Bones become less dense. Loss of bone density is osteoporosis. With osteoporosis, bones become weaker and more likely to break. In women, loss of bone density speeds up after menopause because less estrogen is produced. Estrogen helps prevent too much bone from being broken down during the body’s normal process of forming, breaking down, and re-forming bone.
Bones become less dense partly because the calcium/magnesium balance is changing (which gives bones strength). The amount of calcium/magnesium decreases because the body absorbs less calcium from foods. Levels of vitamin D, which helps the body use calcium, decrease slightly. Certain bones are weakened more than others. Those most affected include the end of the thighbone (femur) at the hip, the ends of the arm bones (radius and ulna) at the wrist, and the bones of the spine (vertebrae).
Changes in vertebrae at the top of the spine cause the head to tip forward, compressing the throat. As a result, swallowing is more difficult, and choking is more likely. The vertebrae become less dense and the cushions of tissue (intervertebral fibrocartilage or also called disks) between them lose fluid and become thinner, making the spine shorter. Older people become shorter. The main reason for this is mentioned before. Gravity and air pressure are constant powers working on the body and give no time to relax the joints neither the vertebrate.
Ligaments, which bind joints together, and tendons, which bind muscle to bone, become less elastic, making joints feel tight or stiff. These tissues also weaken. Ligaments tear more easily, and when they tear, they heal slowly. These changes occur because the cells that maintain ligaments and tendons become less active.
The research did prove that power training, such as weight training or better-called resistance training, focused on bone density can stop and even rewind this process dramatically. Special resistance exercises applied in the right angles and time promote a fast bone recovery and renewed bone marrow increase. Bone marrow is a highly underestimated part of our physic which has an important influence on the aging process. People with a weak marrow have less blood, are weaker also in muscular capacities, have bridle bones and in general are less healthy and weaker. But it is also less know what it is and does.
Bone marrow is the soft, flexible connective tissue within bone cavities. A component of the lymphatic system, bone marrow functions primarily to produce blood cells and to store fat. Bone marrow is highly vascular, meaning that it is richly supplied with a large number of blood vessels. There are two categories of bone marrow tissue: red marrow and yellow marrow. From birth to early adolescence, the majority of our bone marrow is red marrow. As we grow and mature, increasing amounts of red marrow are replaced by yellow marrow. On average, bone marrow can generate hundreds of billions of new blood cells every day.
