With the growing incidence of fragility fractures in Europe and North America over the last three decades, bone loss and osteoporosis have become active areas of research in skeletal biology. Bone loss is associated with aging in both sexes and is accelerated in women with the onset of menopause. However, bone loss is related to a suite of complex and often synergistically related factors including genetics, pathology, nutrition, mechani cal usage, and lifestyle. It is not surprising that its incidence and severity vary among populations. There has been increasing interest to investigate bone loss and osteoporosis from an anthropological perspective that utilizes a biocultural approach. Biocultural approaches recognize the inter-relationship between biological, cultural, and environmental variables. Anthropological studies also highlight the value of evolutionary and population approaches to the study of bone loss. These approaches are particularly suited to elucidate the multifactorial etiology of bone loss. The idea for this volume came out of a symposium organized by the editors at the 70th annual meeting of The American Association of Physical Anthropologists in Kansas City, Missouri. Many of the symposium participants, along with several additional leading scientists involved in bone and osteoporosis research, are brought together in this volume. Each chapter focuses on a different aspect of bone loss and fragility with a fresh and stimulating perspective.

Springer Book Archives
Reviews

From the reviews:

"This book aims to provide a physical anthropological perspective on osteoporosis by bringing together contributions from researchers with medical and anthropological backgrounds. ... it forms a user-friendly introduction to the bone biology involved and is a useful gateway to the vast medical literature on osteoporosis. It is also a valuable introduction to some of the methodology for studying osteoporosis in ancient remains ... . there is much in this book that is fresh and challenging and it fills a gap in the palaeopathology literature." (Simon Mays, International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, Vol. 15 (3), 2005)

Book Information
ISBN 9780306477676
Author Sabrina C. Agarwal
Format Hardback
Page Count 240
Imprint Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers
Publisher Springer Science+Business Media