Increasing skeletal involution in the elderly?

Studies of bone mineral content (MC) of the limbs in normal populations have shown there is an increase of MC during adolescence, a maximum MC for both sexes between 30 and 40 years of age and a subsequent decrease which is at least twice as great in females than in males. There are different findings in the literature on the course of these MC changes with aging. The present cross-sectional study of 180 subjects over age 70 showed a slight increase in the annual decrease of radius MC in females and a distinct acceleration of the MC decrease in males after about 80 years. This occurred for both a pure cortical measuring site of the radius (1/3-site) and for a mixed cancellous/compact site of the distal radius (1/10-site). These findings differ from those in other populations.