Human cartilage comes in three distinct types: fibrocartilage, elastic cartilage and hyaline cartilage. Cartilage is probably most famous for most people as a result of its replacement for a bone-based skeletal structure in sharks, but humans cannot live without cartilage either. Cartilage is appears throughout the human anatomy including your nose, ears, spine and even larynx. Fibrocartilage is situated mostly in the spine and acts to cushion the impact on disks in the vertebrae. Elastic cartilage provides shape to your ears. Hyaline cartilage the most ubiquitous and can be discovered in your fingers, and hips among other places.
Cartilage is abundant in human beings for two essential reasons other than keeping our ears from hanging down like a tube filled with molasses. The most obvious use of cartilage in the body is as a shock absorber. The action of taking just one step would be comparable to the pain of having to sit through every Paulie Shore movie ever made over and over again were it not for cartilage cushioning and relieving the stress associated with the weight you put on your knee and other joints. The great thing about cartilage is that while it is rubbery, it is also exceptionally elastic. The effects of friction, therefore, are mitigated as a result of ability of cartilage to ease back and forth and forward and backward. This is possible because the type of cartilage used in this cushioning effect, known as articular cartilage, is composed of a massive and complex series of properties designed especially to allow for give and take.
The human body is exposed to an almost unbelievable amount of pressure and force every day. When you think about all the impacts that your body undergoes on just an average day-all the walking, jumping, reaching, pounding, pushing and pulling-and you imagine what sheer misery any of those activities would result in without the cushioning provided by cartilage it can blow your mind. Cartilage reacts to all this stress and pressure by discharging fluid that is stored within, which serves to reduce the pressure load experienced at the edges of your bones and, most importantly, to keep those hard structures from rubbing up against each other. Cartilage in your body is what allows all the beauty of athletics and dance; with each just a fraction less cartilage, those smooth, artistic leaps into the air by ballerinas or wide receivers would just be a fantastical legend.
Cartilage usually will remain in working order in the average human body for as long as that body remains alive. The normal course of events allows for cartilage to regenerate new tissue when the older tissue becomes too worn. When that process of regeneration is interfered with, however, is when you move into the real of talking about osteoarthritis and other medical problems associated with the breakdown in the body’s ability to produce new tissue.
