300. Why? Bones tend to fuse together as we age, for example, the skull starts out with a bunch of bones, which then fuse to each other. That's why the "soft spot" on the head disappears.
The hands and feet have the most bones in the human body, more than half in the entire body. The hands have 54, the feet have 52.
Bones are constantly replenishing themselves well into adulthood. As a result, every seven years each cell in the body's skeleton has been replaced. So, you wind up a fresh skeleton every seven years.
A "broken" bone means the same thing medically as the word "fracture."
Bones continue to grow in boys until the late teens -- and that is mainly determined by genetics. Girls, on the other hand, stop growing about two years after they begin getting menstrual periods.
The longest bone in the human body is the femur, or thigh bone. The smallest is in the middle ear. It's called the stapes and is one tenth of an inch long. Pretty miniature.
You've heard the toe bone is connected to the foot bone, and so one. For good reason: all of the bones except for one are connected to some other bone. The lonesome one is called the hyoid bone, and it is located in the throat near the vocal cords all by itself.
Be kind to your bones, and they will be kind to you. (Especially when you are younger). Bones stop thickening by age 30, then thin out as you age. Sure, calcium is important, as is Vitamin D -- but the best remedy to sturdy bones is regular activity.
Keep those bones moving!
Dr. Dave Hnida is CBS4's Medical Editor. He blogs about the latest studies and trends in the health world. Read his latest blog entries, check out his bio or follow him on Twitter @drdavehnida.
