Calcium in the bone
The toe bone’s connected to the foot bone. The foot bone’s connected to the anklebone. The anklebone’s connected to the knee bone. And what holds them together all the way up to the head bone is connected to your diet.
Like all the body tissues, bones are connected being replenished. Old bone cells break down and new ones are born.
Specialized cells called osteoclasts start the process by boring tiny holds into solid bone so that other specialized cells, called osteoblasts, can refill the open spaces with fresh bone.
At that point, crystals of calcium, the best known dietary bone builder, glom onto the network of new bone cells to harden and strengthen the bone.
Calcium begins its work inside bones while we still in mother’s womb.
But there are also other mineral like zinc. Based on one study researchers found the babies born to women who got prenatal supplements with iron, folic acid, and zinc had longer, stronger legs bones that did babies born to women who got the same supplement minus the zinc.
After we are born calcium continues to build the bones, but only with the help of vitamin D, which produces a calcium binding protein that enables you to absorb the calcium in the milk.
To make sure we get vitamin D, virtually all milk old in the United States is fortified with vitamin.
When researchers in New Zealand added lactoferrin from cow’s milk to a dish of osteoblasts, the bone cells grew more quickly.
When they injected lactoferrin into the skulls of five lab mice, the bone to the site of the injection also grow faster, leading the team to suggest that lactoferrin may play a role in treating osteoporosis.
But the iron/calcium is a balancing act. In the body, iron and calcium appear to compete to see which one gets absorbed.
So the extra iron works only for women who get about 800 to 1260 milligrams calcium a day - woman get less and women who get more don’t seem to benefit from extra iron.
Calcium in the bone
