Growing Bone

Growing numbers of men and many more women are suffering from crippling bone loss called osteoporosis. By 2050 50% of Americans over 50 will be at risk of, or actually have, osteoporosis. In this book the reader will meet the newest real and possible bone builders and learn how they might work. These include novel steroids, an osteogenic growth peptide (OGP), leptin from both fat cells and osteoblasts and the many kinds of statin that are widely used to reduce blood cholesterol and seem to prevent Alzheimer's disease. But the spotlight must be directed onto the currently most promising bone growers, the 84-amino acid parathyroid hormone (PTH) and three of its 31- and 34-amino-acid fragments.