bones

Restoring the Temple – Bones

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“A merry heart doeth good [like] a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.” Proverbs 17:22.

Let’s start our tour of the body’s organ systems with the skeletal system. Maybe you did not think of your bones as organs, yet they are. When thinking of bones, perhaps you imagine a bleached and dried bone your dog chews, or perhaps a skeleton dangling from a hook at school. While these objects may depict a bone in size and shape, they do not accurately depict a living bone.

Yes, bone is very much alive and dynamic, teeming with active cells, a cement-like matrix holding them together, and the blood vessels that circulate blood through them. Just like any other cell, bone cells need blood to supply them with nutrients and to whisk away waste products. If bones were not alive, they would not heal when they broke. If you have ever fractured a bone, you know how they can hurt. That is because nerves cover their surface (called the periosteum) and make them sensitive to pain.

Our bones change throughout our lives as bone formation and bone destruction occur simultaneously. In our childhood and youth, bone formation occurs more rapidly than bone destruction. After about age 35, bone destruction occurs more rapidly than bone formation. In the elderly, and in some disease processes of the skeleton, bone destruction increases, making bones thin and brittle. Vertebrae may collapse, and height decreases, which is why we may become shorter over time.

Unlike dead bones, living bones are slightly flexible. Many of them are hollow, which makes them lighter and stronger, much like the steelwork in a skyscraper. We are born with over 300 soft bones, but as we get older, many of them fuse together and harden, leaving the adult with 206 bones. The largest bone is the femur in the thigh; the smallest are the auditory ossicles in the ear—you may know them as the hammer, anvil, and stirrup.

Males and females have the same number of bones (including the same number of ribs—24). Otherwise, there are a few minor differences between the male and female skeletons. The bones of the male are generally larger and heavier than the bones of the female. Also, the female pelvic cavity is wider to accommodate childbirth.

What do bones do? One obvious function of bones is to work with muscles to provide movement. You may also realize that bones provide a protective function. Some of our most vital organs are surrounded by bone, such as the brain, the spinal cord, the heart, and the lungs.

One lesser-known function of the skeletal system is that it makes blood. As previously noted, certain bones are hollow. Inside hollow bones are yellow marrow and red marrow. Long bones contain yellow marrow in their hollow central cavities and red marrow in their joint ends. Red marrow can also be found in the cavities of the flat bones, the short bones, and the ribs. Red marrow is where white blood cells and red blood cells grow. The yellow marrow is a storehouse for lipids and minerals, which can quickly be made available for the needs of other parts of the body.

Ligaments connect bones to each other. Articulations, or joints, are where bones meet. Some joints are stationary, such as most of the joints in the skull. It is the use of our muscles, pulling on part of the bones, that causes the movement of a joint.

Calcium phosphate accounts for approximately two-thirds of bone weight. Calcium phosphate crystals are very hard but quite brittle. They can take heavy compression forces, but can shatter when subjected to twisting, bending, or sudden impact.

About one-third of the weight of bone is made up of collagen fibers, which are stronger than steel and flexible, easily tolerating bending and flexing. Collagen’s weak point is that it doesn’t stand up to compression. Collagen fibers make up a framework in which the calcium crystals are locked, forming a protein-crystal complex that blends the strong properties of both substances. Thus bone is as strong as steel-reinforced concrete, but far superior because it is self-repairing. Isn’t God’s design marvelous?

Of what are bones made? Bone cells and other kinds of cells account for two percent of the mass. There are four kinds of bone cells: osteoprogenitor cells, osteocytes, osteoblasts, and osteoclasts. Osteocytes, the most populous type, cannot divide. They help recycle calcium and help in the repair of damaged bone. Osteoprogenitor cells are a type of stem cell that basically grows up to be osteoblasts. Osteoblasts are responsible for producing new bone matrix; so they build up bone. Osteoclasts, huge cells with up to 50 nuclei, remove bone matrix; so they tear down bone. You are probably wondering why we would have cells that tear down bone. As previously stated, bone is a storage complex for minerals. When another part of the body needs a mineral—such as calcium, which also regulates the heart rate and is a part of the blood clotting process—osteoclasts break down the bone matrix to release the mineral, and it is transported via the circulatory system to the area in need. This breakdown happens continually, day by day. If this process were not balanced, our bones would soon fall apart. Here is where the osteoblasts come in, building the bone matrix back up—continually, day by day.

