A tipple or two a day...
2008-05-13 14:06
New York - A drink or two a day may
make for stronger bones, according to a new review of the
published literature, but more than two drinks each day appears
to increase the fracture risk.
Men and women who had one half to one alcoholic beverage
daily were 20% less likely than teetotallers to sustain a
hip fracture, but having more than two drinks a day actually
increased fracture risk, Dr Karina M Berg of Montefiore
Medical Centre in the Bronx, New York, and colleagues found.
"The overall message is that moderate alcohol use is
beneficial to bone - the key here is moderate," Berg told
Reuters Health in an interview.
Heavy drinking is a known risk factor for porous bones and
osteoporotic fractures, Berg and her team note in the American
Journal of Medicine, but a number of studies have also linked
moderate drinking to a lower risk of fractures and greater bone
density.
To better understand the relationship, she and her
colleagues identified published high-quality studies that
evaluated the effects of drinking on bone health and looked at
the combined results.
People who had one half to one drink daily had a
significantly lower risk of hip fractures than abstainers, but
people who consumed more than a couple of drinks daily were 39%
more likely to fracture a hip than were the abstainers,
the researchers found.
They also found that compared with abstainers, moderate
drinkers appeared to have a higher bone density, and that this
relationship was linear.
However, there was not enough evidence
to determine the impact of alcohol on bone density in moderate
drinkers compared with heavy drinkers.
Heavier drinkers' higher fracture risk was likely due at
least in part to falls, Berg and her team note, while it's
possible that some of the non-drinkers stopped consuming
alcohol for health reasons, which could help explain why
abstainers were at increased fracture risk.
In addition, moderate drinking may be a sign of other
moderate behaviours or healthy habits that are good for bone,
such as eating a balanced, nutritious diet, Berg said.
But she cautioned that people who don't drink shouldn't
start for their bones' sake, because of the other known risks
of alcohol.