Health Check: Defining the limits of human endurance
By Helena Shelby/BBC Radio
As children get older, their bones become denser and stronger and peak maximum bone density occurs when adults are in their 30s. By the time people reach old age, women in particular are at risk of osteoporosis, where bones become so weak that they can fracture.
But new research on the prevalence of osteopenia, a precursor to osteoporosis, has surprised researchers, who have found that men between the ages of 35 and 50 are more at risk than women.
Allison Ford-Wade, Professor of Health, Exercise Science and Recreation Management at the University of Mississippi, is co-author of the study, which has recently been published in The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association.
Click here to listen to the broadcast, which begins at 20:27.