Folic acid (vitamin B9), vitamin B12, magnesium, and potassium citrate improved bone health in several new studies on men, women, and children. A study in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that folic acid combined with vitamin B12 reduced homocysteine, a chemical compound that doctors believe increases risk for bone disease (osteoporosis) and fracture. Researchers reporting in the New England Journal of Medicine followed nearly 2,000 patients with osteoporosis, aged 59 to 91, for 17.5 years and found that women and men with the highest homocysteine levels were twice as likely, and four times as likely, respectively, to have a hip fracture than were women and men with the lowest levels.

Scientists from the University of California, San Francisco, studied 80 elderly women, average age 71, and found that women with the highest blood-fluid (serum) levels of vitamin B12 had significantly more hip bone mineral density (BMD) than women with the lowest levels.

In one of the first bone studies on children, reported in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 120 Caucasian girls aged 8 to 14 volunteered to keep diet diaries. Girls whose daily diets had less than 220 mg of magnesium took 300 mg of elemental magnesium oxide per day, separately in two 150 mg capsules, or a placebo, for 12 months. Researchers measured bone mineral content (BMC) of the hip, thigh (femoral neck), and lower (lumbar) spine at the start and end of the study and found that compared to placebo, girls who took magnesium before, during, and in the late stages of puberty had significantly increased hip BMC without side effects.

Researchers from the University of Basel, Switzerland theorized that modern diets have fewer fruits and vegetables, and more dairy, grains, and meats, which may cause chronic, mildly elevated blood acidity and lower BMD. In this new 12-month study, post-menopausal women, average age 59, who took 1,173 mg of potassium citrate—a non-acidic (alkaline) form—per day had a one-percent increase in BMD of the lumbar spine, a result similar to pharmaceutical treatments, and lower blood acidity.

Reference: Journal of the American Society of Nephrology; 2006, Vol. 7, No. 11, 3213-22.

     Calcium and vitamin D maintained and strengthened bones in women in two new studies.

     Researchers from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, recruited 44 overweight premenopausal women, average age 38, to take calcium while dieting or while maintaining weight, for six months. The dieters took a normal amount of calcium—1,000 mg per day—or a high dose of 1,800 mg per day, while non-dieters took 1,000 mg of calcium per day. Scientists noted that people typically lose bone when losing weight, but that no bone studies exist on overweight premenopausal women who diet.

     Women in the normal and high calcium diet groups lost an average of 7.2% of body weight with no significant decrease in bone mineral density (BMD, a measure of bone strength), and researchers found no signs in the blood that the dieters were losing bone. Doctors also found that the dieters were able to absorb an adequate total amount of calcium from diet and supplements, and concluded that taking calcium while losing weight helps maintain healthy bones.

     In research funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, doctors studied bone stress-fractures in 5,201 female Navy recruits, aged 17 to 35, from 2002 through 2006. Recruits took 2,000 mg of calcium plus 800 IU of vitamin D per day, or a placebo, during the eight-week basic training period. Over the study period, 170 recruits in the placebo group suffered stress fractures compared to 136 recruits in the calcium/vitamin D group, meaning that calcium and vitamin D reduced risk for stress fractures by 20%.

     Researchers noted that recruits who had a history of regular exercise had lower risk for fractures than did those who had not exercised regularly, and that those who smoked had higher fracture risk than non-smokers. Doctors were not expecting to find such a significant bone benefit in such a short period of time and concluded that calcium and vitamin D reduced risk for stress fractures.

Reference: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition: 2007; Vol. 85, No. 4, 972-80.