Vitamin E – the new weapon against osteoporosis?
Osteoporosis is a disease of global importance for health care systems, as it affects more than 200 million people worldwide, according to WHO data.
Osteoporosis is a complex disease, for the development of which a large number of environmental risk factors have been identified, which have been found to interact with each other.
It is often associated with the aging process, but it can also be a symptom of other diseases such as immune or hormonal disorders.
And it can also be caused by certain medications, smoking and excessive alcohol use.
Nutritional deficiency is also essential, with the main factor in the development of osteoporosis being the deficiency of calcium and vitamin D in the body.
Besides calcium
But now, according to Spanish scientists, the deficiency of vitamin E should also be considered. In a recent study, researchers asked 232 women to fill out a survey.
Questions were about diet, and the participants also had to give blood to be tested for vitamin E levels, and then bone mineral density tests were done.
The Spanish scientists measured vitamin E levels by assessing its relationship with blood lipid levels, since the absorption of tocopherol is related to the amount of blood lipids.
Out of 232 women, 77 had osteoporosis, 43 had normal bone density, and 112 of them had osteopenia – a condition preceding osteoporosis.
Scientists found that in women with osteoporosis, the ratio of vitamin E to lipids was 16.67% lower than in women with normal bone mineral density.
Women with the highest levels of vitamin E relative to lipids had a 32% lower risk of developing osteoporosis than those with the lowest levels of tocopherol relative to blood fat.
What amount of vitamin E is considered useful for prevention against osteoporosis?
The results of the study conducted by the Spanish scientists are in line with previous epidemiological studies, which found that low levels of vitamin E are associated with osteoporosis.
But scientists have not studied the impact of dietary supplements containing vitamin E on the risk of osteoporosis.
What doses of vitamin E help protect bones from damage is not known.
But scientists point out that clinical and animal studies have shown that tocopherol protects bones and even suggests that it is useful in reversing bone damage caused by nicotine.
Other evidence suggests that vitamin E is most effective when osteoporosis results from inflammatory diseases such as ankylosing spondylitis, rheumatoid arthritis, and systemic lupus erythematosus.
Bone thinning
For most people, bones stop growing in length between the ages of 16 and 18, but bone continues to increase slowly until around the middle of the 3rd decade of life of the person.
From this point on, with a good diet and a healthy lifestyle, the balance between bone breakdown and bone building remains relatively stable.
However, the risk of bone loss and therefore a decrease in bone density increases with age, especially in postmenopausal women.
Osteoporosis increases the risk of bone fractures in the wrists, hips and spine.
Although human studies have not been conducted, the authors of the study described above conclude that vitamin E helps increase bone mineral density in healthy menopausal women.
