Jan. 26 (UPI) — Researchers at The Ohio State University have found that anti-inflammatory diets may reduce the risk of bone loss and fractures in women.
The study examined data from the Women’s Health Initiative and compared levels of inflammatory elements in the diet to bone mineral density.
Researchers found that women who consumed anti-inflammatory diets lost less bone density during a six-year follow-up than women who ate high-inflammatory diets, even if they had lower bone density to start with.
The study found that anti-inflammatory diets, containing vegetables, fruits, fish and whole grains, could lower the risk of hip fracture in post-menopausal white women under the age of 63.
“This suggests that as women age, healthy diets are impacting their bones,” Tonya Orchard, assistant professor of human nutrition at The Ohio State University and lead author of the study, said in a press release. “I think this gives us yet another reason to support the recommendations for a healthy diet in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.”
These new findings add to a growing body of evidence that increased inflammation can lead to an increased risk of osteoporosis.
“By looking at the full diet rather than individual nutrients, these data provide a foundation for studying how components of the diet might interact to provide benefit and better inform women’s health and lifestyle choices,” Rebecca Jackson, director of Ohio State’s Center for Clinical and Transitional Science, national chair of the Women’s Health Initiative steering committee and senior author of the study, said in a press release.
The study consisted of dietary data from 160,191 women ages 50 to 79 and assigned inflammation scores based on 32 food components. Researchers used bone mineral density data from 10,290 of the women in the larger group and fracture data was collected from the entire group.
Researchers found an association between high-inflammatory diets and a 50 percent higher fracture risk in white women under age 63 compared to those with lower inflammation scores.
The study was published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research.
