Caffeine Shown to Accelerate Bone Loss in Elderly Women

OMAHA, Neb.--J. Christopher Gallagher, M.D., and researchersfrom the Bone Metabolism Unit of Creighton Universitys School of Medicinediscovered that elderly women with high caffeine intakes (300 mg/d) showedsignificantly higher rates of bone loss at the spine than women with low intakes(less than or equal to 300 mg/d). In particular, researchers noted that boneloss was especially high in the group of women who demonstrated a specificgenetic variation of the vitamin D receptor (VDR).

Published in the November issue of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition(74(5):694-700, 2001) (www.ajcn.org), thestudy involved 96 women who showed bone loss over a period of three years.Researchers compared the women in terms of VDR polymorphism groups: highvariation (BB), no variation (bb) and intermediate variation (Bb).

We found that [the high variation group] lost more bone, Gallaghersaid. Then we started to look at other things that affect the response tobone, like calcium intake, caffeine intake, smoking, etc. The thing that wefound to have the most severe effect in conjunction with this VDR change wascaffeine intake.

In general, women with a high caffeine intake demonstrated higher bone lossthan women with lower caffeine intake. Researchers concluded that consuming morethan 300 mg/d of caffeine accelerated bone loss at the spine in elderlypostmenopausal women, and women with the BB genetic variant of VDR seem to be atgreater risk for bone loss as a result of high caffeine intake.