Hydroxyapatite
Also called: bone mineral crystal
What it means
Hydroxyapatite is the hard mineral crystal, made mostly of calcium and phosphorus, that gives your bones their stiffness and strength.
Your bones' resistance to breaking depends on having enough well-formed hydroxyapatite paired with healthy collagen, not just one or the other.
Hydroxyapatite is the mineral crystal that makes up most of your bone's weight. It's built mainly from calcium and phosphorus, and it's what gives bone its stiffness and ability to resist being crushed or compressed. Bone itself is roughly 65% mineral like this, with the remaining 35% being organic material, mostly type I collagen.
Bone strength comes from the partnership between hydroxyapatite and collagen. Collagen gives bone flexibility and keeps it from cracking, while the mineral provides stiffness and compressive strength. How well bone performs under load depends on the ratio of collagen to mineral, how the collagen is cross-linked, and the size of the hydroxyapatite crystals themselves — not just how much mineral is present.
Because hydroxyapatite is made from calcium and phosphorus, your body needs a steady supply of these minerals, along with protein and supporting vitamins, to keep building and maintaining bone. There's also some early research suggesting a plant compound called phytate may interact with bone mineral crystals, though this is a developing area of study rather than a settled conclusion.
How sure is this?
Graded Established Science: Supported by broad scientific consensus and decades of research. Read each study with its grade in mind. One study is a piece of the picture, not the whole of it.
Where the Academy teaches it
This page is the short version. The lessons teach it in full, with the context around it and a quiz to lock it in.
Related words
Type I collagen is the main protein in bone, forming a flexible framework that mineral crystals attach to, giving…
Cortical bone is the dense, hard outer layer of bone that forms a protective shell and resists bending and twisting…
Calcium is the main building-block mineral in bone, and since your body can't make it, you need to get it from food…
Vitamin D is a nutrient that helps your gut absorb calcium so it can be used to build and maintain bone.
Bone mineral density (BMD) measures how much mineral is packed into your bones, usually estimated with a DEXA scan,…
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