Low Bone Mass in Past and Present Aboriginal Populations

摘要: A slight and gradual loss of bone mass is characteristic all aging primates, if they live long enough (Garn, 1970; Burr, 1980). Nevertheless, the observation reduced among ancestral human skeletal remains limited to relatively recent populations. Since domestication plants roughly 12,000 years ago, from disparate parts world have occasionally shown low mass. Perhaps earlier populations did not suffer age-related because died at young ages (Pfeiffer, 1990), or perhaps their diet lifestyle facilitated effective maintenance. Past were more dependent on local natural resources own physical labor for subsistence, a cultural pattern maintained by only few geographically isolated aboriginal groups today. These “anthropological populations” been portrayed as paradigms whose dietary habits might be studied representations our species’ “set point” nutritional requirements, against which we evaluate modern regimens biological consequences (Eaton et al., 1988; Eaton Nelson, 1991).