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How Broken Bones Work · Stuff You Should Know

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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the all new Toyota Corolla. Welcome
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Speaker 1: to Stuff You Should Know from House Stuff Works dot com. Hey,
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Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, There's Charles W.
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Speaker 1: Chuck Bryant, and this is Stuff you Should Know the
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Speaker 1: podcast Audio Adventure our great subtitle Chuck, have you ever
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Speaker 1: broken a bone? I have not. You better knock on
0:33
Speaker 1: wood right this instant. Yeah, I could say the same thing,
0:37
Speaker 1: except I'm pretty certain that I've broken my small toe
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Speaker 1: several times over the course of my life. Yeah, there's
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Speaker 1: not all you can do about that there, right, No.
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Speaker 1: I mean, like I didn't go see a doctor or
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Speaker 1: anything like that, which is why I'm not certain I
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Speaker 1: broke it. But I'm pretty certain just based on the
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Speaker 1: amount of pain involved in it. Um. But other than that,
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Speaker 1: you know, I've never had like a sling or anything
0:58
Speaker 1: like that. I was got cuts, oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
1:02
Speaker 1: I was always stitched up in things, never broken back, stitches,
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Speaker 1: leg foot, tongue, almost bit my tongue off. I've never
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Speaker 1: had stitches. Really. Yeah, Well, you've lived a relatively healthy life,
1:15
Speaker 1: my friend. I guess so. And I mean it's not
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Speaker 1: like I haven't been adventure Boy or anything like that.
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Speaker 1: I've I've gotten in all sorts of REX accidents. If
1:21
Speaker 1: I had a brick fall on my head and put
1:23
Speaker 1: my arm through a storm window and I was a
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Speaker 1: little baby. Um. I once was riding my awesome blue
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Speaker 1: and yellow mag wheel BMX bike and went to go
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Speaker 1: up a curb, but my brain misfired, and rather than
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Speaker 1: pull up on the handlebars, I pressed down and went
1:40
Speaker 1: right over the handlebars hard. I've done that on a
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Speaker 1: mountain bike. I played football. I got hit in the
1:45
Speaker 1: head with the baseball playing baseball. I'm It's not like
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Speaker 1: I was like a milk toast or anything like that,
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Speaker 1: like Bruce Willis, I wouldn't say that, just because I'm
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Speaker 1: just too superstitious for that kind of thing. But I
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Speaker 1: have not had stitches or a broken bump. But now
2:03
Speaker 1: I know all about broken bones and how they heal,
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Speaker 1: because they do heal, and it's not just your saw
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Speaker 1: bones that's healing them, like the heal on themselves. And
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Speaker 1: it turns out medical science is basically just there to
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Speaker 1: assist a beautiful, elegant, natural process that's already in place. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: I think I'm just amazed at the body's natural healing capabilities.
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Speaker 1: I think it's really neat. Um. I am too, Like
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Speaker 1: you can regenerate your own tail, your vestigial tail, if
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Speaker 1: you make it out of the womb with one of those.
2:35
Speaker 1: If if you lost your third nipple, it might just
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Speaker 1: grow right back, your superfluous third nipple. Yeah. Uh so
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Speaker 1: I guess you know, I am a few years away
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Speaker 1: from being more susceptible. Apparently, men after forty five are
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Speaker 1: more susceptible to breaking bones. And oh no, I'm sorry
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Speaker 1: pre forty five, right, so I'm almost in the clear. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: And I suspect that that is you to um, then
3:01
Speaker 1: being more active, yeah, um, because that's in men. If
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Speaker 1: you're you're more susceptible to breaking a bone. Um. And
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Speaker 1: then women are more susceptible to breaking a bone after
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Speaker 1: that age yeah, when they reach menopause. Um. And the
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Speaker 1: most commonly broken bone is what, uh, the wrist, right, yeah,
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Speaker 1: the radius bone of the wrist. I guess from all
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Speaker 1: the tennis people play. I think my theory on that
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Speaker 1: is is that's how you know, It's a lot of
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Speaker 1: that comes from trying to break your fall by putting
3:35
Speaker 1: your hand out, But that just happens a lot. It
3:37
Speaker 1: makes you wonder what bones we would break and how
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Speaker 1: many more bones we break and we didn't have response
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Speaker 1: to break. Well, if you or if you didn't try
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Speaker 1: to break your fall, you just break your face over
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Speaker 1: and over, I guess, um. And then in the elderly age,
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Speaker 1: seventy five are over. According to this article by Robert
3:53
Speaker 1: Lamb m, hip fractures are the most common and those
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Speaker 1: are painful. Yeah, I'm sure that's like, yeah, you hear
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Speaker 1: about that lot. Very sad. Yeah, like fall in the bathtub,
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Speaker 1: break the old hip. Um. So there's different types of
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Speaker 1: fractures that can take place, right, Like there's not there's
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Speaker 1: the simple fracture, which is the most um like the
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Speaker 1: one you're if you're going to break a bone, this
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Speaker 1: is the one you hope for. Um. But it is
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Speaker 1: and it may even be the most common. I don't
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Speaker 1: know if what's the most common. It's just a clean,
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Speaker 1: simple break in one place only, right, and there's not
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Speaker 1: like a bunch of other trauma or like associated pain
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Speaker 1: or or well there's probably a lot of pain, but
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Speaker 1: problems that come out of it's just like snap. And
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Speaker 1: then there's a clean break that's a simple fracture. That's
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Speaker 1: definitely not the only kind of fracture. No. The dreaded
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Speaker 1: compound fracture, which I think strikes fear into the hearts
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Speaker 1: of everybody, is when your bone is poking through your skin. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: like Joe Tisman or the guy in the March Madness recently.
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Speaker 1: I don't think I saw that one. Oh man, it
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Speaker 1: is bad. I can't They're a mirror. Neurons kick in
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Speaker 1: so hard when that stuff happens. There's this there's this
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Speaker 1: animated gift of this, the footage of the guy he
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Speaker 1: just fell down wrong, um and he fell down right
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Speaker 1: in front of his own bench, and there's like the
5:16
Speaker 1: reaction of like the guys on the bench just like, oh,
5:18
Speaker 1: they all look like they're about to faint because they're
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Speaker 1: like two ft away from like one of the worst
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Speaker 1: things you could possibly see in an a live human.