The systems of the body do not work completely independent of one another, but are exquisitely inter-linked (see Table on page 37). Ellen White advised: “The muscles are dependent on the brain and nerves for the power of action. The mind wills to move the limbs. To keep this machinery in working order, it is essential that brain, bone, and muscle be brought into action. The exercise of the muscles quickens the circulation of the blood. How important then that parents understand the philosophy of the healthful action of brain, bone, muscles, and nerves and how needful that they educate their children in this line.” Manuscript Releases, vol. 5, 222.

There are several hormones that play a part in the regulation of bone growth. Calcitriol, made in the kidneys, promotes calcium absorption in the digestive tract. Growth hormone, made in the pituitary gland, and thyroxine, made in the thyroid gland, stimulate osteoblast activity. Estrogen, testosterone, and the parathyroid hormone, made in the ovaries, testes, and parathyroid glands, respectively, stimulate osteoclast activity. Calcitonin, made in the thyroid gland, inhibits osteoclast activity.

Diseases of the bone can be caused by impaired function of the glands. For instance, gigantism results from an overproduction of growth hormone before puberty. This is the disease that the late Robert Pershing Wadlow had, becoming the tallest living person until his death in 1940. His weight was 490 pounds; his height was 8 feet 11 inches (he was 6 feet 5 inches tall when he was ten years old). The opposite problem, pituitary dwarfism, is caused by inadequate amounts of growth hormone. Fortunately these diseases are now more easily treatable than they once were.

We have the opportunity to see giants again in the resurrection; their height not caused by disease. How tall will we grow in heaven? I’d like to find out, wouldn’t you?

“Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.” Proverbs 3:7, 8.

Restoring the Temple – Skeletal Muscles

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“But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty [God] of Jacob; (from thence [is] the shepherd, the stone of Israel:).” Genesis 49:24

Last month we learned about bones. We have bones in our arms and legs, but they cannot move and cannot make us move. Muscles supply movement. There are three types of muscles: skeletal, cardiac, and smooth. The body has about 700 skeletal muscles, comprising approximately 40 percent of our body weight. Thirty of these muscles are in our face, allowing us to smile, frown, and have many other expressions. Our Creator made cardiac (heart) muscle very strong so that our hearts would work for three-quarters of a century or more, resting only between beats. Smooth muscles, like cardiac muscles, are not attached to the skeleton and are found in blood vessels and in the digestive tract. The largest muscles are the gluteus maximus, located in each buttock. The smallest are the tiny arrector pili muscles that raise the hairs on your skin when you are cold.

Skeletal muscles are voluntary muscles. This means that we consciously will them to move. We wish to walk, or kick a ball, or turn the pages of this magazine and the muscles contract, making all of this and much, much more possible. Cardiac and smooth muscles are involuntary muscles. This is a really good idea, isn’t it? What if we had to consciously make our lungs expand and contract, even while sleeping? What if we had to will each beat of our heart, or control the movement of food through our digestive tracts? We could not do it! God is wondrous, maintaining every microscopic function of the body.

Could we live without muscles? One might think so. Do you have to have movement to live? That is the primary function of muscles, after all. Without them you would not be able to stand or walk or chew. But muscles do more than just move bones. Food makes its way through the body through the contraction of muscles. Otherwise you would chew your food and then be unable to swallow, and that would be the end of the food’s digestive journey! Think also of your blood. How does it flow to your head when you are standing? How does it flow to your feet when you are standing on your head? Why, muscles, of course. Breathing, speaking, and having the hairs rise on your arms when you are cold are all possible because of muscles.

Muscles work by pulling, never by pushing. Muscles contracting in pairs accomplish movement in multiple directions. Skeletal muscles are all attached to bones at each end of the muscles. For instance, the biceps muscle in your upper arm originates, or is attached, to the shoulder blade, and the other end is attached, or inserted, on the radius and ulna of the forearm, near the elbow. So imagine what happens when the muscle contracts, becoming shorter and fatter in appearance. If the biceps is attached to the shoulder and the forearm, what will happen? The elbow bends (the fulcrum of the lever) and the forearm is lifted.

