TOP 10 FASCINATING FACTS ABOUT HUMAN BONES

• We’re constantly making new discoveries about the human body. Below we created a list of some fascinating facts about bones in the human body.

  Scientists recently discovered a new body part that has eluded or remained undetected for over a century. As Science Daily reports, two surgeons at University Hospitals Leuven have located a new ligament in the human knee. Dr. Steven Claes and Professor Dr. Johan Bellemans, after four years of research, discovered a new ligament and called it the anterolateral ligament.

  1. Smallest Bone in the Human Body: Stirrup Bone

  

  The smallest bone in the human body is the stirrup bone, the stapes, one of the 3 bones that make up your middle ear; measuring 2-3 millimeters. It is shaped like a “U.” It is the innermost bone that receives sound vibrations and passes them along to the cochlea to eventually be interpreted by the brain.

  2. Biggest (and Strongest) Bone in the Human Body: Femur

  

  The femur is the strongest bone in the human body. It extends from the hip to the knee.  It can resist a force of up to 1,800 to 2,500 pounds. Only events of a large amount of force can cause it to break, such as by a car accident or a fall from an extreme height, taking months to heal.

  3. Body Part with the Most Bones: The Hands

  

  The hands have the most bones — 27 in each hand.The hands and feet together make up more than half the bones in the human body. There are 206 bones in the human body; 106 of these are in the hands and feet (27 in each hand and 26 in each foot).

  4. Most Fragile Bone in the Body: The Toe Bones

  

  The small toe bones break the easier and most often. Almost everyone has broken a toe, even a small one, in their life. And there’s really you can do about it, but let it heal.

  5. Most Commonly Broken Bone: The Ankle!

  

  Even more common than breaking a toes is spraining or breaking your ankle. It happens almost everywhere: on the field of play, on a hiking trail or trying not to trip over children’s toys. There is a difference between a sprained and broken ankle. Ankle fractures and sprains are both often accompanied by tendon damage.

  6. Most Common Form of Bone Surgery: Arthroscopic Surgery

  

  Arthroscopic procedures on the knee increased 49% between 1996 and 2006. Arthroscopy is a surgical procedure by which the internal structure of a joint is examined for diagnosis and/or treatment using a tube-like viewing instrument called an arthroscope. Arthroscopy can be helpful in the diagnosis and treatment of many noninflammatory, inflammatory, and infectious types of arthritis as well as various injuries within the joint.

  7. Most Common Bone Disease: Osteoporosis

  

  Osteoporosis is the most common bone disease, which is characterized by low bone mass and deterioration of bone structure. Osteoporosis can be prevented, as well as diagnosed and treated. Low bone mass is when bones lose the minerals that make them strong, especially calcium, which makes them weak and fracture easily.

  9. Most Common Forms of Bone Cancer: Osteosarcoma

  

  These are some of the most common types of bone cancer:

  • Osteosarcoma  start in bone cells and found most often in the knee and upper arm. It is diagnosed most often in teens and young adults.
  • Ewing’s sarcoma is seen in younger people between the ages of 5 and 20. It most commonly occurs in people’s ribs, pelvis, leg, and upper arm.
  • Chondrosarcoma occurs most often in people between 40 and 70. The hip, pelvis, leg, arm, and shoulder are common sites of this cancer, which begins in cartilage cells.

  Although almost always found in bone, multiple myeloma is not a primary bone cancer. It is a bone marrow cancer. Bone marrow is the soft tissue inside bones.

  9. Weirdest Disease of the Human Bone: Disappearing Human Bone Disease:

  

  The clinical terms for this disease is massive osteolysis. It’s more commonly known as Gorham’s disease. Regenerating bone after a fracture is overtaken by the process of absorbing bone and the bone is broken down into almost nothing. The bone just kind of disappears, as the name suggests. What’s perhaps most mysterious is that a number of cases of Gorham’s have ended in spontaneous remission. The disease itself disappears.

   10. Broke the Most Bones over a Lifetime: Evel Knievel

  

  Evel Knievel (USA, b. Robert Craig Knievel), the pioneer of motorcycle long jumping exhibitions, had suffered 433 bone fractures by end of 1975. In the winter of 1976 he was seriously injured during a televised attempt to jump a tank full of sharks at the Chicago Amphitheater. He decided to retire from major performances as a result.