Tea Helps Toughen Older Women's Hips by Amanda Gardner - HealthDay Reporter HealthDay News
WEDNESDAY, Oct. 10 -- New Australian research suggests that
having a cuppa (tea, that is) may help strengthen older women's
hips.
"This study suggests that drinking tea in moderation can
actually benefit your bones," said lead researcher Amanda Devine, a
senior lecturer in the nutrition program at the School of Exercise,
Biomedical and Health Science, Edith Cowan University, and adjunct
senior lecturer at the University of Western Australia's School of
Medicine and Pharmacology, in Perth. "Those who drank tea in the
study had a higher bone density over the four years that they were
studied," she said. "These women lost less bone than those who did
not drink tea. More than three-quarters of the women drank tea
daily, and they consumed on average about three cups per day."
Outside experts called the findings intriguing but still
preliminary. "Some tea may be potentially helpful," said Paul
Brandt, an associate professor of neuroscience and experimental
therapeutics at Texas A&M Health Science Center College of
Medicine. "One or two cups of tea a day probably couldn't hurt, but
I wouldn't say that it absolutely will help. It's possible that it
could prevent some loss." Prior research has suggested that
drinking tea may improve bone mineral density in people at risk for
osteoporosis, but the findings are not conclusive. One study found
that drinking green tea might help ease the inflammation and pain
of rheumatoid arthritis.
Fractures, especially hip fractures associated with
osteoporosis, are a major source of disability in postmenopausal
women. Osteoporosis causes the bones to become fragile and more
likely to break. Although it primarily affects older women,
osteoporosis can affect others as well. The new study, published in
the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, involved 1,500 elderly
(70 to 85 years old) Australian women who participated in a five
year trial of the effect of calcium supplementation on osteoporotic
hip fracture.
Information on tea consumption was collected at the beginning of
the study for 275 participants, and all participants filled out a
beverage consumption questionnaire at the end of the trial. Bone
mineral density at the hip was measured at years 1 and 5. By the
end of the study, bone mineral density at the hip was 2.8 percent
greater in tea drinkers than in non-tea drinkers, the researchers
found. Over four years, tea drinkers lost an average of only 1.6
percent of their total hip bone mineral density, while non-tea
drinkers lost 4 percent -- consistent with previous studies. There
was, however, no relationship between the amount of tea consumed
and bone gains, which raises some questions about the mechanisms
which might be responsible for the effect. "We didn't see a
dose-response to tea drinking -- that is, if you drank more tea,
then your bones were even better," Devine said. "The lack of
relationship may be due to the small numbers of tea drinkers in
each group, once we started examining these data. When we just look
at the whole group, we have more power to see a difference."
The authors speculated that certain components of tea, such as
antioxidant flavonoids, might account for the benefit seen.
Flavonoids "have been shown to have a stimulatory effect on new
cells that build bone in cell line studies," Devine explained.
"Also, the weak estrogenic [effect] of phytoestrogens found in tea
may be beneficial especially to older women whose levels of
endogenous estrogen is low. Also, the addition of milk to tea will
add calcium to the diet, which is also needed for healthy
bones."
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