The study showed that healthy mice fed with Lactobacillyus rhamnosus GG (LGG) bugs demonstrated an immune response that stimulated an increase in bone density.
The effect seen in young female mice is linked to a metabolite called butyrate or butyric acid -- a type of fatty acid produced by gut bacteria. This in turn activated bone-enhancing immune cells, including regulatory T cells, the researchers said.
"The significance of the study is that probiotics are, at least in mice, an effective means to increase bone density," said Roberto Pacifici from the Emory University in the US.
"Our findings will need to be validated in human studies," Pacifici says. "If successful, this research could substantiate the use of butyrate or probiotics as a novel, safe, and inexpensive treatment for optimizing skeletal development in young people and to prevent osteoporosis in older people."
In the study, published in the journal Immunity, the team found that oral LGG supplementation for four weeks increased bone formation in female mice by stimulating the growth of butyrate-producing gut bacteria, including Clostridia.
Supplementation with either LGG or butyrate induced the expansion of regulatory T cells in the intestine and in bone marrow -- the spongy tissue inside some bones.
This caused T cells in the bone marrow to secrete a protein called Wnt10b -- known to be critical for bone development. By contrast, treatments that inhibited the expansion of regulatory T cells prevented bone formation induced by LGG and butyrate, the researchers explained.
The use of probiotics or butyrate to increase the number of regulatory T cells can also be used in transplant medicine or as a treatment for inflammatory and autoimmune conditions.
Clinical trials are in progress to validate the efficacy of probiotics in humans.
Researchers from the Nordsjaellands University Hospital in Denmark have found that people with diabetes are 33 per cent more likely to suffer from osteoarthritis -- a type of arthritis that occurs when flexible tissues at the ends of bones wear down.
They are also 70 per cent more likely to suffer from rheumatoid arthritis -- a chronic inflammatory disorder -- and 29 per cent more from osteoporosis -- a bone loss condition -- than their diabetes-free counterparts.
Further, diabetics are 27 per cent more likely to suffer from back pain and 29 per cent more likely to have shoulder/ neck pain.
"Health care professionals should make patients with diabetes aware that regular exercise is a recognised treatment for diabetes and arthritis, and can have positive effects on both blood sugar control as well as musculoskeletal pain," said Stig Molsted from the varsity.
For the study, the team analysed the relationship between osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis with diabetes on over 109,200 people -- aged 40 years or older.
People with diabetes, which was diagnosed in 9,238 (8.5 per cent) participants, tended to be older and were more often males, had higher BMI and were most likely to have osteoarthritis.
Further analyses revealed that more physically active people with diabetes have lesser risks of back pain and shoulder/neck pain.
"It's likely that the chronic pain experienced by people with arthritis may be a barrier to exercising, which is also a risk factor for Type-2 diabetes," Molsted added.
Importantly, the researchers speculate that the strong association between rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes is likely to be the result of chronic inflammation or steroid treatment that could lead to Type 2 diabetes.
"80 per cent of osteoporosis cases are found in women. Every one woman out of two aged above 50 suffers from the risk of getting diagnosed from osteoporosis. Only 20 per cent men suffer from chances of osteoporosis as it arises after the age of 80," said Dr Rajesh Malhotra, Head, Dept of Orthopaedics, AIIMS said at sidelines of an event "Strong Bones Healthy and Safe Aging" organised here on Thursday.
According to Malhotra, women undergo hormonal changes after menopause which leads to weakening or loss of bones further enhancing chances of hip fracture in elderly called "Hip Attack" which is as serious and life threatening as heart or brain attack.
"Most patients are women for osteoporosis. Their height starts reducing and which is also an indicator of hip attack. If one vertebra damages, then the risk of another vertebra damage increases by 2.5 times. And if anyone faces vertebra fracture than 20 per cent of the patients are likely to face another fracture within a year," he added.
According to the medical expert, the elderly population are at risk for sustaining fragility fractures due to weak bones as a result of age associated with osteoporosis. These fractures are sinister and often lead to death or disability. Survivors are left crippled and are prone to more fractures in future.