Just like bones, muscles may be damaged. When someone says they have a “pulled” muscle, the muscle has been torn just like a bone may be broken. Our muscles are able to heal, although it takes longer than when our skin is damaged. Rest, fluids, and proper nutrition speed the healing process. Continuing to walk on a hurt leg, for instance, slows the healing process. Won’t it be wonderful in heaven when we don’t have to worry about injury anymore?

“Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, [that] the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? [there is] no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to [them that have] no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew [their] strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; [and] they shall walk, and not faint.” Isaiah 40:28–31.

Health – Healthy Bones

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A healthy, active life is one in which you can participate in all the activities that make life worth living! Strong bones are without doubt a significant measure of overall health and vitality.

Bone loss and fractures have in recent years become an increasing concern for women over 65, and rightly so. But a couple of decades ago research indicated that bone loss speeds up in the years immediately after menopause, raising concerns about osteoporosis, a disease in which bones become fragile and break easily, among much younger women. Suddenly any woman over 40 felt she was at risk for osteoporosis. Strong bones help prevent osteoporosis; such prevention should begin at an early age and continue throughout your lifetime.

A Natural Process

Bone loss is a natural, in fact, vital process. Only bone loss (called resorption) can initiate healthy new bone formation (called deposition or formation). As with all things in nature, good bone health relies on a balance between this action and counter-action, like breathing out and breathing in.

New bone is strong and flexible with the ability to bear both compression (running, jumping) and tensile (flexing) pressure. Bones strengthen with use, just like muscle, all through your life. But at some point, bone loss gradually begins to outpace bone growth—when this begins happening is highly individual, but it can be as much as 20 years or more before menopause.

Bone health is influenced by many factors: family history, body frame size, diet, calcium intake, vitamin D levels, physical exercise, hormonal balance, stress, and lifestyle. And because bones are constantly regenerating, every step you take to support their function will make a big difference—whenever you take them.

Bone health depends on the give-and-take process described above, also called remodeling. During this process, bone cells called osteoclasts travel through bone tissue retrieving old bone and leaving small, jagged spaces behind. This triggers their counterparts, called osteoblasts, to come into these spaces and deposit new bone. About 5 to 10 percent of all your bone tissue is replaced—or turned over—in a year in this way. Osteoblasts cannot work properly without sufficient osteoclast activity, and new bone is stronger and—this is key—more flexible than old bone.

No matter how much bone you make, you will still experience bone loss with age, but bone health is important at every age. Building and maintaining strong bones depends on calcium, vitamin D, and physical activity.

Calcium

Calcium is an important nutrient for your body and for your health. Calcium helps your heart, muscles, and nerves function. It is also important for bone health. Ninety-nine percent of your body’s calcium is stored in your bones. Children and teenagers need adequate calcium in their diets so they can maximize the calcium storage in their bones. In later years, adequate dietary calcium helps minimize calcium loss from the bones.

Studies show that over half of Americans do not get the recommended calcium from their diets. Starting early with the right nutrition is important. Girls frequently do not obtain the needed amount of calcium during their teen years, which has great effect on their bone density in later life.

There are a variety of foods which could give you the needed nutrition in your diet. Collard and kale are two of the most concentrated sources of calcium for a vegan. Fortified calcium orange juice is also good for your skeleton, in addition to kiwis and figs. Grain products are excellent sources of calcium and should be part of your everyday diet from early childhood.

Although dairy products are considered to be the best source of calcium, in addition to those foods mentioned above, vegan vegetarians may obtain needed key nutrients from calcium-rich alternatives: dry beans, such as black-eyed peas, kidney beans, black beans; turnip greens and broccoli.

Vitamin D

Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that plays an integral role in nutrition and a healthy body. Vitamin D works alongside calcium to ensure the formation and maintenance of healthy bones. A deficiency of vitamin D can lead to rickets in children or osteomalacia and osteoporosis in adults.

Vitamin D can be made from a non-food source: the sun! Fifteen minutes a day during peak hours (with skin exposed) should be enough for fair-skinned individuals, but those who have darker skin, are older, or live at more Northern latitudes might not get enough exposure, especially in the winter.

