Prunes and Bone Health: Anti-inflammatory Food for Aging Women

Highlights:

Osteoporosis is a bone disease that makes bones weaker and more prone to fractures
Decreasing estrogen hormone in post-menopausal women increases the risk of osteoporosis
Luckily, prune's anti-inflammatory potential might prevent this bone loss and supports healthy bones

Inflammation has a negative effect on bone health but dietary intervention with prunes may ultimately help prevent bone loss and preserve bone strength, according to a pair of Pennsylvania State University studies.

These studies were Conducted among 235 postmenopausal women. The collective study findings are going to be published in Menopause: The Journal of The North American Menopause Society.

Bone Health and Inflammation

In the United States, about 10 million adults over the age of 50 have osteoporosis and women are four times more likely than men to experience the condition. This is partly due to a decline in estrogen levels with the onset of menopause that results in loss of trabecular and cortical bone density.

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‘Dietary intervention with prunes may counteract the inflammation induced bone loss and preserve bone strength.’

Trabecular bone is the spongy, honeycomb-like interior core, while cortical bone is the strong, exterior of the bone. Along with aging itself, estrogen deficiency contributes to an increase in inflammatory mediators that further enhances bone resorption and suppresses bone formation ()

A new study explored the relationship between circulating inflammatory mediators and various measures of bone health, including bone density, geometry, and strength.

The study was conducted to establish the relationship between inflammatory mediators and bone outcome at baseline in women enrolled in the parent randomized controlled trial prior to the prune intervention.

Do Prunes Improve Bone Density?

Evidence from several observational studies suggests a link between chronic inflammation and osteoporosis and fracture risk. Looking at postmenopausal women, they began their research by exploring the relationship between biomarkers of inflammation and bone.

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The findings indicate that higher levels of inflammatory markers were associated with lower trabecular bone scores at the lumbar spine among the study participants – essentially the more inflammation, the poorer bone health.

These findings demonstrate that inflammatory markers are negatively associated with bone health in postmenopausal women, suggesting that inflammation might be an important mediator for postmenopausal bone loss and a potential target for nutritional therapies.

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They also conducted a 12-month Randomized Controlled Trial in Postmenopausal Women to evaluate the influence of 50g (5-6 prunes)/day and 100g (10-12 prunes)/day on volumetric bone mineral density (vBMD), bone geometry.

The estimated bone strength during a 12-month dietary intervention. Study participants were the same as those evaluated in the Penn State inflammation study discussed above.

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Treatment groups among the study participants were evaluated as follows: control (no prunes), 50g (5-6 prunes)/day, 100g (10-12 prunes)/day, and a pooled group, which represented the combined group of women who ate either five to six or 10-12 prunes a day ().

Previously, they demonstrated that consuming 5-6 prunes a day for 12 months resulted in preservation of bone at the total hip, a finding that was observable at six months and persisted through month 12.

In this second part of the randomized controlled trial, 3-D imaging of bone provided some additional info about the response of bone to consuming prunes daily. These latest findings indicate that prune consumption preserves vBMD and strength at weight-bearing tibial sites that are predominantly cortical sites.

Thus, prunes might be a promising nutritional intervention to prevent the rise in inflammatory mediators often observed as part of the aging process.

References:

Dried Plums, Prunes and Bone Health: A Comprehensive Review - (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5409740/)
The Role of Prunes in Modulating Inflammatory Pathways to Improve Bone Health in Postmenopausal Women - (https://academic.oup.com/advances/article-abstract/13/5/1476/6492076)

Source-Medindia