"If around 15 lakh cases are being reported now, this number is going to multiply six times by 2050 only in Asia. Hip fractures are going to become an epidemic in coming few years in India,"
Apart from more awareness, Malhotra said the government needs to formulate policies on osteoporosis as it is emerging as a major health concern.
"Multidisciplinary care units need to be build which should involve geriatricians, orthopaedic surgeons, intensivists, anesthetists, endocrinologists, rehabilitation specialists, nurses and physiotherapists,"
At AIIMS, six beds have been reserved in the trauma centre for treatment related to osteoporosis while in the geriatric centre which is under construction, one OT and beds have been reserved for the same purpose.
Surprisingly, the same link was not true for boys.
"We also found that girls were stronger if their Vitamin D level was more than 50 nanomoles per litre. The most surprising finding was that this difference was only evident in girls and not in boys," said lead author Rada Faris Al-Jwadi from the University of Southern Denmark.
However, the study reported in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, offers no explanation for the difference between boys and girls.
But other studies on children and adults have shown that vitamin D increases the levels of IGF-I -- a growth factor that increases muscle strength.
However, the IGF-I level is different in boys and girls which could be part of the explanation.
"We can't, based on our data, conclude that girls will get stronger muscles if they got more vitamin D through their food, as supplement pills or because of more sun exposure which are some of the most important sources of Vitamin D. Even though, our association could mean exactly that," said Henrik Thybo Christesen, Professor at the varsity.
The study, published in Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, included 499 children aged five years.
In a hand grip strength test meant for children, girls with low vitamin D have a 70 per cent increased risk of being among the lowest 10 per cent.
The study showed no association with vitamin D levels in mothers during pregnancy or in the umbilical cord at birth. This leads to the conclusion that there is no prenatal programming effect of muscle strength.
"We are talking about a more immediate effect of Vitamin D," Jwadi said.
The report, published in Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, showed that the drug Alendronate could lower the risk of cardiovascular diseases by 67 per cent and heart attacks by 45 per cent within a year.
Intake of the drug also reduced the risk of stroke by 18 per cent within five years and 17 per cent within 10 years.
"Our findings show that Alendronate is potentially cardioprotective in hip fracture patients," said Ching-Lung Cheung, from the University of Hong Kong.
"Physicians should consider prescribing Alendronate or other similar drugs to patients with hip fracture and patients should also have good compliance with Alendronate treatment, as this is not only good for your bones but also your heart," Cheung added.
Alendronate belongs to a class of drugs called bisphosphonates and works by preventing bone breakdown and increasing bone density.
It is used for osteoporosis, osteogenesis imperfecta, and several other bone diseases.
The researchers collected data from 34,991 patients, diagnosed with hip fracture in 2005. Out of these 4,602 patients received osteoporosis treatment during follow up.
Due to excess cardiovascular adverse events, there is a worldwide crisis in the current treatment of osteoporosis with drug romosozumab.
In 2017, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had rejected romosozumab and requested more data before reaching a decision.
The study, thus, has significant implications in clinical trial design of anti-osteoporosis medications, the researchers said.
Inflammation is a necessary reaction by the immune system to protect the body from injury or infection, but if not controlled, it can lead to the destruction of bone and the prevention of bone formation.
The study found that when the gene needed to produce the protein tristetraprolin (TTP) is removed from healthy mice, the animals developed the bones of much older rodents.
While TTP is known to play a major role in the regulation of inflammation, its production slows with age.
"TTP is the brake on the system. Without it, inflammation and bone loss would go unchecked," said lead author Keith Kirkwood, Professor at the University at Buffalo in New York.
"We don't know all of the reasons why TTP expression decreases with age. So, understanding the factors behind its expression and relationship with bone loss is the first step toward designing therapeutic approaches," Kirkwood added.
For the study, published in the Journal of Dental Research, the team studied three groups of healthy mice: a group without the gene to express TTP, a group whose genes overexpressed TTP, and a control group of unaffected mice.
The bone in the mice without the gene aged more rapidly than in the control group.
