Written by Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS. Of the 232 women in this study, those with the highest one-third of vitamin E to lipid ratio had a significant 32% reduced risk of osteoporosis compared to those in the bottom one-third of vitamin E to lipid ratio (p = 0.015).

Osteoporosis is of the biggest risks in the elderly. The falls resulting from it, cost our health care system $17 billion in 2001 (1). Compared to children, the elderly are ten times more likely to be hospitalized and eight times more likely to die as the result of a fall (2). While osteoporosis affects 10 million Americans, it’s estimated that another 34 million are at risk (1), so unless efforts to help maintain bone health are not continued, a significant health crisis will continue to emerge.

Now a new study (3) suggests that a lower than normal level of vitamin E was associated with osteoporosis. In the study, 232 women completed a questionnaire on osteoporosis (4), provided blood samples to have their vitamin E levels determined by methods used in previous research (5), and had bone mineral density tests performed (6). The researchers measured vitamin E levels by looking at the ratio of vitamin E to lipids in the blood, since vitamin E depends on blood lipids for absorption (7).

Of the 232 women, 77 had osteoporosis, 43 had healthy bone density and 112 had osteopenia, a precursor to osteoporosis.  They found that women with osteoporosis had a vitamin E-to-lipid ratio that was 16.67% lower than women without osteoporosis (3.0 vs 3.5 micromoles/millimoles, < 0.01). Overall, women with the highest one-third of vitamin E to lipid ratio had a 32% reduced risk of osteoporosis compared to those in the bottom one-third of vitamin E to lipid ratio (3.25 vs. 2.88 micromol/mmol, p = 0.015).

When suggesting how vitamin E may promote bone health, the researchers cited lab studies in which vitamin E helped maintain normal bone growth and modeling (8, 9). They went on to conclude that “These findings highlight that vitamin E may increase BMD in healthy postmenopausal women” but studies showing an effect of vitamin E on bone density should be investigated before definitive conclusions are drawn regarding vitamin E’s benefit to bone health.

The results of the study are consistent with previous epidemiological studies which state that low vitamin E levels are related to osteoporosis; however the researchers did not investigate the effect of supplementation of vitamin E and the risk of osteoporosis.  Recently, it has been shown that vitamin E supplementation promotes bone formation in normal male rats. (10). However, there is a lack of a human clinical trials to determine the effects of supplementing vitamin E on the risk of developing osteoporosis.

Source: Mata-Granados, José M., et al. “Lower vitamin E serum levels are associated with osteoporosis in early postmenopausal women: a cross-sectional study.” Journal of bone and mineral metabolism 31.4 (2013): 455-460.

© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG. Part of Springer Nature.

Posted May 13, 2013.

Greg Arnold is a Chiropractic Physician practicing in Hauppauge, NY.  You can contact Dr. Arnold directly by emailing him at PitchingDoc@msn.com or visiting his web site at www.PitchingDoc.com

References:

  1. “Fast Facts” posted on the National Osteoporosis Foundation Website.
  2. Runge JW. The cost of injury. Emerg Med Clin North Am 1993;11:241-53.
  3. Mata-Granados JM.  Lower vitamin E serum levels are associated with osteoporosis in early postmenopausal women: a cross-sectional study. J Bone Miner Metab 2013 Mar 2.
  4. O’Neill TW, Cooper C. Reproducibility of a questionnaire on risk factors for osteoporosis in a multicentre prevalence survey: the European Vertebral Osteoporosis Study. Int J Epidemiol 1994; 23:559–565.
  5. Mata-Granados JM.  Fully automatic method for the determination of fat soluble vitamins and vitamin D metabolites in serum. Clin Chim Acta 2009; 403:126–130.
  6. Kanis JA.  The diagnosis of osteoporosis. J Bone Miner Res 1994:1137–1141.
  7. Thurnham DI.  The use of different lipids to express serum tocopherol: lipid ratios for the measurement of vitamin E status. Ann Clin Biochem 1986; 23:514–520.
  8. Xu H.  Vitamin E stimulates trabecular bone formation and alters epiphyseal cartilage morphometry. Calcif Tissue Int 1995; 57:293–300.
  9. Abhaya A.  Effect of alpha tocopherol on the growth plate of albino rats. J Anat Soc India 2003; 52:58–63.