Unit Paper 3 Bone Remodeling

Section 1

One of the things that we leaned about in our study of bone is that they are constantly being remodeled.  While I was aware that bones grow during childhood, and that their density typically decreases through adulthood, I had no idea that they were remodeled in this kind of way throughout adulthood, and even to the extent of changing the entire shape of the bone.  The process of bone remodeling is important to keeping bones strong and healthy.  Older tissue is removed by osteoclasts, and then a new matrix is formed by osteoblasts, which is then filled in my minerals.



Osteoblasts, and osteoclasts work in concert to turn over bone material.  This process ensures that bone density is maintained at a healthy level, and that bone material is turned over.  The rate of bone turnover in adults is about 10% per year.  Through this process bones are continually being strengthened and rebuilt.

The idea that bones continue to be remodeled and change throughout our lives is quit compelling   Know thing really gives us a great amount of information about how we can protect ourselves against diseases like osteoporosis   Since exercise can have a huge impact on bone density, it is possible to affect this even later in life.  I couldn't find a good image to use that showed this, but in the textbook there is an image that shows how the curvature of a bone can be changed through this process.  This indicates that through therapy it may be possibly to stimulate even adult bones to change shape and grow in a certain way.

Sources:
Hadjidakis, DJ. Bone remodeling. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17308163. Accessed April 17, 2013.
What is Bone Remodeling. WiseGeek. http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-bone-remodeling.htm. Accessed April 16, 2013.

Section 2
1. What one assignment or activity you performed in this unit are you the most proud of?
My favorite assignment was actually the researching on the first portion of this paper.  Although the information between resources doesn't seem to be very varied I was able to find some really neat graphics that helped to explain the process better.  Sometimes those little things can make all the difference!

2. Why did you enroll in this biology class?
I enrolled in this class to fulfill my requirements for graduation   There aren't a lot of science courses that can be done from home and my schedule kind of requires that.  I did have a few classes to choose from and thought I would like to learn more about people physiologically to help my understanding of people and their cultural developments as well.  Understanding the physiological needs of people is a way to help understand their varied methods of fulfilling those needs.  This ties into my major educational focus of cultural anthropology.

3. Did you feel prepared for this experience when you registered?
4. How was your experience different from your expectations?
I had taken a human physiology class in high school that was designed for students who were planning on being premed, so I thought I had a good idea of what I was getting into with this class.  There were a lot of things that I remembered, but I think there was probably more that I had forgotten!  There are definitely areas where this class went into more depth!


5. What can I do to help you?
There hasn't been much that I feel our instructor hasn't done to help the students in this class.  She has always offered to help with and questions or problems that might arise for us and has been very flexible about things when the material has been challenging for the class.  I wouldn't want to take this class with anyone else!