At three months old, the mice had lost 14 per cent of their oral bone. By nine months, bone loss had increased to 19 per cent.
In addition to periodontitis, the mice without the gene developed arthritis, eczema and other inflammatory conditions. Levels of osteoclast -- cells that specialise in breaking down bone -- were also higher in this group.
Higher levels of TTP in the animals led to a 13 per cent reduction in bone turnover compared to unaffected mice.
The study showed women who had done continued night shifts for 20 months or more in the preceding two years had a nine per cent increased risk of early menopause, the Daily Mail reported. If they had done rotating night shifts for more than 20 years, the risk rose to 73 per cent.
"For women who went through menopause before the age of 45, shift work seemed to be particularly important. This could be due to disruption of their circadian rhythms, stress or fatigue, although more research is needed," lead author David Stock, from the University of Dalhousie in Canada, was quoted as saying.
An early menopause could also come from the stress of working late at night, as stress hormones are believed to disrupt sex hormones like oestrogen. This could also increase the chance that a woman stops ovulating, according to the study published in the journal Human Reproduction.
Previous evidence suggests working in 'high-strain' jobs and those with 'difficult schedules' is linked to earlier menopause.
For the study, the team studied more than 80,000 nurses who worked at least in the night shifts in a month for over 22 years in addition to day and evening shifts.
This lowering of the biomarker bar in women in the State assumes significance, when the early onset of menopause signals the likely triggering of the mid-life diseases in women like osteoporosis and cardiovascular diseases. More so, such re-setting of the bio-clock need to be watched closely as early menopause has the potential to trigger breast cancer.
Reports are coming from across the State over women experiencing the perimenopause symptoms in late 30s, and it was observed that the average menopause onset age in Odisha has dropped down to 40 years, informed Dr PC Sahoo, former CDMO here. He added that the mean age in Odisha was around 45 years during the year 2015. "There is nothing to panic. What is essential is one has to learn the ways to manage the vital phase in a woman' s life. There is need for increased intake of calcium, vitamin D and micronutrients to keep osteoporosis and cardiovascular diseases at bay." he observed.
Though no rural-urban divide has been noticed, most doctors blame the early onset of menopause in the State on changing food habits, increased stress and work culture.
Do stress, food habits and work culture play a trigger-role? An earlier National Family Health Survey study had outlined food habits (poor nutritional value), multiple parity (women who had multiple deliveries) and poor economic condition as the agents that lower the bio-marker bar in women.
The NFHS study has listed the risk factors like smoking, alcohol intake etc as also responsible for Premature Ovarian Failure (POF) in women. However, some independent experts also blame on increased use of contraceptives behind early menopause and POF.
But a 2016 study of Indian Menopause Society (IMS) didn't find any significant co-relation between abortion, contraceptive use with that of POF, though with a caveat that the study has limitations as the conclusions were based on interviewers' statements, where there is every possibility of women not disclosing such vital inputs.
The same study finds early menopause in unmarried and nulliparous women (married women who have had no children) across India, including Odisha.
How to sense the re-setting of bio-clock? As per doctors, a woman in late 30s when witnesses irregular periods has to undertake a blood test to ascertain the FSH (Follicle Stimulating Hormone) level. If the FSH found is greater than 25mIU/L, then this indicates the POF.
What is Menopause and Perimenopause? While medical science defines menopause as absence of menstrual periods for 12 months, Perimenopause symptoms are described as setting in of irregular periods that even extend up to six months.
This finding by P.G. Talwalkar, Diabetologist at Shushrusha Hospital in Mumbai, further confirms that Vitamin D deficiency leads to chronic diseases.
"Pregnant women in India have up to 84 per cent prevalence of Vitamin D deficiency, which also correlates with the level of Vitamin D deficiency in their newborns," said Srirupa Das, Medical Director, Abbott India, Mumbai.
"In adults, Vitamin D deficiency is associated with low bone mass and muscle weakness, which results in increased risk of fractures and bone disorders such as osteoporosis," Das said.
In the study conducted on 1,508 individual, researchers said that in Mumbai there is 88 per cent prevalence of Vitamin D deficiency in urban adults.
