Markers of bone turnover in relation to bone health

In recent years, there has been both an increasing awareness of, and interest in, bone health which has been combined with a recognition that nutritional factors may have an influential role in developing and maintaining bone status. In contrast to the situation approximately 15 years ago, when only 5 % of general practitioners acknowledged the occurrence of osteoporosis, this disorder of bone metabolism is now much more widely recognized. With 60 000 hip fractures resulting from osteoporosis each year in the UK alone, this debilitating disease has dramatic effects on society in both social and economic terms. It is important, therefore, that research defines more closely the mechanisms of bone loss that give rise to osteoporosis and the nutritional influences on these processes. The aim of the present paper is, first, to summarize the biochemical techniques currently available for assessing bone metabolism and, second, to review the current knowledge of nutritional influences on bone turnover using these markers.