Main->Readings->5th Grade Readings->Skeleton and Muscles-> Part 4
Vocabulary: |
These days, it seems as if there is a new "magic" solution to staying healthy every week. People who want to make money advertise many different exercises, machines, vitamins, health foods, diets, and lifestyles. However, the secret to keeping your bones and muscles healthy is surprisingly simple. Also, nobody can make money from it, which is probably why it does not get advertised very much. There are three parts to this secret.
First, eat healthy foods. You do not need to eat anything unusual. For instance, the bones need calcium in order to be hard and strong, but you can get calcium from dairy products and dark leafy green vegetables. If you eat the suggested servings of foods from all the groups of the Food Pyramid, you will get enough vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients to keep your bones and muscles healthy. Many kids eat too much sugar, and the main problem with sugar is not that it is bad for you, but that it isn't good for you. It replaces foods you need. Likewise, there is fat in much of the food you already eat, so you do not need to add fat.
The second part of the secret to healthy bones and muscles is to exercise. Exercise makes the muscles and the bones bigger and stronger. If you have ever spent a few days in bed, you were probably weak when you got up. Only part of that weakness was due to illness. Some of it was just because you didn't get any exercise. You don't need to exercise a great deal. Just moving around actively and playing every day is enough for most kids.
The third part of the secret is to get enough rest and sleep. Some kids have to get up early, while other kids stay up late doing homework or watching television. Sleep is necessary to help the body repair itself.
Staying healthy requires moderation in everything, however. Moderation means not doing too much and not doing too little. It is still possible to get fat eating too much good food, or to injure yourself getting too much exercise.
Bones may be strong, but they can be broken. Because they are living organs, however, they can grow back together.
A crack or break in a bone is called a fracture. There are two types of fracture: open and closed. An open fracture is a break where the ends of the broken bone stick out through the skin. This type of fracture, because it can get infected easily, is dangerous. In a closed fracture, the bones do not go through the skin. Sometimes, people get stress fractures, very small cracks which are caused by working the bone too hard. All of these fractures can be repaired.
If the break is severe, the parts of the broken bone are put back together by a doctor. A stiff cast is put on the body to keep the ends of the bone together. The bone makes new bone cells and the bone grows back together, though it may be weaker than the rest of the skeleton for a while.
Another injury is a sprain. The bones are held together at joints by ligaments, and when a ligament is stretched or torn because the joint moves in the wrong direction, this is called a sprain. Sprains can be very painful, with much swelling, and may take a while to repair. A doctor or other person may wrap the joint with a bandage to keep the joint from moving in the wrong direction again.
A third injury is the strain. When muscle or a tendon (the strong tissue which attaches a muscle to a bone) is stretched or torn, this is called a strain. Like the sprain, this can be painful.
Both strains and sprains should be given the RICE treatment right away. RICE stands for Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation. You should not try to exercise right away with a strain or a sprain, because you could injure it worse. Instead, you should rest the injured body part, put ice packs on it, wrap it (compress it) to keep it from swelling, and if possible you should put the injured body part up higher than the rest of you (elevate it), which also prevents swelling.
A cramp happens when a muscle suddenly contracts by itself, strongly and painfully. Cramps can happen when muscles are overworked or the body is too cold. One way to help a cramp go away is to gently stretch the muscle. Another is to rub the muscle. Heat can also be helpful. You should not try to keep exercising if you have a cramped muscle, because you could hurt it more. Many people believe you will get cramps if you go swimming right after eating, but there is no proof of this.
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This page last modified on April 7, 2003