MODULE SUPPLEMENT: MUSCULO-SKELETAL SYSTEM
Skeletal Changes With Age

Muscles and bones work together to allow us to move and function, and strong muscles are important for the maintenance of bone mass. However, bones also perform a number of additional activities. They help protect organs (e.g. ribs), store minerals like calcium, function in maintaining acid base balance, and are involved in blood cell formation.

Bone is really a connective tissue that is made up of an organic matrix, or ground work for the bone, which is composed of both collagen fibers and a homogeneous medium called ground substance, into or onto which bone salts (inorganic minerals) are deposited.