Breaking bones

Even healthy bones can break if they are exposed to great enough forces, but the risk of fracture varies with age and activity.

Everyone falls over sometimes, and we usually put out our hands to try and recover, so wrist bones are the ones that get broken most often.

Children sometimes break their collarbones (clavicles) because the bone does not harden to full strength until the teenage years. Because their bones are bendier than adults’, children suffer more greenstick fractures, where the bone bends and partially breaks. Adults are more likely to suffer clean breaks or shattered bones.

This article is part of the online content for ‘Big Picture: Exercise, Energy and Movement’.

Image: An X-ray showing a fractured clavicle. Credit: Wellcome Photo Library, Wellcome Images.