Health: Mediterranean diet helps with osteoporosis

Those who suffer from osteoporosis have so far been able to counteract bone loss primarily with medications. Researchers from the University of East Anglia have discovered in a new study that it is possible to further support a treatment with a special diet. The Mediterranean diet can lead to higher bone mineral density, depending on the results.

Reading Tip: This is why the Mediterranean diet is more effective than the Nordic measures

of bone density

in the field. The European Union funded research that collected data from 1 142 Italian, British, Dutch, Polish and French aged 65 to 79 years.

Volunteers were randomly divided into two groups: a Mediterranean diet fed

At the start and end of the study – after 12 months – scientists took blood samples on subjects for measure bone density at the lumbar spine and femoral neck. Just under ten percent of participants initially contracted osteoporosis.

Bone density of thigh increases

The control group, which had not changed its diet, continued to experience a normal decline in age-related bone density. The new diet also had no effect on participants who had healthy bone density at first, and then followed the Mediterranean diet.

Quite different in osteoporotic patients: the increase in bone density in the Mediterranean diet increased neck of the thigh.

According to research director Susan Fairweather-Tait, the thigh is a particularly sensitive area for osteoporosis. "Bone loss often leads to hip fracture, which is very common in people with the disease," she says in the journal "American Journal of Clinical Nutrition"

Reading Tip: The Mediterranean Diet Helps Depression [19659004] According to Fairweather-Tait, bone formation takes a lot of time, so even with the long duration of the study, the impact would only be relatively short, although a significant difference was noted among the groups of participants, but there were still others.