This information was taken from a rewriting of the chiropractic pamphlets called Your Body and Chiropractic. This work was a collaboration from Dr. E. L. Crowder, Vern Gielow and Tim Bawden. Dr. Crowder sent the copies to my father August 20, 1991 to use as he saw fit.
Bones
The general appearance of a person depends not so much on what you can see, but what lies underneath the skin and tissues. There are 206 bones making up the human skeleton. Some are long, some are short. There are also flat bones and some of which defy general description, the irregular bones.
The strength of bones may be compared with that of cast iron, although, bones have flexibility quite like that of steel. There is a wide difference in weight, however. Bones weigh only about a third of cast iron. This light weight is most evident in arm and leg bones which are long and tubular.
The need for our bones to have strength is evident. The skeleton must support everything around it. The hip joint is responsible for about half the body weight plus the pull of muscles as a person walks or runs. In the average adult male, this compression adds at least 500 more pounds to the hip joint. There is evidence that under extreme exertion this weight bearing can be doubled or more.
Nature, in its infinite wisdom, has seen to it that bones are up to the task demanded of them. A long-distance runner develops stronger leg bones, while the carpenter may have hands grown stronger with the completion of every house he builds. If it's apparent, limb bones are under stress, additional bulk is added where there is need to maintain the integrity of that bone. It's a good example of how form follows function!
Again, as in so many instances in the human body, bones are multi-purpose. While bones help give us the shape we are, they also are factories of red and white blood cells. In an unborn child, blood cells are manufactured in the marrow of the long bones. An adult's blood cell factory is located in the marrow of the flat bones such as the sternum.
Ten million red blood cells are born every second. As many die in that instant too. The marrow of the bones keeps up with the supply and demand for thirty-five trillion blood cells, the normal complement for the average person. A blood cell has a life expectancy of twenty days. So, even if you are sleeping and the bones seem at rest, they are not! The factories of blood cells manufacture unrelentingly around the clock.
For every six hundred red blood cells, there is a white blood cell. Some white blood cells are manufactured in the marrow of bones, others are not. Those which call bone marrow their home, grow to maturity there, go on the tour of the circulatory system, do their work, and return to the marrow to die.
One of the most common conditions which afflicts bone tissue is osteoporosis. Under ordinary healthy conditions, bone replaces itself. If this doesn't occur, the bone tissue loses it's vitality and may become brittle, crumbling under severe physical trauma. There are many reasons for this condition, but high on the list is lack of use of the bones or malnutrition.
Chiropractic and spinal bones
The doctor of Chiropractic is a neuro-musculo-skeletal specialist, particularly in the area of the spine. The doctor knows their primary responsibility lies in keeping the integrity of the nervous system at a high level. All bodily functions, which allows the body to work and live in its environment, are controlled by the brain. The brain receives and transmits information twenty-four hours a day.
Messages to and from different areas of the body are delivered to the brain via nerve transmission through the spinal cord. The spinal cord is protected by the spinal colomn or spinal bones. For the brains messages to be delivered and received properly, the pathways of nerve transmission must be free and clear. The spinal column (bones), because of its flexibility and multi-purposed nature, is especially vulnerable to outside forces. Because of the mobility of the spine, the spinal bones (vertebrae) may become misaligned. As this happens, the messages sent by the brain may become distorted when received by the part of the body to which they were directed. These distortions or neuro-spinal malfunctions may result in ill heath. The doctor of chiropractic specializes in correcting these malfunctions also known as subluxations.
See your chiropractor. It is important to your personal well being. If you are presently enjoying good health, your doctor of chiropractic will help you maintain it. If you have problems of ill health, it is advised to see your doctor of chiropractic promptly.
Chiropractic is the world's largest natural healing art serving millions of people around the globe.
You are naturally entitled to good health! Work to achieve it today!
