User:Oleiker/sandbox

The human systemic disease, osteoporosis, is another human example which can be associated with evolutionary mismatch. The increase of osteoporosis in advanced societies can be attributed to the profound change in lifestyle and behavior due to the neolithic revolution. Those changes include modifications to how food was obtained and transformations of locomotion. Both sexes are susceptible to osteoporosis during aging, but in advanced societies women are especially vulnerable because of the need for mobilization of calcium during reproduction. Fossil evidence has suggested that this was not always the case as bones from elderly hunter-gatherer women often show no evidence of osteoporosis. Other evolutionary biologists theorize that the evolution in the human species to bipedalism resulted in weaker bone strength, specifically in the vertebrae. Additionally, the increase of osteoporosis in advanced societies can be attributed to the transition from hunter-gatherers to agriculturalists. The agricultural lifestyle was more sedentary, which caused accelerated bone loss. The constant physical activity of hunter-gathers likely lead to peak bone mass being considerably higher than agriculturalists. While the pattern of bone mass degradation during aging is purportedly the same for both hunter-gatherers and modern humans, the higher peak bone mass associated with more physical activity may have led hunter-gatherers to be able to develop a propensity to avoid osteoporosis during aging.