In the middle of the twentieth century, few physicians could have
predicted that the modern diagnostic category of osteoporosis would
emerge to include millions of Americans, predominantly older women.
Before World War II, popular attitudes held that the declining
physical and mental health of older persons was neither preventable
nor reversible and that older people had little to contribute.
Moreover, the physiological processes that influenced the health of
bones remained mysterious. In Aging Bones, Gerald N. Grob makes a
historical inquiry into how this one aspect of aging came to be
considered a disease. During the 1950s and 1960s, as more and more
people lived to the age of 65, older people emerged as a
self-conscious group with distinct interests, and they rejected the
pejorative concept of senescence. But they had pressing health
needs, and preventing age-related decline became a focus for
researchers and clinicians alike. In analyzing how the normal aging
of bones was transformed into a medical diagnosis requiring
treatment, historian of medicine Grob explores developments in
medical science as well as the social, intellectual, economic,
demographic, and political changes that transformed American
society in the post-World War II decades. Though seemingly
straightforward, osteoporosis and its treatment are shaped by
illusions about the conquest of disease and aging. These illusions,
in turn, are instrumental in shaping our health care system. While
bone density tests and osteoporosis treatments are now routinely
prescribed, aggressive pharmaceutical intervention has produced
results that are inconclusive at best. The fascinating history in
Aging Bones will appeal to students and scholars in the history of
medicine, health policy, gerontology, endocrinology, and
orthopedics, as well as anyone who has been diagnosed with
osteoporosis.
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