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Speaker 1: You know, it's awful. Yeah, But those that's a compound fraction,
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Speaker 1: those are kind of dangerous because they can lead to
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Speaker 1: infection pretty easily, by the way, you know, Joe, thisman,
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Speaker 1: I don't know if this is true. Supposedly his name
5:37
Speaker 1: was pronounced Theisman until college, and he changed it to
5:41
Speaker 1: rhyme with Heisman in a push for the trophy. No way,
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Speaker 1: I've heard that. I'm not sure. I need to look
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Speaker 1: that up to verify it. That might be a an
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Speaker 1: urban legend, could be, but I always call him Joe
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Speaker 1: Theisman as a joke. But either way, the he the
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Speaker 1: compound fracture came out of his thigh, didn't it. M
5:58
Speaker 1: I can't remember. I thought it was more like the knee.
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Speaker 1: It was gruesome, remember, like seeing it live? I never
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Speaker 1: saw it. Yeah, yeah, all right. So there's also the
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Speaker 1: impacted fracture, when one end of the fracture, one end
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Speaker 1: of the bone is driven into the other. That sounds
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Speaker 1: pretty gnarly too. Yeah, that sounds really awful. A communuded fracture, Uh,
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Speaker 1: that's when the bone shatters into fragments. That's probably that's
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Speaker 1: pretty bad. Yeah, I'm sure fresh quite problematic, and as
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Speaker 1: we'll find out, you'd probably end up a tad bit
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Speaker 1: shorter if you have one of those in like your tibia,
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Speaker 1: because you have to get rid of that stuff. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: the bone fragments. There's the super cute green stick fracture. Yeah,
6:43
Speaker 1: this one to me was like, um, the same as
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Speaker 1: imagining pulling back a fingernail. But then it retracting back. Yeah,
6:54
Speaker 1: this is a this is among children. It's a type
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Speaker 1: of fracture specific to children where the bone like bends
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Speaker 1: and snaps, but it doesn't fully break. Yeah, it cracks,
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Speaker 1: but don't. It's like a green twig. Imagine that, like
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Speaker 1: if you bend it, you can't really snap it into
7:09
Speaker 1: Oh that's why they call it that. Oh yeah, okay, yeah,
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Speaker 1: green stick. That makes sense. The old timbertoe uh. And
7:15
Speaker 1: then an evolution fracture is um. Robert describes it as
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Speaker 1: a powerful muscle contraction and it wrenches bone, intending forcing
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Speaker 1: a fracture. That sounds pretty awful. Yeah, I looked this up.
7:27
Speaker 1: So basically what this is is your the muscles around
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Speaker 1: your bone. In some instances, very unusual instances, can um
7:36
Speaker 1: contract so powerfully that it snaps the bone under what circumstance.
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Speaker 1: So um, Normally, our muscles aren't powerful enough to snap
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Speaker 1: bone because we have um neurological control over the muscles. Apparently,
7:53
Speaker 1: athletes can train beyond this point and can be at
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Speaker 1: risk for an evulsion fracture by pushing their muscle muscles
8:01
Speaker 1: so hard that like they can make them powerful enough
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Speaker 1: to snap their own bones. And in a very strong
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Speaker 1: high jump or jump um, the tibia, the shin bone
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Speaker 1: is particularly at risk for an evulsion fracture among highly
8:16
Speaker 1: trained athletes. Man, So imagine jumping so hard they snap
8:22
Speaker 1: your own bones with your mouth. That's crazy. Well, we
8:25
Speaker 1: learned in the when you get shocked, you know, like
8:27
Speaker 1: our body has that reserve, Like when you get shocked
8:31
Speaker 1: from and then blown across the room. That's actually not
8:34
Speaker 1: the power blowing across the room. That's your muscles are
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Speaker 1: so strong and capable of doing that under the right circumstance,
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Speaker 1: exactly like the potentials there, but we have a neurological
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Speaker 1: filter that keeps us from doing that. And I looked
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Speaker 1: that up to to see if there was like an
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Speaker 1: association of evulsion fractures and electrocutions. They couldn't find anything.
8:51
Speaker 1: But it seems intuitive, doesn't it. Yeah? I think so. Yeah.
8:55
Speaker 1: And then finally the pathological fracture just the most dastardly
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Speaker 1: of fractures. Um. It's when the bones are weakened by
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Speaker 1: disease and really break pretty easily. They're brittle like osteoporosis killing, unbreakable.
9:08
Speaker 1: But Sam Jackson's character, yes, Mr what's his name? Mr
9:14
Speaker 1: Brittle like that. I can't remember, but he was, remember
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Speaker 1: his bones broken very easily. That was the premise of that.
9:20
Speaker 1: At least was a really great It was a great movie.
9:23
Speaker 1: I really enjoyed. Actually, I thought it was like his
9:26
Speaker 1: only good movie. He didn't like The Sixth Sense, and
9:30
Speaker 1: I guess that was okay. That was a great It's
9:32
Speaker 1: hard to remember though, because he's sucked so much since then.
9:35
Speaker 1: I felt bad for that guy, and it's kind of
9:37
Speaker 1: great imagination, but um, yeah, I guess it's just I
9:42
Speaker 1: don't know what the problem is because he has He's
9:45
Speaker 1: made some great movies. At the Village. That was a
9:48
Speaker 1: really good movie. I didn't care for it. Are you
9:51
Speaker 1: kidding me? I didn't care for it. I thought that
9:53
Speaker 1: twist was amazing enough. With the twists with that guy,
9:56
Speaker 1: Oh well, that's the whole thing. One trick pony. No
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Speaker 1: he's not. It's like calling oh Henry a one trick pony.
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Speaker 1: There's twists like just having a twist. Alfred Hitchcock, Master
10:07
Speaker 1: of the twist, Master of the twist. I have a
10:14
Speaker 1: few other bone facts, just since we're talking about bones.
