Health Applications

     Although you may not realize the importance of your skeletal system, it's one of the most important aspects needed to maintain life. The skeletal system serves as a framework for your body. Muscles are attached to the bones, and joints are between them. Without it, you could not walk nor move. Have you even broken a bone before? If you have, then for a month you may have realized the importance of your skeletal system and how much harder life would be without it. The skeletal system consists of bones, ligaments, and cartilage. Your body has over 200 bones. To maintain and build healthy bones, one must have a balanced diet with calcium and a regular exercise pattern. Some diseases are caused by insufficient care of the bones, while others are maternal. Click on the links to learn more about each category.

Osteoporosis

     This disease is perhaps the most famous and most rumored. Osteoporosis is most prominent in middle to old aged people who lack calcium in their bones. Osteoporosis is also caused by not exercising regularly. Osteoporosis is a bone disease in which bone tissue becomes brittle and porous due to loss of bone calcium. As a result, fractures are more likely to occur. This disease is more often seen in older aged females. An adequate amount of calcium is important to keep your bones healthy. 28 million Americans are prone to this disease; 10 million have the disease and 18 million have low bone marrow content and are more subjectable to this disease. 80% of this figure are middle-aged women. To prevent this disease, try to keep a healthy balanced diet with calcium and vitamin D, and limit alcohol and smoke intake. The most typical sites of fractures related to osteoporosis are the hip, spine, wrist, and ribs, although the disease can affect any bone in the body. Most women 50 and over die within a year of a hip fracture. This disease is highly preventable, but more money must be put into funding more research and further development of treatments of this disease. Currently this disease is incurable, although some medications that are proven to be helpful include:

Estrogens (brand names such as Premarin®, Ogen®, Estrace®, Estraderm®, Estratab®, Prempro® and others)
Alendronate (brand name Fosamax®)
Calcitonin (brand name Miacalcin®)
Raloxifene (brand name Evista®)
Risedronate (brand name Actonel®)
Courtesy of http://www.osteo.org

Arthritis

     Arthritis is a rather general term that generalizes over 100 different varieties of the disease which involve inflammation. Out of millions of people who suffer from this disease, most fall into 2 categories: Osteoartheritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

     Osteoarthritis also affects middle-aged people mostly. The disease is the wearing down of the moving parts of a joint. It usually occurs due to wear or tear. In rare cases it may be hereditary. Studies show that 30% of women who wear high-heeled shoes for long periods of time have OA, as high heels put pressure on the knee to maintain balance, as it usually wouldn't. Vigorous sporting activities and obesity can also put stress on knee joints and lead to OA. People who suffer from this disease have symptoms including crooked joints and may experience pain when moving joints. A recent treatment for Osteoarthritis of the knee is viscosupplementation, the injection of Hyaluronic acid into the knee. Hyaluronic acid is naturally found in joint fluid, it acts as part of the lubrication system of the joint. In people with osteoarthritis, the quality and quantity of hyaluronate in the joint fluid and tissues may be deficient.
     Rheumatoid arthritis leads to serious deformity and loss of joint functions. This type of arthritis most often affects people between the ages of 20-55, but it can also affect children. This disease is serious because it not only causes severe pain and deformity of the joints, it can also attack other systems of your body through inflammation such as the
Skin- Rheumatoid nodules form under the skin in 25% of RA victims. These nodules may be harmless but can ulcerate and grow on internal organs also. RA also makes the skin weak and vulnerable to break and bruising.
Heart- Pericaditis is the inflammation of the skin surrounding the heart, and the coronary artery can also become inflamed, blocking blood from entering, therefore the heart becomes dysfunctional.
Lungs- The lining of the lung can also become inflamed, leading to chest pain, fever, or shortness of breath.
Kidneys- The blood vessels of the kidney expand, though this condition is not serious, it can cause irritation and pain.
RA can also affect the gastrointestinal tracts, nervous system, muscles, bones, eyes, and throat. Arthritis can be cured or helped by laser therapy, which helps reduce joint inflammation. Light can be used to ease pain due to osteoarthritis because the pain is due to blood clots in the capillaries that surround the joints. Beaming a laser on the arthritic joint for a few minutes unclots the blood in capillaries and flows to the tissue surrounding the joints. The inflammation decreases, and pain is relieved.

Leukemia

     Leukemia is a malignant disease which affects the blood-forming tissues and organs, mainly the bone marrow and spleen. It is cancer of the blood forming tissues and is the most common form of cancer in children. Symptoms are similar to a cold- fatigue, paleness, weight loss, repeated infections, easy bruising, and nosebleeds. Leukemia and related cancers will strike some 94,200 Americans each year and kill about 51,650. There are many different types of leukemia, one of which is Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia. CLL is a disease in which too many infection-fighting white blood cells called lymphocytes are found in the body. Lymphocytes are made in the bone marrow and by other organs of the lymph system. This condition causes less platelets in the blood, making blood clotting difficult and bleeding very dangerous. Cures include chemotherapy and bone marrow transplants, but to find a suitable bone marrow donor is extremely hard and time consuming. Chemotherapy is killing the cancer using large dosages of drugs through injestion or injection. The chemicals travel throughout your body, killing cancer cells. Unfortunately, it often kills fast regenerating cells such as skin/hair and red blood cells also, mistaking them for cancer cells. That is why some patients under chemotheraapy undergo hair loss. Other diseases related to leukemia include Adult Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia, Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia, Adult Acute Mylogenous lukemia, Childhood Acute Mylogenous Leukemia, Non- Hodgkin's Lymphoma, Hodgkin's Disease, Lymphoma Mantle Cell Leukemia, Multiple Myeloma, Myeloma Myeloproliferative Disorders, Cutaneous T-Cell Lymphoma, Mycosis Fungoides, and hairy cell leukemia.
(Reference: http://www.geocities.com/leukemia_lymphoma/leukemia4.htm)

How to Stay Healthy, Then?
Here is a list of things that are beneficiary to enhancing your bone content.
-Milk and other dairy products (calcium and phosphorous)
-Fortified milk, sunlight, fish liver oils (Vitamin D)
-Exercise (build up tissue and strengthen bones) aerobic exercises build endurance in muscles that holds bones together, gives joints smoother movements, etc.
-Calcium pill

Please also take our milk poll before leaving.

-Resources-
Bibliography Meeks, Linda. Heit, Philip. Merrill Health. Ohio: Merrill Publishing Co., 1991
Biology: The Dynamics of Life. Macmillan, McGraw-Hill, Glencoe. Ohio, 1995
http://www.osteo.org
http://www.arthritiscentral.com
http://www.arthritisinsight.com
http://pages.prodigy.com/MD/sey/MDleuk2.html
http://www.northrim.net/bonemarrow
http://www.runnerssource.com/Texasweb/houston/MaraTrain/LukSociety.htm
http://arthritis.about.com/health/arthritis
http://www.geocities.com/leukemia_lymphoma/leukemia2.htm