The Antiquity of Age‐Associated Bone Demineralization in Man

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Adult males and females in contemporary populations undergo age‐associated demineralization of the skeleton (osteoporosis). Males lose less bone mineral than females, partly because of the slower rate and later age at onset of the loss in males. This study demonstrates that age‐associated demineralization also characterizes prehistoric populations. Demineralization in a prehistoric, hunting‐and‐gathering skeletal population was studied cross‐sectionally. The bone mineral content of radii from skeletons (5‐year age groups from 20 years to 60+) was measured by means of a photon absorptiometry technique. Males not only lost less cortical and trabecular bone than did females but began demineralization at a later age. These sexual differences also apply to modern populations. The apparent universality of osteoporotic demineralization in both time and space attests to a basic genetic unity within our species. Medical science has met with only limited success in combatting the osteoporosis which so often results in collapsed vertebrae and fractured femora in the geriatric population. Bone loss with age has a strong genetic basis and therefore will not easily be arrested or even slowed by the nutritional and hormonal therapy that is employed today.

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