10:18
Speaker 1: Uh we know. I think we said it on our
10:21
Speaker 1: TV show even you're born with about three fifty bones
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Speaker 1: and when you die you have two six because a
10:28
Speaker 1: lot of your bones fused together from when you're a
10:30
Speaker 1: little baby. Um in the hand, in the foot, in
10:36
Speaker 1: the thorax, in the vertibal crump, the what I just
10:41
Speaker 1: spaced out vertebral column rom and uh, only one in
10:48
Speaker 1: the throat. We have a bone in the throat apparently,
10:51
Speaker 1: so where you know right there you're touching it, that's
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Speaker 1: my atoms apple. By twenty years old, we have a
11:00
Speaker 1: of our skeletal mass, and our bone density peaks at
11:03
Speaker 1: thirty and then starts going down the hill after that,
11:05
Speaker 1: right it does. But um, there's a lot of confusion
11:08
Speaker 1: out there. I assume that our skeleton stops growing. Yeah,
11:13
Speaker 1: and it does, Like we do reach a point where
11:15
Speaker 1: what did you say? Thirty thirty is where it peaks.
11:18
Speaker 1: So our skeleton has reached the it's full size. But
11:22
Speaker 1: that doesn't mean it stops producing um skeleton, new skeleton.
11:26
Speaker 1: Apparently every year a full ten percent of our skeleton
11:29
Speaker 1: is totally regenerated. Yeah, which we'll get to that process, okay. Uh.
11:33
Speaker 1: And then alcohol and smoking, um are no good for
11:37
Speaker 1: your bones. Um. You lose density and osteopenia, which is
11:41
Speaker 1: sort of like a pre asteoporosis, I guess, and that
11:45
Speaker 1: before I think, yeah, I think when I was a smoker,
11:48
Speaker 1: I knew that, Like it was bad for bones, it's
11:50
Speaker 1: definitely bad for teeth. And I'm sure the tour associated
11:53
Speaker 1: because I'll bet it's bone loss that makes your teeth
11:55
Speaker 1: fall out from smoking. Totally is um. And then I
11:58
Speaker 1: guess I've got some stuff on how to support your
12:01
Speaker 1: bones and good foods and stuff, but um, maybe we
12:03
Speaker 1: should do that at the end. Oh yeah, a happy ending. Okay, yeah,
12:07
Speaker 1: so chuck. Um, Well, we know virtually everything there is
12:13
Speaker 1: to know about bones, but we don't know how they
12:15
Speaker 1: work yet. We're about to, right, So, like I said, um,
12:21
Speaker 1: we regenerate about ten percent of our skeleton every year,
12:25
Speaker 1: and not the same time percent. It's just this constant
12:27
Speaker 1: process called bone remodeling. Yeah, our bones aren't just like
12:32
Speaker 1: dead sticks that are flesh and muscle are wrapped around there.
12:36
Speaker 1: It's living matter, just like the rest of your body. Right.
12:39
Speaker 1: And in addition to um the support and structure for
12:42
Speaker 1: your body um that the muscalo skeletal system provides, it's
12:47
Speaker 1: also your skeleton is a source for um storing minerals, sure,
12:52
Speaker 1: hard minerals um the marrow. There's two types of mirrow.
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Speaker 1: There's red marrow where we create blood cells. Red blood
13:00
Speaker 1: sells yep um. And then there's also yellow marrow, where
13:03
Speaker 1: we store fat. Yeah, that just sounds gross. Fatty bones,
13:08
Speaker 1: fatty yellow marrow in our bones sounds cross to me.
13:11
Speaker 1: Have you ever eaten bone marrow? I know you it's
13:14
Speaker 1: like the butter of the gods, But have you ever
13:17
Speaker 1: tried it? No? I guess I should taste it. But yeah,
13:19
Speaker 1: you're gonna taste it one day. I will see to it.
13:23
Speaker 1: There's places that you can find bone marrow, and I
13:28
Speaker 1: urge you to go there. Yeah, you can get on
13:30
Speaker 1: your burger at a is it farm Burger indicator? Oh yeah,
13:35
Speaker 1: they do have marrow, don't they. Yeah. I think you
13:36
Speaker 1: actually ate one with marrow. I'm sure I did. Yeah. Yeah,
13:39
Speaker 1: I very rarely turned down marrow. Yeah, because I mean you,
13:44
Speaker 1: you can't find it everywhere, and it's very tough to
13:47
Speaker 1: screw up marrow. Okay, Well that's good to know anyway.
13:50
Speaker 1: In my opinion, fatty bone marrow sounds awesome in my
13:54
Speaker 1: Oh it does not, but I'll try. Did you pick
13:58
Speaker 1: that up at the folk festival. What in my oh?
14:02
Speaker 1: I don't think so, I because you've never said it before,
14:05
Speaker 1: and you said it twice today. I don't. I don't
14:08
Speaker 1: think that was like the phrase that was sweeping. It
14:11
Speaker 1: was a banner in the back, behind back in my
14:14
Speaker 1: O tour. I'm oh, yeah, I'm a I thought you're
14:19
Speaker 1: saying in my oh, I was. I'm just old and
14:21
Speaker 1: I don't know how these but I like the variation. Alright,
14:24
Speaker 1: So hold on, haunt. I'm still I haven't lost my
14:26
Speaker 1: train of thought yet. I've got it in reserve marrow. Well,
14:30
Speaker 1: we're past the marrow. The point is, the bone is
14:33
Speaker 1: a living structure. The thing is um. It can mineralize
14:38
Speaker 1: since the store of hard minerals. The bone can become
14:42
Speaker 1: a little too hard because it needs to stay living
14:46
Speaker 1: as well as rigid um. And so we do bone remodeling.
14:50
Speaker 1: So this process is basically a three step process. Right,
14:54
Speaker 1: So you've got the old bone that's become too hard.
14:57
Speaker 1: Ossified is what it's called. And um it's basically broken
15:01
Speaker 1: down by a type of um bone cell called osteoclasts. Yeah,
15:08
Speaker 1: they go around and chomp it up, right, and um
15:11
Speaker 1: absorb it. There's this part of the process is called resorbtion,
15:16
Speaker 1: and I guess they leave behind new cells and these
15:19
Speaker 1: new cells are um, I think they attract something called osteoblasts,
15:23
Speaker 1: which are a different type of bone cell, and they
15:25
Speaker 1: generate new bone tissue. That's right, and that is bone remodeling. Uh.
