Orthopedics is composed of the two parts of the word “ortho” as well as “pädie”, which means “upright” and “educate”. Thus, according to the literal sense, orthopedics is the education to walk upright. Orthopedics refers to the field of medicine that deals with the musculoskeletal system – the part of our body that enables us to walk upright in the first place.
The musculoskeletal system
The musculoskeletal system essentially includes the skeleton or bones, joints, tendons and muscles.
This musculoskeletal system is an amazing structure: the bones are as hard as steel but as light as aluminum. They account for only about 12 percent of the body’s weight. Interestingly, the bones are constantly remodeling. This means that bone mass is constantly being broken down and new bone is being built up again. While in youth the build-up dominates, with increasing age the breakdown of bone mass prevails.
Development of bone mass at different stages of life.
Here you can see how bone mass develops at different stages of life:
- 0 to 25 years: build-up of bone mass. Maximum is reached at about 25 years
- 25 to 35 years: bone mass remains constant
- 35 to about 45 years: reduction of about 0.5 – 1% bone mass / year.
- From about 45 years: degradation of about 1 to 2% bone mass / year.
Our musculoskeletal system includes more than 100 joints, 206 bones and 656 muscles. The joints create a mobile connection between the bones. Their construction, with all the intermediate discs, membranes, bursae and automatically controlled secretion of synovial fluid, makes you involuntarily think of a high-tech construction. Muscles provide the power to move the joints, and strong tendons take over for them.