It also revealed that 84.2 per cent of Type 2 diabetes patients were Vitamin D deficient, as were 82.6 per cent of hypertension patients.
"Our study also investigated co-occurrence of deficiency with hypothyroidism and obesity or overweight condition. A majority (76 per cent) of hypothyroid patients had low levels of vitamin D. Moreover, 82 per cent of patients were obese, indicating that there may be a link between the deficiency, its comorbidities and body weight," said Talwalkar.
"These findings highlight the need for routine screening to ensure early diagnosis and effective management of Vitamin D deficiency to help reduce the burden and risks associated with non-communicable disease," Talwalkar added.
The causes of Vitamin D deficiency in a sun-drenched country like India are manifold, said the researchers.
Most people do not receive adequate exposure to sunlight, as modernised lifestyles have resulted in less time spent outdoors for work or leisure.
Moreover, high levels of air pollution can hamper Vitamin D absorption in the skin.
Osteoporosis is a medical condition in which the bones become brittle and fragile from loss of tissue, typically as a result of hormonal changes, or deficiency of calcium or vitamin D.
"The objective of this work was to study the risk of pneumonia and pneumonia mortality among patients receiving N-BPs medications, non-N-BP medications, and no anti-osteoporosis medications after hip fracture," the study authors from the University of Hong Kong wrote.
Results from previous animal studies indicate that N-BP treatment leads to a high concentration of N-BPs in the respiratory tract.
For the current findings, published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, the research team included 4,041 patients with hip fractures who received N-BPs and 11,802 who did not.
Over a median follow-up time of 2.7 years, The findings showed that N-BPs was associated with a 24 per cent lower risk of pneumonia compared with no treatment (69 versus 90 cases per 1,000 people per year).
A similar association was observed with pneumonia mortality, with a 35 per cent lower risk associated with N-BPs (23 versus 35 per 1,000 patients per year for the N-BP and non-N-BP groups, respectively), the researchers said.
Together with its anti-inflammatory and immune-modulatory properties, this may explain why N-BPs were associated with reduced risk of pneumonia, as revealed in our study," said study senior author Ching-Lung Cheung from the University of Hong Kong.
He added that studying the potential of N-BPs for treating symptoms of COVID-19 may be warranted.
(IANS)
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For the findings, published in the journal PLOS ONE, the research team examined inadequate nutrient intake and its relationship to poor bone health, specifically the risk of osteoporosis.
The team examined the relationship between markers of poverty with calcium and vitamin D intake and osteoporosis in Americans, 50 years and older.
"This study continues to demonstrate how prevalent nutrient deficiency is among the US population, and even more so, among lower-income individuals and those with food insecurities," said Susan Hazels Mitmesser from Pharmavite LLC, the makers of nature made vitamins, minerals and supplements, who conducted the study.
"Yet, we know that nutrient adequacy is imperative in supporting overall health and wellness, including immune health, at a time when that is heavy on everyone's mind," she added.
According to the study, 25 per cent of older US people live below the poverty line. Within this population, 68 per cent have inadequate calcium intake, and 46 per cent have inadequate vitamin D intake. Gender, ethnic, and socio-economic differences impact the overall risk for inadequate calcium and vitamin D intake and subsequent osteoporosis risk, as seen in some of the study key findings.
The findings also showed that US women over the age of 50 consistently have inadequate calcium intake, regardless of their economic status.
Inadequate intake of calcium and vitamin D affects poverty-stricken men more than women with respect to osteoporosis risk.
It has been estimated in the US population aged 50 and older, about 10.2 million suffer from osteoporosis, and 80 per cent of these affected cases are females.
In addition, there are potentially 43.4 million people, or 44 per cent of the population with osteopenia, which is a bone condition that often leads to osteoporosis.
"Improving the consumption of nutrient-rich and fortified foods among individuals that live in poverty can help to decrease their chances of developing osteoporosis," the study authors wrote.
"Additionally, dietary supplements can play a critical role in helping any underserved population meet their nutrition needs," they noted.
(IANS)
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