Supporting Evidence: B-vitamins Strengthen the Bones

March 18, 2005

A year ago a correlation between osteoporosis, folic acid and Vitamin B12 deficiency was discovered. It might have been a statistical coincidence, but a Japanese study discovered that the two vitamins reduced the risk of bone fracture by 80%.

Just a year ago, Dutch and American researchers demonstrated that at high homocysteine level – which is very common and most often a consequence of folic acid or vitamin B12 deficiency – the risk of breaking the hip doubles. It was only a statistical context, but was there also a causal link?

Can folic acid and/or vitamin B12 really reduce the risk of hip fracture, i.e. the most dangerous consequence of osteoporosis?

Few have considered this possibility before, but for now it seems to be a possibility. Japanese doctors have suspected this for at least five years. In 2000, they began a two-year treatment trial to investigate the matter.

The trial included 628 particularly vulnerable, elderly patients who received a solid dose of the two vitamins: 5 mg folic acid and 1.5 mg vitamin B12 per day. However, half received placebo (inactive tablets). The 628 were selected because they had had a stroke and were still more or less paralyzed on one side after a year. In this situation, the risk of breaking the hip is doubled, especially since the risk of falling is high.

Over the two years, it was recorded how often the participants in the two groups fell. They did so equally often. But the consequences were much milder in those who received the supplement. Only six of them suffered a hip fracture, while the same happened to 27 in the control group. The risk was therefore reduced by more than 80%. In the treated group, the blood level of homocysteine fell by a good 30%, while it increased by the same amount in those who received the inactive tablets.

B deficiency destroys connective tissue
There is a lot of talk about the argument that homocysteine is dangerous for bones. The new thing is that it is useful to lower it if it is high. Not because it will add more calcium to the bones. According to a Dutch study from 2004, it does not. On the other hand, there are good reasons to believe that the bone tissue you have will become stronger.

Biochemical experiments have shown that homocysteine attacks both elastic and other fibers in bone and connective tissue, so that the structure becomes looser, the interweaving of fibers less tight and the bones more rigid. Fibers of the same type are also found in the arteries, which can also be damaged, and chemically similar proteins participate in blood coagulation. Some believe that this explains the increased tendency for blood clots in the heart, etc., which is seen with elevated homocysteine.

The argument is supported by the fact that blood clots and weakened bones occur particularly early in people with the congenital disease “homocystinuria,” in which the blood level of homocysteine is 10 times higher than normal. The difference between them and others, it is said, is only the time at which the damage occurs.

If the Japanese study is confirmed, folic acid and vitamin B12 are simply the most effective protection against osteoporosis known! In any case, it is certainly not unwise to have your homocysteine level measured in your blood. It should not be much higher than 10 micromol/liter.

By: Vitality Council

References:
1. Sato Y, Honda Y, Iwamoto J, Kanoko T, Satoh K. JAMA. 2005 Mar 2;293(9):1082-8. Effect of folate and mecobalamin on hip fractures in patients with stroke: a randomized controlled trial.
2. Krumdieck CL et al. Mechanisms of homocysteine toxicity on connective tissues: Implications for the morbidity of aging. J Nutr. 2000;130:365S-368S.
3. Van Meurs Joyce B J et al. Homocysteine levels and the risk of osteoporotic fracture. N Engl J Med 2004;350:2033-41.
4. Mc Lean Robert R et al. Homocysteine as a predictive factor for hip fracture in older persons, N Engl J Med 2004;350:2042-9.

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