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How to Grow Healthy Bones for Life. Love your bones. Without bones, you could look like this…. What do your bones do for you?. Just like a house frame, your skeleton is a frame to hold your body upright. But it lets you move!. This is what your skeleton looks like.
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How to Grow Healthy Bones for Life Love your bones
Just like a house frame, your skeleton is a frame to hold your body upright But it lets you move!
Your skull protects your brain Your ribcage protects your heart and lungs Your joints let you bend parts of your body
What about teeth? • Your teeth are a part of your skeleton • But they have a special hard coating that stops them from being broken down by your food and saliva
Did you know that your bones are alive? • Your bones keep growing stronger and bigger until you are about 30 years old • They can repair themselves if you break them
Bones on the Inside • This is the inside of the top part of a femur – your thigh bone - which is inside your hip • What do you notice about it?
This is a bird bone. How is it different to a human bone? • Bird bones are strong for flying, but they are brittle, which means they break easily and splinter when they break.
Osteoporosis‘Brittle Bones Disease’ This one has small holes which means it has good density. This makes it strong. This one has large holes. Because it has a low density (like bird bones) it will break easily.
Is your grandmother getting shorter? This is what osteoporosis looks like. The bones in the spine break down and the person cannot straighten up.
This lady and this man have osteoporosis. They broke bones just from falling over. It is important to be careful not to knock down an older person.
One day YOU will get old! To avoid getting osteoporosis BEFORE then you need to grow healthy bones NOW
3 Habits for Healthy Bones Eat Well Exercise Get Some Sun
Exercise is Number 1 • Being active is the very best thing you can do for your bones
Run Jump Skip Dance! • Getting lots of this kind of exercise is a great way to build your bone strength • It’s also good for the rest of your body
Eat Enough Foods Rich in CALCIUM Calcium is a mineral that makes your bones strong Calcium also has other essential jobs to do in your body such as helping your nerves to carry messages from your brain and making your muscles move (including your heart) If you don’t get enough calcium in your diet, your body will ROB your bones of calcium for more urgent jobs
But avoid too much… SALT CAFFEINE
Eat other healthy foods There are other vitamins and minerals that your body needs in order to absorb and use calcium – for example, phosphorus and magnesium You can get enough of these simply from eating a good variety of healthy foods – fruits, vegetables, legumes, lean meats and cereals But there is one vitamin that is difficult to get from food…
Sun + Skin = Vitamin D Your skin makes its own vitamin D from UVB rays from sunlight. Vitamin D helps protect you from a range of illnesses.
Rickets • Rickets is a disease in young children caused by a lack of vitamin D, calcium, phosphorus or magnesium • It causes the bones to soften and bend • Not getting enough sun can do this
How much sun is OK? To get enough sunlight to produce vitamin D, a person needs to expose their hands, face and arms to sunlight for about 6 - 8 minutes, 4 - 6 times per week (before 10am or after 3pm in summer, for moderately fair people). In winter in Canberra you need several hours of sun per week. There is no risk of sun damage in these months, which is why you don’t need to wear a hat at school.
What about me? • The darker your skin, the longer you need to spend in the sun to get enough vitamin D
Supplements… If you can’t get enough vitamins and minerals from food and sunlight, tablets can help.
By the way, eating healthy foods and getting enough sunlight is also great for growing healthy teeth!
3 Habits for Healthy Bones Eat Well Exercise Get Some Sun
