v: Anthroposophical Views
The bare bones Dora Wagner Did it take long to find me? I asked the faithful light. Did it take long to find me? And are you gonna stay the night? Cat Stevens, Moonshadow,1970
Bent, straight, twisted, vertical, horizontal. Loadbearing, dancing, leaping, walking, standing, lying, bending, sitting, swinging. Still and yet always in motion. Isn't it fascinating what our skeletons can do? The ability to stand upright and move on two feet is one thing that distinguishes humans from other living beings. Our bones enable us to carry ourselves. Standing upright is an expression of our willpower, our active ego. It not only affects our overall posture, but also the way we walk, talk, gesture, and our entire physical movement. We judge individual postures and gestures— resulting from the mobility of our bones —to reveal a person's character, their personal attitude, and thus their ego. Standing perfectly upright, for example, is seen as characteristic of sincerity, of personal integrity, of expressing one's inner convictions without pretence. On the other hand, the human skeleton— especially the skull —has become a symbol of poison or death. Yet our bones brim with life; bone marrow is the primary site for the production of new blood cells. Bones are highly differentiated supporting tissues, not only essential for movement, but storehouses of important micronutrients. Osteocytes, comprising 90–95% of all bone cells, are the only truly permanent resident
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cell population. Their responsibility is to sense mechanical forces and loads acting on the skeleton, translating the lifting of weights or being exposed to gravity into biological perceptions, integrating these orchestral responses and signalling to other cells to modulate bone homeostasis. It is essential that our bodies are exposed to such forces and stresses. Being in bed for a long time, or unable to move for whatever reason, can cause bone loss and ossification (Shang, 2013). Thus, movement or exercise can be crucial when treating bone diseases caused by lack of motion, as well as metabolic diseases such as osteoporosis. It’s also important to maintain a healthy diet. A wide range of micronutrients are essential for bone metabolism; it’s not just a matter of sufficient calcium intake. Vitamin D, for example, is important for calcium balance and bone mineralisation. Our bodies can absorb the vitamin from food as well as produce up to 80 to 90% of our requirement, with the help of sunlight. In the dark season, when sufficient light is also an important requirement of our emotional condition, we should keep this in mind. When the air gets cooler, the trees change colour and I switch on my sunlight-lamp while having breakfast or reading It always reminds me of my grandmother: "Oh, these dead
