Osteoporosis”

Etiologies, prevention, and treatment

Bibliographic Data

ID8317070
AuthorsWilliam A Stini (University of Arizona, corresponding author)
Year1990
Volume33
IssueS11
Pages151-194
Publication date1990-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Journal of Physical Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-9483 • E-ISSN: 1096-8644
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/ajpa.1330330508
OpenAlexW1967748197
LanguageEN
Citations received13
References cited253

With the steady increase in life expectancies occurring in industrialized countries have come major changes in the causes of morbidity and mortality. The greatest burden on the health care delivery systems in these countries has shifted from the treatment of infectious diseases to extended care of degenerative conditions. One such condition of increasing widespread concern is osteoporosis. Chronic bone loss leading to fractures and secondary infections has become a major problem in the United States, and has been estimated to cost $6 to $8 billion annually. The etiology of osteoporosis is complex, depending upon the interaction of nutritional, endocrinological, and local factors that are subject to a variety of genetic and environmental influences. The stringent requirement of maintaining calcium homeostasis places heavy demands on the primary reservoir of calcium, the skeleton, when intake and/or absorption are inadequate. Inactivity, depriving bone of its weight-bearing function, also initiates bone resorption. Under normal circumstances in the young adult, bone is maintained through continual, balanced turnover of mineral and calcium. When this balance is upset, loss of bone can be slow or rapid, reversible or irreversible. The trabecular compartment with its high sur-face-to-volume ratio is most rapidly mobilized, but cortical bone is ultimately resorbed as well. Involutional osteoporosis is conventionally designated as either type I (postmenopausal) or type II (senile). Women are affected by both and, because of a generally less-robust skeleton, experience risk of fracture earlier than men on the average. The hormonal and physiological factors involved in the regulation of normal bone physiology and the factors leading to loss of bone mass constitute an area of active research that is casting light on the fundamental mechanisms underling bone growth and maintenance in the search for new avenues of prevention and treatment of osteoporosis

Bone remodeling · Bone resorption · Etiology · Intensive care medicine · Osteoporosis · Senile osteoporosis · Bone health and osteoporosis research · Bone Metabolism and Diseases · Internal Medicine · Medicine · Physiology · Vitamin D Research Studies