Bones in Older Women Appear to Benefit From Antioxidants and Exercise
Lee Swanson Research Update
A combination of antioxidant supplements and resistance training may protect against bone loss in postmenopausal women, a new Canadian study suggests.
Women receiving a combination of vitamins C and E, and exercise did not experience any bone loss during a six-month period, while women receiving placebo did experience detrimental bone loss, according to findings published in Osteoporosis International .
“These results are interesting because this is the first study to examine the combination of these interventions in healthy elderly women suggesting another effective strategy to delay age-related BMD loss,” wrote the researchers, led by Isabelle Dionne, PhD, from the University of Sherbrooke. However, the researchers cautioned that, since this is a pilot study, it would be inappropriate to make “formal nutritional recommendations.”
“Further research is needed to determine appropriate recommendations for this population especially since nutrition and exercise are two effective and accessible strategies toward health maintenance in the aging population,” they added.
An estimated 75 million people suffer from osteoporosis in the USA, Europe and Japan. Women are four times more likely to develop osteoporosis than men.
Dionne and her co-workers recruited 34 postmenopausal women with an average age of 66.1, and an average BMI of 25.98 kg/m2, and randomly assigned them to one of four groups: placebo and no exercise; antioxidants (600 mg vitamin E di-alpha-tocopherol and 1,000 mg vitamin C daily) and no exercise; placebo, plus exercise and antioxidants, plus exercise, for six months.
Measures of the bone mineral density (BMD) at the hip (femoral neck) and spine (lumbar spine) revealed that only the placebo and no exercise group experienced significant bone loss at the lumbar spine. The BMD of both sites remained constant in all the other groups.
Commenting on the possible mechanism, Dionne and her co-workers stated that a previous study has indicated a decrease in bone resorption following antioxidant supplementation.
“Antioxidants may reduce the damaging effects of oxidative stress on bone mass by reducing the up-regulated osteoclastic differentiation and enhancing the down-regulated osteoclastic differentiation,” they said. Osteoclasts are cells that break down bone, leading to resorption and weakening. “Our results suggest to further investigate the impact of antioxidant supplements on the prevention of osteoporosis,” the concluded.
Osteoporosis International Published online ahead of print.