Dietary calcium and physical activity — Implications for osteoporosis

Summary and Conclusions

This review has focused on two of the most important etiologic factors relating to bone health, specifically dietary calcium and physical activity. In general, these two lifestyle variables have been shown to influence, each in a positive way, skeletal development during childhood and adolescence and peak bone mass optimization during premenopausal adulthood. If females can maximize bone mass prior to themenopause, they are likely to track at a higher level of bone mass during the inexorable postmenopausal period of bone loss, perhaps almost independently of the rate of bone loss. The greater bone mass of women entering the menopause should help to delay, or possibly, to prevent entirely hip fractures. The promotion of good bone health, especially for the purpose of preventing hip fractures, should become national goals built into school and public health programs at federal and local levels.