Beer and wine in moderation could aid bone density - study

26-Mar-2009 - Last updated on 13-Mar-2017 at 10:14 GMT

Moderate consumption of alcoholic beverages could have benefits for bone health, though any potential impacts may be lost upon continued drinking, according to new research.

In findings appearing next month in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers suggested that men and postmenopausal women who consumed 1 to 2 drinks a day of wine or beer had improved bone mineral density (BMD) in their hips and spine. However, the report claimed that exceeding these guidelines was thought conversely to be detrimental to bones strength, particularly in men.

Some health experts have stressed concerns in promoting alcohol, at any level of consumption, to being beneficial to nutrition and health due to fears over the wider potential impacts on the body from drinking.

Charity, the National Osteoporosis Society said that, while it welcomed measures to improve bone health, it did not recommend anyone increased alcohol consumption on the basis of the study.

“Indeed, consuming more than four units of alcohol per day is known to increase the risk of breaking bones as a result of osteoporosis,” stated a spokesperson for the charity.

Researchers from Tufts medical center said that in testing the alcohol intakes and BMD of 1182 male, 1289 postmenopausal and 248 premenopausal women, a particular link was found for moderate wine or beer drinking in relation to bone strength. All test subjects were between 26 to 89 years of age, according to the findings.

Lead researcher Katherine Tucker suggested that when compared to abstainers, hip BMD in men consuming alcohol products at a rate of 1 to 2 drinks a day was 2.4 to 4.5 per cent higher. The findings suggested a similar pattern in post menopausal women, where a daily intake of 2 drinks of alcohol or wine was linked to improved BMD in the hips and spine by 5 to 8.3 per cent.

The study suggested that a number of mechanisms may explain the studies conclusions such as the present of silicon in beer, which in the form of Orthosilicic Acid could help promote bone formation at moderate levels.

The findings also supported the possibility that estrogenic resveratrol in wine could help reduce bone loss in postmenopausal women with low estrogen status, according to the researchers.

The study conceded that it failed to quantify the levels of resveratrol exposure in respondents from wine though.

Alcohol research

According to the research, which tested three areas in the hips and the lumbar spine to measure done density, the conclusions will add weight to previous research suggesting that certain alcohol products may offer potential health benefits at low doses.

Although the study suggested a predominant pattern of men opting for beers and the fairer sex drinking wines, Tucker said that any specific benefits of individual classes of alcohol on bone health had not been investigated.

“However, they illustrate that the benefits appear most clearly from beer and wine intake, which suggests that factors in addition to ethanol may exert protective effects,” stated the report. “They also extend earlier findings to suggest that the positive effect of alcohol intake in men peaks at 1 to 2 drinks a day and provide evidence that these benefits decline with higher intakes.”

Although the findings found no association between moderate alcohol intake in premenopausal women and their BMD, linear benefits were attributed by the research to postmenopausal respondents’ bones after consuming two glasses of wine and possibly even spirits. Potential health impacts of beer were found to be similar, but not discernable in the same survey group, according to the research.

Methodology

Subject data used for the study was drawn from the Framingham Osteoporosis Study, which requires members to return every four years to complete physical examinations and questionnaires.

The research looked specifically at the Framingham Offspring cohort first established back in 1971, focusing specifically on respondents around their fifth and sixth visits occurring in 1991 to 1995 and 1995 to 1999 respectively.

The researchers said that 2919 participants in the whole had their BMD measurements recorded during the sixth and seventh examinations of the test, which formed the basis of the alcohol BMD study.

Source: The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

Published online ahead of print doi: 10.3945/ajcn.2008.26765.

"Effects of beer, wine, and liquor intakes on bone mineral density in older men and women "

Authors: Katherine L Tucker, Ravin Jugdaohsingh, Jonathan J Powell, Ning Qiao, Marian T Hannan, et al.