15:29
Speaker 1: And then you have you know, there's cartilage involve two
15:32
Speaker 1: and that's where condroblasts come in form the new cartilage.
15:35
Speaker 1: And between those three types of cells, you are regenerating
15:40
Speaker 1: your bone and uh, every day basically yes, Okay, so
15:44
Speaker 1: in the fact that we have this constantly going on,
15:47
Speaker 1: it's not that big of a deal to your bones
15:50
Speaker 1: to undertake this process of healing like this is. Those
15:53
Speaker 1: are the reasons why condro condro blasts, osteoblasts, and osteoclasts
15:58
Speaker 1: are the reasons why we can regenerate new bone once
16:03
Speaker 1: we break it. Yeah, and like from the moment you
16:05
Speaker 1: break your bone, it kind of starts to begin this
16:08
Speaker 1: process of healing itself, which is pretty great. And if
16:11
Speaker 1: you were like trapped in the woods and you could
16:14
Speaker 1: get it set sort of right, you're gonna probably be okay,
16:18
Speaker 1: Like you don't need a doctor. Well, you need a
16:21
Speaker 1: doctor in many cases. But before there were doctors, people
16:24
Speaker 1: still healed broken bones. Yeah, I mean the body does so. Yeah,
16:28
Speaker 1: And depending on how how well the whole thing went,
16:31
Speaker 1: you might be totally fine, yeah, or you might walk
16:33
Speaker 1: with a little hitchen your giddy hill. Right. Yeah. If
16:35
Speaker 1: it's the Middle Ages, you never know. So when when
16:38
Speaker 1: a bone breaks, there's the your body undertakes this process
16:42
Speaker 1: of regeneration. Um. There's three phases, that's right, three phases, right,
16:49
Speaker 1: and uh, the first phase is the actual break. And
16:52
Speaker 1: remember there's there's um blood vessels in your bones, yeah,
16:55
Speaker 1: surrounding the bone. So does break two. Yes, which that
16:58
Speaker 1: sounds bad, but it's kind of good. It is. The
17:00
Speaker 1: body says, I'm gonna make lemons lemonade out of the
17:04
Speaker 1: lemons that have just been dealt. Yeah, I'm bleeding profusely,
17:07
Speaker 1: but I'm gonna go ahead and take that blood, let
17:09
Speaker 1: it build up in the fissure in the crack um
17:13
Speaker 1: and create a cloth. Yeah, which helps. It's called a
17:15
Speaker 1: fracture hematoma, and that's the beginning of the healing process.
17:20
Speaker 1: It stabilizes everything, keeps it as lined up as possible,
17:24
Speaker 1: and cuts off the flow of blood. To those jagged
17:27
Speaker 1: edges there, right, And since the jagged edges lose blood flow,
17:30
Speaker 1: they start to die, and so the the I guess
17:34
Speaker 1: the parts of the fracture that are going to be
17:37
Speaker 1: the roughest just fall away and are reabsorbed. Yeah right, Yeah,
17:42
Speaker 1: it's gonna cause the swelling and inflammation because it's like
17:45
Speaker 1: everything's hard at work. All these cells are hard at
17:47
Speaker 1: work trying to you know, get all the dead tissue
17:51
Speaker 1: out of there. Uh. And then little tiny blood vessels
17:54
Speaker 1: are going to start to grow again. Um, they grow
17:57
Speaker 1: in the in the claw, so that now all of
18:01
Speaker 1: a sudden there's a transport system to this area, that's right.
18:04
Speaker 1: And that takes place over about three or four days.
18:07
Speaker 1: The sematoma um develops, right, that's right. Um, so that
18:12
Speaker 1: will develop into you know, it gets tougher as it
18:15
Speaker 1: goes and it forms something called soft callous um, which
18:19
Speaker 1: is sort of the beginning of I liken it to
18:22
Speaker 1: like an internal cast almost right, like the beginnings of it.
18:26
Speaker 1: And it gets harder and harder as this process goes on. Yeah,
18:29
Speaker 1: so you and this actually replaces the clock, like the
18:32
Speaker 1: clock kind of turns into the soft callous right, and
18:35
Speaker 1: the soft callous is the result of um, these things
18:38
Speaker 1: called fibroblasts which start producing collagen, and this collagen builds
18:44
Speaker 1: up and um, that's what develops your soft callous. That's right.
18:48
Speaker 1: It's kind of like, um, you have your skin, it's
18:50
Speaker 1: made of collagen. Yeah, it's a protein. Your bones apparently
18:53
Speaker 1: made of collagen to essentially it's the it's the base
18:56
Speaker 1: protein for bone and skin color. Where would we be
18:58
Speaker 1: without collagen? We would just be keeping mess on the floor,
19:01
Speaker 1: would be in zero's ville zero. Um. And then this
19:05
Speaker 1: so you've got the soft callous and then the soft
19:06
Speaker 1: callous is eventually replaced um with something called the fibro
19:11
Speaker 1: cartilaginous callous yea condroblasts or the cells that helped produce that.
19:16
Speaker 1: And again this is just a process of hardening and
19:19
Speaker 1: strengthening as the bones are lined up right, And all
19:23
Speaker 1: of it started with that hematoma, that clot and it
19:27
Speaker 1: was it's become replaced and then um, now it's getting
19:30
Speaker 1: a little harder, it's getting a little tougher, and I
19:33
Speaker 1: guess you have the fibro cartilage cartilaginous callous that remains
19:39
Speaker 1: and rather than being replaced by the bone callous the
19:42
Speaker 1: bone callous builds around it. Yeah, and that's the actual
19:45
Speaker 1: linking device that links the two pieces of the bone together.
19:49
Speaker 1: That's the bridge, right. And those osteo blasts that are
19:52
Speaker 1: responsible for um the bone remodeling that constantly goes on,
19:57
Speaker 1: they're the ones producing the bone callous and the bone alice.