Sometimes vitamin D must be provided in the diet, but dietary sources of vitamin D are rare. Whole, fatty fish are a good source, but are obviously not vegetarian. Milk may be fortified with vitamin D, and egg yolks also contain some, but these are not desirable sources for vegan vegetarians. If a vegan diet does not include fortified soy milk, orange juice, or margarine, on a regular basis, a supplement can be taken.

Physical Activity

It may be hard to believe, but exercises do not just help your muscles; they help your bones. Scientific research has shown that athletes have higher bone density than people who are not active. There are two types of exercises that are important for having healthier and stronger bones: weight-bearing and resistance exercises.

Weight-bearing exercise helps keep bones strong and prevents calcium loss. Calcium loss can take place at any age, even during childhood. For example, astronauts (weightlessness in space) and sedentary people are at risk for losing calcium from their bones.

Weight-bearing exercises are the exercises that make your muscles work against gravity and make your bones handle your body weight. Exercises of this sort include jogging, walking, and tennis. Try a daily activity with your family, neighbors, or friends—walking at the mall, joining a fitness club, or doing a hobby. Aim for at least 30 minutes of activity on most days of the week. You can add up the minutes throughout the day. It does not need to be all at one time.

Resistance exercises are the ones which improve your muscle mass and that help fortify and strengthen your bones. Weight lifting is an example of a resistance exercise. Resistance exercises are very vital not only for your bone density, but also for your heart, lungs, and blood circulation in general.

There are many ways to keep your bones healthy and strong for longer time. Personal habits like proper diet and a good amount of exercise will increase your chances to keep your bones healthy and strong for a long time.

“The pure air, the glad sunshine, the flowers and trees, the orchards and vineyards, and outdoor exercise amid these surroundings, are health-giving, life-giving.” The Ministry of Healing, 263.

“The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones.” Isaiah 58:11.

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Health – How Important is Calcium?

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No element is less understood and more ignorantly applied than calcium and its compounds. Calcium is the great builder of the structural parts of the body, not only of the bones and ligaments, but the walls of the arteries, the heart, the walls of the veins, the teeth, the epithelial, and connective tissue. It is also an integral and necessary element in both blood and lymph. We know that many malnutrition diseases are usually the results of a deficiency of calcium.

At the same time, an excess of calcium is responsible for arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries); also for scleroma (sclerosis of tissue, liver, skin, eyes and so forth). In fact, old age itself is brought about by a gradual hardening of the whole structural system through deposition of calcium compounds that are insoluble and inorganic.

While the young growing organism can use relatively large amounts of calcium, a fully matured and solidified body requires less. For middle age, comparatively less than half the amount is necessary. The older age requires a very small amount, above which calcium becomes a very dangerous thing to use, often bringing about most disastrous results, and yet never being thought of as the cause of the chronic suffering, and sometimes death of the patient.

The type of calcium that causes the trouble is inorganic. Inorganic calcium cannot be used in the life process of the cell, but forms instead the greatest number of obstructions to the normal life processes of the human organism.

Organic calcium, as found in some foods and herbs, is distinctly alkaline in reaction, such as lemons, limes, oranges, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, lettuce, string beans and onions. Others have an acid reaction upon certain fluids and tissues such as milk, cheese, peas, beans, lentils, cucumbers, radishes, fish, meat, and potatoes.

Green and leafy vegetables contain calcium chloride, as do many berries and herbs. Organic calcium chloride is found in red clover, wheat bran, rhubarb, yellow dock, watercress, blue vervain, motherwort, cactus, hawthorn berries, comfrey root, marshmallow, and many others.

When we see how important calcium is in body action, we should never use something that will counteract its power. When using refined sugar, we are using a substance that is known as a calcium destroyer.

Dr. Bernard Jensen, D.C., N.D., in his book, You Can Master Diseases, (Bernard Jensen Publishing Division, California, 1984), states: “White sugar has been called a leacher of calcium.”

As soon as sugar enters the body, it goes directly into the bloodstream and commences removing the calcium it comes into contact with and robs the cells of the calcium, from the arteries, veins, capillaries, tissue, muscles, and bones.

