Vitamin C reverses osteoporosis in mice

September 27, 2003

22/09/03 - Antioxidant supplements, such as vitamin C tablets, could become the

new remedy for osteoporosis, say researchers in the UK.

The need for such treatment is growing as trials continue to show that hormone

replacement therapy, previously the mainstay of osteoporosis prevention, may

have serious side effects.

Osteoporosis was recently classified by the World Health Organisation as the

second leading health care problem after cardiovascular disease. The disease

means that bone is lost more rapidly than it is replaced which can lead to a

predisposition to fractures.

Professor Tim Chambers and his team from St George’s Hospital Medical School at

the University of London found that when there is a deficiency in oestrogen

there is also a lowering of antioxidants in the bone, reversed by oestrogen.

They also found that the administering of antioxidants, in this case vitamin C

and N-acetyl cysteine, prevented bone loss.

" I believe that our results have revealed the mechanism through which oestrogen

protects bone against osteoporosis. The results have important implications for

the treatment of this common and crippling disease. It should in future be

possible to prevent osteoporosis in postmenopausal women by giving them

antioxidants, or by causing their bones to make more antioxidants,” said

Professor Chambers.

For the study, published in the recent issue of the Journal of Clinical

Investigation, experiments on mice showed that antioxidants, and the enzymes

responsible for maintaining them in a reduced state, fell substantially in

rodent bone marrow after ovariectomy. Bone loss was however entirely preventable

by giving the mice 20mg of vitamin C per day.

The researchers cautioned however that women should not increase RDA intake of

the vitamin until further investigation confirms the findings.

While prevention of osteoporosis has mainly focused on vitamin D and calcium

intake, researchers are also investigating the effect of consuming isoflavones

on bone density and metabolism in postmenopausal women.

Source: Journal of Clinical Investigation 112:915-923 (2003)

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