20:00
Speaker 1: If the soft callous is the beginning of that initial cast,
20:05
Speaker 1: this is like the cast that your body builds for
20:08
Speaker 1: your bone, and it covers the area and allows that
20:11
Speaker 1: bone regeneration to take place in this completely protected area. Yeah.
20:15
Speaker 1: So the fibro cartilus callus is a few days, I'm sorry,
20:19
Speaker 1: a few weeks, and then the hard bone callous is
20:22
Speaker 1: three or four months. Right. That's why you when you
20:24
Speaker 1: have a cast on, you have to have your cast
20:26
Speaker 1: for several months or at least a couple of months,
20:29
Speaker 1: usually long enough for a distinct Yeah, and it should
20:33
Speaker 1: get ants inside. Yeah. I remember being a kid and
20:35
Speaker 1: being jealous of kids who got their cast signed in
20:38
Speaker 1: things because it was always, you know, the kid would
20:41
Speaker 1: show up, they get a lot of attention, and everyone
20:44
Speaker 1: would sign their cast and it was just a big thing.
20:45
Speaker 1: And I never broke my bone, and I was just
20:47
Speaker 1: like I want to break a bone. Do you do?
20:50
Speaker 1: You even remember the Simpsons where Bart has a cast
20:53
Speaker 1: for the summer Man. It is season two, three four
20:57
Speaker 1: something like that. It's one of the best ones ever
21:00
Speaker 1: because simultaneously I think, um, I guess the Simpsons get
21:04
Speaker 1: a pool too, and everybody's having so much fun in
21:07
Speaker 1: the pool, but Bart can't get in and there's like
21:09
Speaker 1: a rear window like rear window thing going on with him. Um, right,
21:14
Speaker 1: because Jimmy Stuart was in the wheelchair, right yeah, um.
21:17
Speaker 1: But Millhouse comes over and Bart's like, mill House, my
21:20
Speaker 1: trust of friends, you won't leave me, Willie, and he's
21:22
Speaker 1: signing Bart's cast. He's like, I gotta go Bart, and
21:25
Speaker 1: they show his signature. It says Millpool. Anyway, that's the
21:31
Speaker 1: Simpsons episode. That's good. It's a good one. And when
21:34
Speaker 1: I was a kid too that they still had them
21:36
Speaker 1: early on, they still had the plaster cast you know
21:39
Speaker 1: that we're really easy to sign, and then they kind
21:41
Speaker 1: of I don't even know what they're made of now,
21:43
Speaker 1: but it looks more like, ah, like fibrous, you know.
21:48
Speaker 1: Whatever's hard. It's harder to sign though. Yeah, it's not
21:52
Speaker 1: like the old days. No, but don't They have like
21:54
Speaker 1: designs and colors and stuff they so kids can like
21:57
Speaker 1: get funky with their casts. I'm sure they do. Actually
22:00
Speaker 1: I've never seen it, but that makes total sense. Make
22:03
Speaker 1: broken bones fun like band aids and stuff. All Right, So, um,
22:08
Speaker 1: we've got our bone callous. That is when the healing
22:10
Speaker 1: is really going on. That is the stable protection, the
22:14
Speaker 1: interior cast as it is or as it could be. Right,
22:18
Speaker 1: and you could leave that alone. Yeah, and like you said,
22:22
Speaker 1: risk dying or having a lamp or something like that.
22:24
Speaker 1: You can take a chance if you wanted, right, But
22:26
Speaker 1: if medical science is anything it's interventionist. So they come
22:30
Speaker 1: in and they say, we're gonna help this process along
22:34
Speaker 1: as best as we can. And a lot of times
22:37
Speaker 1: it's as simple as creating a cast, which basically forms
22:40
Speaker 1: that protective layer and keeps kids from doing stuff that's
22:46
Speaker 1: fun while their bone is reproducing itself. Yeah, they're gonna
22:51
Speaker 1: diagnose you. They're gonna immobilize it with that cast and
22:54
Speaker 1: make sure it's all in proper alignment. Um, maybe a splint,
22:58
Speaker 1: maybe a sling, maybe a brace, whatever it takes, depending
23:02
Speaker 1: on like where the break is, how bad it is,
23:04
Speaker 1: how old you are, and horrifically. It's probably painful. Yeah,
23:10
Speaker 1: because your bone, if it's not in alignment, when you
23:13
Speaker 1: go to see the doctor, they have to make sure
23:15
Speaker 1: that it is in alignment, which means that they're going
23:18
Speaker 1: to physically force it back into alignment, which means you're
23:22
Speaker 1: gonna pass out from the pain if they don't give
23:24
Speaker 1: you something beforehand. Yeah. I've also heard I should have
23:27
Speaker 1: looked this up, that if it's not healing right, they'll
23:30
Speaker 1: rebreak it. Sometimes that true, imagine. Yeah, I've heard that
23:34
Speaker 1: it seems like a new someone that had that happen
23:36
Speaker 1: surgical break. Yeah, I think so, I'll have to look
23:39
Speaker 1: at a medical break. I bet that's happened. Uh, you
23:44
Speaker 1: might need traction, which um, I never really knew what
23:47
Speaker 1: traction was. I thought traction was just, hey, I need
23:50
Speaker 1: to keep my leg elevated for a period of time.
