Bone Changes and Aortic Calcification in Aging Inhabitants of Mountain Versus Seacoast Communities in the Kii Peninsula

Abstract

Bone changes and aortic calcification were compared radiographically for different age groups of the inhabitants of two communities on the Kii Peninsula at the central southern tip of the Japanese mainland, one a mountainous Shichikawa village with a traditionally restricted nutritional intake and the other a seacoast village on Oshima Island with an abundant nutritional supply. Changes in the physical properties of the bone were also assessed by resonance measurement. In the mountainous village, bone loss appeared to occur more rapidly than in the seacoast village, as indicated by a significantly higher frequency of thoracic vertebral deformity and more pronounced age-bound decrease of ulnar resonant frequency. Aortic calcification was also more frequent in Shichikawa than on Oshima Island. Such differences were more evident in women than in men. The poorer nutritional intake (especially of calcium and vitamin D) of persons living in the mountainous village (which receives less sunshine) might be responsible for the accelerated age-bound degenerative changes observed in their skeletal and vascular systems.