ABSTRACT
Peak bone mass (PBM), the maximum amount of bone mass achieved at the end of growth, has been suggested to be more important than the amount of adulthood bone loss in the risk of osteoporosis and fractures (Bonjour et al., 2009). As PBM must maintain the skeleton for the remainder of life, it is important to understand what regulates the attainment of PBM and how the amount of bone gained during growth can be optimized, thus offsetting the inevitable bone loss that occurs with age. This chapter describes the attainment of PBM and summarizes what is known about its determinants, focusing on nutrition but also addressing other nonnutritional variables.