23:54
Speaker 1: But it's not just that. It's actually weights and ropes
23:58
Speaker 1: and pulleys like pushing in, pulling constantly to make sure
24:02
Speaker 1: it stays in alignment and maintains that alignment. Right. So
24:04
Speaker 1: like if you have um a leg where the break
24:07
Speaker 1: is trying to go um one, the lower part is
24:12
Speaker 1: trying to go up and the upper part is trying
24:14
Speaker 1: to go down. You would have a pully pulling on
24:18
Speaker 1: the lower part and the upper part pushing on the
24:21
Speaker 1: upper part, pulling each away, so that it's constantly in alignment. Right,
24:24
Speaker 1: it's got to be painful, I would imagine. I can't
24:27
Speaker 1: imagine traction is fun. There is a kind of traction
24:30
Speaker 1: that bears your last name, Bryant traction. Yes, and it's
24:35
Speaker 1: as cute as possible. It's for little kids only who
24:38
Speaker 1: suffered um femur or hip breaks and their tiny little
24:44
Speaker 1: legs have to both be up in the air at
24:46
Speaker 1: a ninety degree angle of their pelvis. And it's heartbreakingly
24:50
Speaker 1: adorably sad uh to see a little kid in Bryant
24:54
Speaker 1: traction because they're all like four. Um, and I've seen
24:58
Speaker 1: pictures because I looked up traction And if you want
25:00
Speaker 1: to see a really disturbing PDF, that's not intended to
25:04
Speaker 1: be disturbing, it's just forthright medical photos. It's um. Look
25:10
Speaker 1: go on to Lancaster General College dot E d U
25:13
Speaker 1: and look up traction and Orthopedic Care by a guy
25:16
Speaker 1: named Rothicker. And um, it's it's just basically how to
25:22
Speaker 1: and like different types of traction and attractions kind of
25:25
Speaker 1: become abandoned largely by the medical profession. It was, you know,
25:31
Speaker 1: kind of big in the twentieth century and I think
25:33
Speaker 1: we've kind of outgrown it largely. Um. But there are
25:36
Speaker 1: some old timey torturific looking at traction devices out there,
25:42
Speaker 1: like that the head tongs, you know, like an ice
25:46
Speaker 1: tong they used to deliver like three students delivered ice.
25:50
Speaker 1: They have those for your head to like hold your
25:53
Speaker 1: head in in alignment with your spinal column for however
25:57
Speaker 1: long it needs to be if you break your back.
26:00
Speaker 1: There's some it's just really kind of weird to see.
26:03
Speaker 1: But there's little kids in Bryant Attraction and that he uh,
26:07
Speaker 1: you know, I bet our friends, um, you know, from
26:10
Speaker 1: my brother and my brother and me, Justin McElroy. He
26:12
Speaker 1: and his wife now Sidney, who's a doctor, have a
26:15
Speaker 1: new podcast called Sawbones. Oh yeah, I saw that. It's
26:19
Speaker 1: really good. It's basically Sitney and Justin are both just
26:23
Speaker 1: fascinated by antiquated medical practices and that's like the entire podcast.
26:29
Speaker 1: And I guess you'd probably get that on like bulls Eye, right,
26:31
Speaker 1: Bull's Eye website, yeah, or or iTunes. It's really good
26:34
Speaker 1: and they they sweetly said that they were inspired by
26:36
Speaker 1: us and as far as delivering like educational slash funny podcasts. Sweet. Yeah,
26:42
Speaker 1: so it's pretty cool. Um yeah, okay, h surgery surgery,
26:48
Speaker 1: Oh that's another thing. If you are in traction. There's
26:51
Speaker 1: two kinds of attraction. Their skins attraction, which is basically
26:54
Speaker 1: like they attached the ropes and the pulleys and stuff
26:57
Speaker 1: to using medical tape or like a boot or a
26:59
Speaker 1: sling or something thing. Then there's skeletal traction where they
27:02
Speaker 1: go in and attach pins, rods, needles to your bone. Yeah,
27:07
Speaker 1: that's if pretty severe breaks require this. Usually you don't
27:10
Speaker 1: need surgery to repair a bone, but if you do,
27:12
Speaker 1: that means you're gonna be getting like bolts and pins
27:14
Speaker 1: and things inserted to keep everything properly aligned. And while
27:18
Speaker 1: your in traction, your muscles are doing jack yeah, which
27:21
Speaker 1: means they atrophy, which means you're gonna have to go
27:24
Speaker 1: through rehab yeah, which which is good. Like um and rehab,
27:29
Speaker 1: you know, they specialize in just enough work two build
27:34
Speaker 1: up your muscle and cartilage and tendons again, but you
27:38
Speaker 1: still have to respect the break. So it's like it's
27:40
Speaker 1: a very delicate line. They're walking here with what kind
27:42
Speaker 1: of rehab you can do? You know? Um, So broken
27:47
Speaker 1: bones can lead to it's not always just as easy
27:51
Speaker 1: as your bone is broken, let's HeLa. There can like
27:54
Speaker 1: the complications you can die from, like a broken hip. Yes, Sadly,
27:59
Speaker 1: as apparent, only one third of hip related hip break
28:03
Speaker 1: related deaths are come from that hematoma. Huh, that's sad
28:10
Speaker 1: And I think probably what happens, um when you have
28:12
Speaker 1: that fracture hematoma and a hip, you're still moving around
28:17
Speaker 1: a little bit. So what that's called, though, is a
28:19
Speaker 1: pulmonary embolism. That's when that clot moves up and blocks
28:23
Speaker 1: like arteries to your lungs, and that's where the death
28:26
Speaker 1: results from. Obviously, if you have a compound fracture, infection
28:31
Speaker 1: is pretty big risk. Uh, if you break ribs, they
28:34
Speaker 1: can puncture organs or if they're not properly said or
28:38
Speaker 1: not healing right, they can you know, squeeze out organs
28:41
Speaker 1: and uh lead to like tissue damage and things like that.
28:46
Speaker 1: That's no good. And then there's something called fibro dysplasia
28:51
Speaker 1: assif cans progressive or fo P. It's a genetic condition
28:57
Speaker 1: with a life expectancy of about forty years of age
29:01
Speaker 1: and basically chuck that bone remodeling process goes haywire. There's
29:07
Speaker 1: a genetic mutation to where any kind of trauma to
29:11
Speaker 1: your tissue triggers bone regeneration at the site, So like
29:17
Speaker 1: your muscle is turning into bone, your muscle, your skin,
29:20
Speaker 1: your fat. Those pictures man like it showed a skeleton
29:25
Speaker 1: bear skeleton that had had had this disease, and it's like,
29:29
Speaker 1: there's it's like skeleton plus think what you're used to
29:33
Speaker 1: looking to plus a lot more. Yeah, um, and it's
29:37
Speaker 1: very sad condition. There's UM. I think there's They believe
29:40
Speaker 1: only about seven people in the world have fo p
29:43
Speaker 1: UM and most of them are incorrectly diagnosed with things
29:47
Speaker 1: like cancer because cancer can do all sorts of wacky
29:50
Speaker 1: stuff to bones UM as a secondary condition UM, and
29:56
Speaker 1: so they get all sorts of unnecessary treatment like chemotherapy
29:59
Speaker 1: and things like that. UM, even when you're having cancer,
30:03
Speaker 1: even when it is UM correctly diagnosed. It's basically like
30:08
Speaker 1: parents are forced to choose like, okay, am, I gonna
30:11
Speaker 1: try to keep you alive as much as possible and
30:14
Speaker 1: make you live in a bubble or am I gonna say,
30:16
Speaker 1: you know, I want you to live your life and
30:18
Speaker 1: you can go out and get a bruise and inoculation, um,
30:24
Speaker 1: get punched in the arm and all of those things.
