Bone marrow – It is a spongy substance that is found in the center of the bones such as hip and thigh bones. Bone marrow contains stem cells and is located in the medullary cavities of certain large bones such as hip, thigh, ribs, vertebrate spinal column (vertebrae), and breastbones. In a healthy human, bone marrow comprises about 5 percent of total body mass.

Types of bone marrow – There are two types of bone marrow are yellow bone marrow also known as fatty tissue and red bone marrow or myeloid tissue.

Both bone marrow develops more than 200 billion new blood cells daily and is enriched with blood vessels and capillaries. Most of the blood cells develop in the body from cells in the bone marrow.

1. Yellow Bone Marrow – The function of yellow bone marrow is to store fats. Yellow bone marrow provides sustenance and maintains the correct environment for the bone to function. During conditions of severe blood loss or fever, the yellow bone marrow reverts into the red bone marrow. This type of bone marrow is located in the central cavities of long bones. Generally, it is surrounded by a layer of red marrow within a sponge-like reticular framework. It has mesenchymal stem cells is also called marrow stromal cells that produce cartilage, fat, and bone.
2. Red Bone Marrow – This type of bone marrow produces most of the red blood cells and platelets in the human adult. It consists of a delicate highly vascular fibrous tissue contains hematopoietic stem cells which are blood-forming.

Functions of Bone Marrow – Bone marrow manufactures approximately 500 billion blood stem cells per day which produces Red blood cells, White blood cells, and Platelets. Most of the red blood cells and white blood cells and also platelets are formed in the red bone marrow whereas yellow bone marrow produces cartilage, fat, and bone.

White blood cells survive only a few hours to a few days, platelets survive for around 10 days and red blood cells survive for around 120 days. These must be replaced constantly by the bone marrow and each blood cell has a set life expectancy.

 These blood cells are very important because

• Red Blood Cells carries oxygen to tissues of the body
• White blood cells are used in fighting infections.
• Platelets prevent bleeding and help blood clotting.

It is important to know that which food increases bone marrow are as given below

• Red meat such as beef, and organ meat such as kidney, liver.
• Beans, Legumes
• Egg yolk
• Dry fruits
• Green leafy fruits such as spinach, raisins, and many more
• High calcium foods
• Vitamin D and Vitamin K
• Exercises
• Citrus fruits such as oranges, lemons, and grapefruit.
• Broccoli, strawberries, papaya, and sprouts.

Disease – Healthy bone and blood cells are needed for life. There are some of the causes of bone marrow diseases are mostly genetics or environmental factors. To know the causes, blood tests and bone marrow tests are done. The bone marrow diseases may be

• Blood cancer (Leukemia) – It happens when the bone marrow makes abnormal white blood cells.
• Aplastic Anemia – It happens when the bone marrow does not make enough red blood cells.
• Lymphoma – It affects the production of blood cells.
• Myeloproliferative disorder – It happens when bone marrow develops too many white blood cells.

Treatment – There are some of the treatments of any cancer including leukemia which are as give below –

• Chemotherapy – It uses drugs that kill dividing cancerous cells and prevent them from growing. The drugs prevent cancer cells to divide and reproduce. The adverse effects sometimes happen when drugs target healthy cells also. However early chemotherapy achieves complete cure.
• Radiation therapy – It is one of the most common in the treatments of several cancers. The doctor may recommend radiation therapy for killing the cancerous cells to prevent any type of cancers due to problem in bone marrow
• Bone marrow transplant – Bone marrow transplant is needed due to various reasons
  • It replaces diseased and malfunctioning bone marrow with healthy bone marrow.
  • It fights cancers that are not killed by chemotherapy or radiation.

Conclusion – As such bone marrow is very important for the survival of the human.