A leading physician and clinical researcher explains the social and human costs of osteoporosis. A GUIDE FOR PREVENTING AND TREATING OSTEOPOROSIS presents our newly emerging understanding that our bones are highly dynamic, very responsive to hormonal balance and fully integrated into our endocrine systems. The book explains what steps we can take to avoid osteoporosis, or if it has already taken hold, what steps and treatments are available to remediate or control the advance of this insidious disease. As we age, most women and over one-third of men lose bone density to some degree, because the new bone deposition fails to quite keep up with osteoclastic bone removal. For a majority of women past menopause, the dynamic balance of new bone deposition and bone removal shifts significantly enough to place them at heightened risk for bone fractures. Osteoporosis is fairly subtle in its onset, but it has a huge impact on the quality of life and on mortality for the more severely affected, and most of us could be more aware of the early signs of loss of bone density and the steps we can take to keep our bones healthy.