04/20/2026
I love bones. This article reveals how fascinating and complicated bone biology and physiology are. It’s a bit long… but it goes deep.
I’ve been an orthopedic surgeon for 30 years. I have fixed hundreds of fractures. I have operated on spines, hips, and wrists weakened by osteoporosis. And in my experience, almost nobody understands what a bone actually is, its role in our overall health, or why it fails.
Most people think of bone the way they think of the steel frame of a building. Static and structural. Either it’s intact, or it’s broken.
This mental model is wrong, and understanding why it is wrong is the foundation for understanding how to actually protect yourself.
Your skeleton is not a fixed structure. It is a living tissue that is constantly being renewed. Right now, specialized cells are dissolving small sections of your bone, while other cells are rebuilding them. This process never stops. It runs continuously from birth until death. And when it falls out of balance for any of several well-understood reasons, bone loss begins. Let’s get into this…
Read the full article here:
https://howardluksmd.substack.com/p/your-bones-are-far-more-complicated?selection=0670161b-2cec-4370-8dea-604b78419761
