Anti-inflammatory diet could reduce risk of bone loss in women

Anti-inflammatory diets – those high in vegetables, fruits, fish and whole grains – could boost bone health and prevent fractures in some women, highlights research in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research.

Researchers looked at data from over 160,000 older women and compared levels of inflammatory elements in the diet to bone mineral density and fractures.

Exciting new associations were found between food and bone health:

• Women with the least-inflammatory diets lost less bone density during the six-year follow-up period than women with the most-inflammatory diets, even though they started off with lower bone density overall.
• Diets with low inflammatory potential seemed to correspond to lower risk of hip fracture among post-menopausal white women younger than 63 years.
• More-inflammatory diets were not linked to fracture. There was a modestly lower risk of lower-arm and total fracture in women with the highest dietary inflammation scores. This could be because the women with lower inflammation scores were more physically active as a group and therefore were at a slightly greater risk of falls.
• Women with the least-inflammatory diets had lower bone mineral density at the start of the study, but lost less bone than their high-inflammation peers. The lower bone density to start could be because women with healthier diets are more likely to be of a smaller build. Larger people have higher bone density to support their larger frames.

Implications

The study was observational so it is not possible to definitively link dietary patterns and bone health and fracture outcomes.

But the new findings support a growing body of evidence that suggests that increased inflammation can increase osteoporosis risk. The results highlight that women’s bone health could benefit when they choose a diet higher in beneficial fats, plants and whole grains.

A high-quality, less-inflammatory diet may be especially important in reducing hip fracture risk in younger women.

Click here to read the original research.

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