Written by Marcia J. Egles, MD. A 17 year followup of the Framington Osteoporosis Study showed that out of 976 participants, those with the highest vitamin C intake had a significant 44% lower hip fracture rate compared to those with the lowest vitamin C intake.
The Framingham Osteoporosis Study, in a 17 year follow-up, has reported that persons with higher vitamin C intakes had fewer hip bone fractures, compared with those with lower vitamin C intakes.
The Framingham Study is a well-known, long-term American medical study which began in 1948 to examine risk factors for heart disease (1). The original subjects, 5209 men and women, were a sampling of the generally middle-class, Caucasian households of Framingham, Massachusetts. In 1988-1989, 1402 of the subjects participated in the Framingham Osteoporosis Study. The results now reported from this study include a final group of 976 persons, 61% female and aged 67-95 years old, who were able to complete food frequency questionnaires and other data inquiries until the end of 2005.
In this 17 year observational study, the rates of hip fracture occurrences were compared to the reported amounts of vitamin C consumed by the participants. Statistical comparisons were made based on total vitamin C intake (that is, the reported dietary amounts added to the reported amounts of vitamin C supplements consumed). They also compared hip fracture rates to the reported vitamin C supplement amounts used and to vitamin C amounts from dietary sources considered separately.
Subjects with the highest total vitamin C intakes (averaging 313 milligrams per day) had a significantly lower (44% lower) rate of hip fracture risk when compared to a group of subjects with the lowest total intakes ( 94 milligrams of vitamin C per day). (P-value for trend equals 0.04.)
Similarly, subjects in the groups with higher vitamin C supplement intakes had fewer hip fractures compared to those who took no vitamin C supplements. Those who reported using greater than 75 milligrams of vitamin C supplements per day had 7.9 hip fractures per 1,000 persons each year of the study, compared to 13.9 hip fractures per 1,000 persons each year among those without vitamin C supplements. A protective trend for the risk of hip fracture was also observed for vitamin C tallied from dietary sources alone, but these associations were not statistically significant.
This study adds to the mass of data linking vitamin C consumption to positive effects on bone health (2, 3, 4, 5). In humans, unlike most animals, vitamin C is essential for the formation of collagen, a protein that comprises over 90% of the background matrix of bone (6).
Source: Sahni, Shivani, et al. “Protective effect of total and supplemental vitamin C intake on the risk of hip fracture—a 17-year follow-up from the Framingham Osteoporosis Study.” Osteoporosis international 20.11 (2009): 1853-1861.
© International Osteoporosis Foundation and National Osteoporosis Foundation 2009
Posted May 6, 2010.
References:
- Dawber TR, Meadors GF, Moore FE Jr (1951) Epidemiological approaches to heart disease: the Framingham Study. Am J Public Health 41:279–281.
- Macdonald HM, New SA, Golden MH, Campbell MK, Reid DM (2004) Nutritional associations with bone loss during the menopausal transition: evidence of a beneficial effect of calcium,
alcohol, and fruit and vegetable nutrients and of a detrimental effect of fatty acids. Am J Clin Nutr 79:155–165. - Tucker KL, Hannan MT, Kiel DP (2001) The acid–base hypothesis: diet and bone in the Framingham Osteoporosis Study. Eur J Nutr 40:231–237.
- Sahni S, Hannan MT, Gagnon D, Blumberg J, Cupples LA, Kiel DP, Tucker KL (2008) High vitamin C intake is associated with lower 4-year bone loss in elderly men. J Nutr 138:1931–1938.
- Simon JA, Hudes ES (2001) Relation of ascorbic acid to bone mineral density and self-reported fractures among US adults. Am J Epidemiol 154:427–433.
- Peterkofsky B (1991) Ascorbate requirement for hydroxylation and secretion of procollagen: relationship to inhibition of collagen synthesis in scurvy. Am J Clin Nutr 54:1135S–1140S
