ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on metabolic disorders, that is, conditions that can disrupt the body’s normal metabolic processes. Such disorders can affect bone formation, resorption, and/or mineralisation; thus, they have been associated with diverse skeletal changes. The conditions examined here include osteoporosis, vitamin C deficiency (scurvy), vitamin D deficiency (rickets/osteomalacia), Paget’s disease of bone, fluorosis, and hyperostosis frontalis interna. For each of these conditions, emphasis is placed on their underlying etiological factors, as well as their skeletal manifestation and different diagnostic criteria proposed in the palaeopathological literature. Issues of disease co-occurrence are also briefly presented. References and suggested readings at the end of the chapter list several important clinical and palaeopathological works for additional information.
