About Your Bones and Joints

Good bone health is vital to your overall well-being.  Your bones serve several important functions:

• Provide structure for your body
• Protect your internal organs
• Anchor your muscles, ligaments, tendons and joints for movement
• Store your body's calcium reserve
• House bone marrow which generates blood cells

The human skeleton consists of 206 sizable bones supported and supplemented by ligaments, tendons, muscles and cartilage.

The longest and heaviest bone in the body is the femur, and the smallest is the stapes bone in the middle ear.

There are many differences between the male and female human skeletons.  Most prominent is the difference in the pelvis.  The shape of the female pelvis is flatter, more rounded and proportionally larger to allow for childbirth.  Other differences include:

• Men tend to have slightly thicker and longer limbs and finger bones
• Women tend to have narrower rib cages, less pronounced cranial features, and the carrying angle of the forearms is more pronounced

Are you newly referred for surgery to your bones or joints? Do you still have questions after seeing your surgeon? Click here to learn more about Ortho Connect a peer support program from the Foundation.

Looking for more info? We've compiled a list of orthopaedic websites to check out.