It is crucial for a woman carrying a fetus to have adequate calcium for both herself and also the baby. The baby, by nature, will draw from the mother’s body any calcium it can get for its own survival, drawing from the veins, arteries, muscles, teeth and bones of the mother. This is the reason for so much varicosity and loss of teeth during pregnancy.

The more sugars and starches (which turn to sugar) the mother consumes, the faster the drainage of calcium from her body, and trouble from weakened areas.

Forearm and Hip Fractures Most Common

“The principal clinical manifestation of osteoporosis is fracture,” Dr. B. E. C. Nordin, professor of mineral metabolism at the University of Luds, points out, “and three osteoporotic fracture syndromes can be defined: the lower forearm fracture, which predominantly affects women between the ages of 50 and 65; the fracture of the proximal femur (the hip), which affects both sexes over the age of seventy; and the relatively rare vertebral crush fracture syndrome, which may be present at any age, but is most common in elderly women.” (British Medical Journal, March 13, 1971).

Osteoporosis characteristically occurs in women after menopause and is presumably related to low estrogen output—the female hormone that dwindles when ovulation and the monthly periods cease. In men, fragile porous bones typically develop considerably later in life and disorder is less severe. However, although the disease is associated with late middle age and old age, the process probably begins many decades earlier.

“I would advise women to start calcium and vitamin D supplements at age 30, or perhaps 25,” says Dr. Jennifer Jowsey of the Mayo Clinic. With the average American diet, there’s apparently a long-term gradual loss of bone mineral exceeding the rate of mineral uptake and bone formation. In later years, when hormonal changes increase the susceptibility to osteoporosis, the skeleton has already lost a good deal of its substance. By then, because of previous loss, the rate of bone formation must not only equal the rate of bone demineralization (the normal condition) but must exceed it if bone strength is to be restored.

It is far more difficult, Dr. Jowsey warns, to induce new, compensatory bone formation than it is simply to slow down bone demineralization. Adequate calcium and vitamin D in the diet will go far to accomplish the latter. But preliminary finds, the Mayo scientist says, indicate that lost bone will not be automatically restored by such dietary correction.

Osteoporisis, Puff by Puff

We can believe from what Dr. Jowsey says that long-term marginal deficiency in calcium and vitamin D is the principle villain in the tragedy of osteoporosis. However, other factors, too, influence bone health. We now know, for example, that cigarettes contribute to bone demineralization and that we should swear off smoking, supposing we are still hooked on this altogether harmful habit.

In a letter appearing in the Journal of the American Medical Association (July 31, 1972), Dr. Harry W. Daniell reports his findings that heavy cigarette smoking appears to be a prominent factor in inducing osteoporosis. Dr. Daniell, who practices in Redding, California, was prompted to undertake his study when he realized that most of his under 65 patients suffering from osteoporosis were habitual heavy smokers. (When it occurs before 65, osteoporosis is considered “premature.”) The west coast physician and his associates then studied records from the three small hospitals in the area, coming up with the cases of 17 women who have had at least one characteristic osteoporotic bone fracture prior to age 65. Follow-up interviews with the patients of surviving relatives revealed that of the 17, only one was a nonsmoker; one smoked less than 20 cigarettes a day; and 15 of the 17 had smoked 20 or more cigarettes daily for many years. An 88 percent correlation between heavy smoking and early incidence of osteoporosis is “statistically significant!”

As to how cigarette smoking could so affect the bones, Dr. Daniell points out that bone minerals (mostly calcium and phosphorus, responsible for the bone’s hardness) are “known to be strikingly more soluble in acid solutions,” and cigarette smoking is known to increase the acidity of bone tissue. Thus the bone minerals could be expected to dissolve and be absorbed into the bloodstream at a much faster rate when smoking provides the acid environment.

Studies have shown, Dr. Daniell says, that three consecutive cigarettes cause a prompt transient hypercalcemia—or high content of calcium in the blood. This finding, he explains, suggests that the act of smoking is associated with rapid calcium loss from bone structures.

Still other factors can influence the onset of osteoporosis. Writing in the British Medical Journal (June 2, 1973), Dr. P. E. Belchotz and colleagues suggest that taking your calcium supplement just before going to bed might make a difference in preventing excess mineral loss.