30:28
Speaker 1: Those sites are going to turn to bone. A bruise
30:32
Speaker 1: creates a bone there at the site, your joints lock
30:35
Speaker 1: up and then you you lose use of that that limb. Yeah,
30:40
Speaker 1: I saw the one guy interviewed. It was just like,
30:42
Speaker 1: you know, he can't walk around, he can't lay down comfortably.
30:45
Speaker 1: It just really just locks you up. Yeah, it's a
30:48
Speaker 1: really terrible, horrific condition. But now that they've discovered the
30:52
Speaker 1: gene mutation associated with it, they really feel like the
30:56
Speaker 1: next generation of fo P patients are gonna have a
30:58
Speaker 1: lot better quality of life than the ones alive today. Yeah.
31:03
Speaker 1: And there's a girl um in Peachtree City who has it,
31:07
Speaker 1: who's just kind of a plucky survivor. That's here in Georgia.
31:10
Speaker 1: By the way, how are you not know it's in Georgia.
31:14
Speaker 1: It's called Peachtree City. That's where everybody drives golf carts around.
31:18
Speaker 1: Oh really, Yeah, you didn't know that that's the home
31:22
Speaker 1: of Club Car, the golf cart company. Yeah, and for
31:27
Speaker 1: some reason, like Peachtree City, I guess to celebrate club
31:29
Speaker 1: car built a bunch of like paths like all over
31:32
Speaker 1: the city. That's how you get around down there. From
31:34
Speaker 1: what I understand, Yeah, well that's neat. Yeah. Uh so
31:39
Speaker 1: she has it in Peachtree Cities because it's like super
31:41
Speaker 1: super rare, right, yeah, like seven people worldwide. How's she doing?
31:47
Speaker 1: She's doing okay. Like I said, she's plucky. From what
31:50
Speaker 1: I understand that she was the U. The centerpiece of
31:53
Speaker 1: the article on it that I read on ABC News
31:56
Speaker 1: called um turned to bone rare condition lacks victims in
31:59
Speaker 1: second eton um. It's pretty interesting, boy, seeing the attitude
32:03
Speaker 1: of people that have things like this happened, Like that's
32:05
Speaker 1: the inspiration, right we had. I don't know if you
32:08
Speaker 1: saw the email a guy wrote in yesterday that cut
32:10
Speaker 1: off four of his fingers with a table saw and
32:13
Speaker 1: UM had medical leeches used as part of the thing,
32:16
Speaker 1: and like sending pictures. It was really gnartly. Oh I
32:18
Speaker 1: missed that. But this guy was like smiling in the
32:22
Speaker 1: picture and he's like, you know what, A lot worse
32:24
Speaker 1: things can happen. He's like they weren't able to reattach
32:26
Speaker 1: the fingers I got a nub I can still play
32:28
Speaker 1: bass guitar with. And he's got this really really rad
32:34
Speaker 1: artificial finger that he sent a picture of, like a
32:38
Speaker 1: robotic finger. And uh again, just like the attitude, Emily
32:44
Speaker 1: always make jokes about them, like the living will and
32:47
Speaker 1: you know, like, what do you want to do in
32:49
Speaker 1: case the situations I'm like, if I break a few
32:52
Speaker 1: bones and I'm in traction, I was like, just go
32:54
Speaker 1: ahead and put me out there. I'm just the biggest
32:57
Speaker 1: complainer and was like, with that stuff, I need to
32:59
Speaker 1: work on my my attitude. In case of like bad
33:02
Speaker 1: situations like that, you should probably specify on record put
33:05
Speaker 1: you out means like kill you or like give you
33:08
Speaker 1: a bunch of drugs. Oh, right, because that's that could
33:13
Speaker 1: lead to a lot of disagreement later on, a right
33:16
Speaker 1: could lead to some good times. Right, that will change
33:20
Speaker 1: your attitude? Get anything else? That's it? Man. Oh by
33:24
Speaker 1: the way, Evil Kinevel did not break every bone in
33:26
Speaker 1: his body. That's look that up. That's not true. Really
33:30
Speaker 1: now he broke apparently thirty five bones' career. That's not
33:34
Speaker 1: that much, which is that's a lot. He also used
33:36
Speaker 1: to punch out like reporters he didn't like, apparently, and
33:39
Speaker 1: break bones in his hand doing so. I guess McConaughey
33:43
Speaker 1: was going to play him in a biopic. At one
33:44
Speaker 1: point I thought that was pretty good casting. Who else, Yeah, biopic?
33:49
Speaker 1: Maybe Josh Lucas. What's wrong with biopic? Biopic? That's that's
33:54
Speaker 1: what that's by. We've had this conversation before, what whether
33:56
Speaker 1: it's biopic or biopic? And what did we settle in?
33:59
Speaker 1: I say biopic, and I said biopic, but I think
34:02
Speaker 1: I just said biopic. Maybe you know you said biopic? Jerry,
34:05
Speaker 1: can we get a ruling? Jerry says no, I wasn't
34:11
Speaker 1: paying attention. I got nothing else. Then, okay, well that's
34:15
Speaker 1: broken Bones. That was a good one. Yeah, I think so.
34:18
Speaker 1: I never really knew. I mean, I knew they healed themselves.
34:20
Speaker 1: But it's a pretty fascinating stuff and if you want
34:22
Speaker 1: to learn more about it, you can check out this
34:24
Speaker 1: article by Robert Lamb on how Stuff Works dot com.
