Beer, Wine May Increase Bone Density
Peggy Peck
Oct. 5, 2004 (Seattle) — An analysis of data from the Framingham Offspring Study suggests that men can improve bone mineral density (BMD) with moderate consumption of beer, while women gain a similar benefit from moderate consumption of wine.
The findings were reported during a poster session at the 26th annual meeting of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) by Katherine Tucker, PhD, a professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts.
Dr. Tucker told Medscape that the findings from the study of 1,631 women and 1,295 men suggest that "beer and wine really do have some nutritional value." She theorized that beer may benefit bones because it contains silicon, which has been shown to promote bone health. Wine, on the other hand, is rich in phytochemicals, which also may benefit bones.
In the study, men who consumed one to two cans of beer per day increased BMD measured at the hip trochanter by as much as 7%; in women, one to two glasses of wine per day increased hip BMD by up to 5%, Dr. Tucker said.
Asked if the beer-wine findings suggest some essential difference between the sexes, Dr. Tucker said, "This is more a case of numbers. In this group of people we didn't have enough men who were wine drinkers or women who were beer drinkers to determine if men and women could benefit from either drink." But she said that it is possible that two glasses of wine could benefit men, while women might benefit from one to two cans of beer daily.
The important message, she said, is "moderation because while two cans of beer or two 6 ounce glasses of wine are good for bones, drinking more is harmful." In fact, she said that when distilled beverages are considered, "daily consumption of more than two drinks promotes osteoporosis."
In the study, the investigators used questionnaires to assess daily intake of beer, wine, and other alcoholic beverages. In addition, BMD was measured at the spine and hip using a Lunar DPX-L. After adjusting for other factors that influence bone health, including age, body mass index, physical activity, smoking, calcium and/or vitamin D supplements, menopause status, and estrogen use, "there was a linear relationship between BMD and consumption of wine or beer."
Dr. Tucker noted that moderate drinking — especially of red wine — has already been linked to heart health. "I think that what we are now finding out is that there is not a diet that is good for the heart and another that is good for bones," she said. "Good nutrition is good nutrition, so what is good for the heart is good for the bones." Other studies have suggested that nutrition also plays a role in brain health, she said.
But while Dr. Zucker's poster attracted crowds of ASBMR members, not all bone experts were convinced that beer and wine build strong bones. Roger Zebaze, MD, a research fellow at the University of Melbourne in Australia, told Medscape that "better BMD doesn't always mean fewer fractures. Bone health is really dependent on the fracture risk."
Dr. Zebaze, who was not involved in the study, said a more clinically significant study would be one that measures the number of fractures in drinkers. Dr. Zucker said that while there are fracture data on the original Framingham cohort, such data are not yet available for the offspring study.
Jane Cauley, DrPH, an associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, told Medscape that the findings are interesting but not terribly surprising. Moreover, she said the results may be biased because moderate drinkers are also likely to "have other good habits. They are likely to be healthier in general. This was what we saw in the early studies of estrogen, which appeared to benefit bones and heart, but the heart benefit disappeared when estrogen was tested in a prospective study." At any rate, Dr. Cauley, who was not involved in the study, said the "benefit shown is very modest."
ASBMR 26th Annual Meeting: Abstract SA330. Presented Oct. 2, 2004.
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