Here’s the rationale: regular meals during the day constantly provide at least some calcium to the bloodstream. But calcium absorption from the gut continues only three to five hours after eating, and therefore from about midnight on, the lack of incoming calcium from the intestinal tract triggers the action of the parathyroid hormone (parathormone), which stimulates bone demineralization or “resportion.” The female hormone, estrogen, the authors note, to some extent, desensitizes bones to the action of parathormone. But in postmenopausal women, this protection has been reduced.

Initial clinical studies by the investigators tend to confirm their hypotheses.

Another factor that triggers the action of parathormone, according to Dr. Jowsey and her associates at the Mayo Clinic, is a mineral imbalance, with phosphorus intake grossly exceeding calcium intake. (Postgraduate Medicine, October 1972.) Heavy meat eaters are at risk of this condition because meat, while very poor in calcium, has a high phosphorus content. It is meat eater’s unbalanced high phosphorus intake, in Dr. Jowsey’s opinion, that accounts for the now established fact that longtime vegetarians are less susceptible to osteoporosis than are omnivores.

Bones that are osteoporotic are like beams in a frame house that have been eaten away for years by termites. But instead of termites, what’s eating away the calcium from the bones of an osteoporotic person is their own blood. That happens because every nerve in the body—including those that cause the heart to beat and the brain to function—needs a precise amount of calcium to carry out its job. Our bodies are strictly programmed to keep this calcium at the required level. If there is not enough of this mineral coming in from dietary sources, complex metabolic machinery immediately removes the required amount from the legs, hips, spine, ribs and arms.

Ordinarily this is a slow but relentless undermining process, but with cortisone administrations, it is swift and relentless. There are usually no symptoms produced until the patient discovers that a minor bump or fall results in a broken arm, leg, or worse still, a hip.

Increased Risk of Fractures

An article on the subject of calcium was published in the newsletter (February, 1974) of the Jewish Hospital of St. Louis, Missouri. It began by pointing out that cortisone and its derivatives are being administered to several million patients in the United States who suffer from a number of chronic disorders, rheumatoid arthritis being just one of them. It warns that however useful these compounds may be in alleviating these disorders, they result in a number of serious side effects, including the production of often severe bone loss with an increasing risk of bone fractures.

It is not unusual for patients to have a loss of 30–50 percent of their bone mass after several years of high-dose cortisone treatment.

Dr. Theodore Hahn, a spokesman for a bone research team at the Jewish Hospital, says it appears that cortisone directly blocks the activity of the bone forming cells and at the same time decreases intestinal absorption of calcium. As if these two effects weren’t bad enough, the calcium deficiency in turn can produce “secondary hormonal changes which increases bone breakdown.”

But Dr. Hahn and his coworkers have some good news for people who have been taking cortisone drugs. Large but carefully controlled doses of vitamin D, along with calcium supplements, can reverse this severe degeneration of the skeleton. The article, “Preliminary Results from a Group of 30 Patients Treated with this Regimen”, states indirectly that bone mass can be increased by as much as 25–30 percent over a six-month period, thereby greatly decreasing the risk of bone fracture in cortisone treated patients.

Activity Fortifies the Bones

In 1970, at the annual meeting of the Swedish Medical Society held in Stockholm, Drs. Nils Westlin and Bo Nilsson of Malmo, Sweden, reported that when they measured bone densities in young men they found that 64 athletes had significantly higher bone density than 39 nonathletes of the same age. Density was found to rise with increases in physical activity. (Medical Tribune, February 6, 1970.)

Dr. Carlton Fredericks said that women with bones weakened by osteoporosis should, if they are capable of doing it, skip rope as a means of therapeutic exercise. The impact on the spine, vertically exerted, generates the electrical forces that drive calcium to the bone areas requiring reinforcement. (The Carlton Fredericks Newsletter of Nutrition, July 1, 1972.)

Obviously, an elderly man or woman is not likely to take up jumping rope after having not exercised for several years. But much the same effect could be gained from walking. A brisk walk at least, for those unable to perform more vigorous exercise, is essential if bones are to stay healthy.

Dr. John R. Christopher, Excerpts from School of Natural Healing Newsletter, Volume 1, Issue Eleven.