Osteoporosis afflicts 10 million people in the U.SA have osteoporosis and 80% of them are
women (NOF, 2010) and 18 million people have low BMD who are at an increased risk of
osteoporosis in the U.S today (Brynin, 2002;Notelovitz, 2003). Health care cost for treatment
of osteoporosis-related fracture is 17 billion dollars in the US and is projected to be more
than 20 billion dollars by 2015 (Burge et al.,2007; Notelovitz, 2003). Osteoporosis has become
an important health problem, particularly for women and is the most prevalent metabolic bone
disease in elderly (Chan & Duque, 2002). At this time no consensus exists for the exact
contribution of individual factors to bone mineral properties. However, it does appear that three
major categories apply, those being (a) external influences, (b) standard and non-standard body composition measurements, and (c) physical activity status. As such, this literature review will discuss the alterations in bone composition and health implications of each of these
components, respectively.