Basics Of Bone Metabolism Bone is a dynamic organ. As children grow bone is amassed. It continues to be structured and restructured as follows. Osteoblasts follow along behind the osteoclasts and fill in the defects. In normal remodeling the amount of bone resorbed and laid down is neutral or in positive balance.
Bone continues to accumulate to a peak bone density in the early thirties.
3 Figure 1. In order to be healthy, bone needs weight-bearing work. Decreasing exercise with age also contributes to cumulative bone loss. Although there are many definitions for osteoporosis most of them attempt to describe bone mass as it relates to fracture risk. While this definition is less descriptive it is the one most often used by radiologists when they measure bone density and it gives the physician an idea of fracture risk.