34:27
Speaker 1: Um just type in broken bones and it will bring
34:30
Speaker 1: it up. And since I said Robert Lamb, that means
34:33
Speaker 1: it's time for message break. Now, how's about some listener mail? Chuck? Yeah,
34:45
Speaker 1: this is from a female rugby player, so it probably
34:48
Speaker 1: fits with broken bones. I bet she's broken a bone.
34:51
Speaker 1: And I didn't know that ladies played rugby, so I
34:53
Speaker 1: was happy to learn this. Hey, guys, I want to
34:56
Speaker 1: say first off that I think yell are incredible. Love
34:58
Speaker 1: the podcast, dig the show, thoroughly enjoy all the fun
35:01
Speaker 1: newsletter emails I get from you to help break up
35:04
Speaker 1: the day at work. Oh yeah, we should tell people
35:06
Speaker 1: you can subscribe to our newsletter. Yeah, it's pretty awesome.
35:09
Speaker 1: It's just kind of like a rundown and stuff we've
35:10
Speaker 1: come up with that week, um articles, links of the podcast, video,
35:15
Speaker 1: good way to stay in the loop. Yeah, I'm not
35:16
Speaker 1: exactly sure how you sign up for that though. Really
35:19
Speaker 1: hold on, Actually I do know where it is, Chuck.
35:22
Speaker 1: You can go to our Facebook page and sign up.
35:24
Speaker 1: I should know that there's a link on the Facebook
35:26
Speaker 1: page for our newsletter, so just click that and add
35:29
Speaker 1: your information. And I believe there's a no spam guarantee,
35:32
Speaker 1: and of course it's not illegally binding guarantee, but I
35:35
Speaker 1: think like there's no spam associated with it. Oh cool, Yeah, alright,
35:38
Speaker 1: like all you get is the newsletter. Nice. Well, thank
35:42
Speaker 1: you Jamie for polling that out and thank you for
35:44
Speaker 1: enjoying the newsletter, So she continues, I am writing to
35:47
Speaker 1: ask for a favor on something I know you guys
35:49
Speaker 1: have to do, but I figure I have nothing to lose.
35:52
Speaker 1: I play for our women's rugby team in Chicago, called
35:55
Speaker 1: the Chicago Sirens. Rugby is a newish sport for me,
36:00
Speaker 1: but I have to say it's one of the most
36:01
Speaker 1: fun things I've done since moving here. Anyway, our team
36:04
Speaker 1: has been invited to play in the Safari Sevens tournament
36:09
Speaker 1: in Nairobi, Kenya, which is an extreme privilege. Uh. The
36:12
Speaker 1: Safari Sevens is Africa's premier rugby tournament and is open
36:16
Speaker 1: only to teams that receive formal invitations and draw crowds
36:19
Speaker 1: of over people. Wow. We are currently the only US
36:23
Speaker 1: team that's been invited to play in the tournament, which
36:26
Speaker 1: is awesome. Uh. In addition, we are the first women's
36:29
Speaker 1: team outside of Africa to ever receive an invitation to play,
36:33
Speaker 1: and it's really cool opportunity for US. That is an
36:35
Speaker 1: extreme well, what what'd you say, an extreme way privilege? Yeah? Okay.
36:41
Speaker 1: The only problem is, guys, we are a self funded team,
36:45
Speaker 1: the news catch and UH we have a ton of
36:48
Speaker 1: fundraising to do in order to get ourselves there. Because
36:50
Speaker 1: you think she was just bragging, Now I knew. Would
36:53
Speaker 1: you guys be willing to mention our tour website on
36:55
Speaker 1: your Facebook page or on Twitter for sure, or better yet,
36:58
Speaker 1: on the podcast first? So you got it, she says,
37:01
Speaker 1: I know it's a total long shot, but this trip
37:03
Speaker 1: would be like a dream come true and a girl's
37:05
Speaker 1: gotta try. Um, your Kenyon bound fan, Jamie, So Jamie,
37:11
Speaker 1: here's your plug if you guys want to help support
37:13
Speaker 1: women's rugby and uh get them to Africa based participate
37:18
Speaker 1: USA for this, Yeah, pretty much. Um, you can go
37:23
Speaker 1: to Sirens Safari number seven s. So it's seven's but
37:30
Speaker 1: it's the number seven instead of spelling it out, so
37:33
Speaker 1: s I R E N S s A f A
37:37
Speaker 1: r I number seven s Safari sevens dot webs dot com.
37:43
Speaker 1: So once again, that is Sirens Safari sevens number seven
37:48
Speaker 1: dot webs dot com. Man, they should have made it
37:51
Speaker 1: easier to know, kidding you're in there. Um, so that's
37:55
Speaker 1: you know the U r L and uh, boy, I
37:58
Speaker 1: hope you raise your funds. That'd be really needs to
37:59
Speaker 1: be the USA support Women's Rugby, go help them. Everybody
38:04
Speaker 1: donate a few shekels. As Mark Marin would say, that's
38:07
Speaker 1: very nice. Yeah wait um quote married, sure, I'll the words. Yeah,
38:12
Speaker 1: that's a good one. Um. Let's see if you as
38:15
Speaker 1: always have a charity, a group that needs help that
38:21
Speaker 1: we can try to rally everybody for. We're always out
38:23
Speaker 1: to hear that kind of thing. Yeah, no promises because
38:27
Speaker 1: we get a lot of them. But um yeah, you know,
38:29
Speaker 1: like she said, girls gotta try. We'll do what we can. Uh.
38:33
Speaker 1: And if you have a broken bones story, you might
38:35
Speaker 1: as well send it to us. Why not? You can
38:37
Speaker 1: tweet to us at That's Why sk podcast. You can
38:42
Speaker 1: join us on Facebook dot com and sign up for
38:44
Speaker 1: a newsletter at Facebook dot com, slash Stuff you Should Know.
38:47
Speaker 1: You can send us an email The Stuff podcasts at
38:49
Speaker 1: Discovery dot com, and you can check out our home
38:52
Speaker 1: on the web Stuff you Should Know dot com. For
39:00
Speaker 1: more on this and thousands of other topics, visit how
39:02
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