Milk Products and Bone Health: Potential Mechanisms

A review of potential mechanisms for calcium and vitamin D in bone health are outlined as follows: ¹

1) Offsetting obligatory losses

Calcium and vitamin D are both needed in order to offset obligatory losses of calcium from the human skeleton. Vitamin D is necessary for efficient absorption of calcium from the diet.

2) Reducing excessive bone remodelling (turnover)

Both calcium and vitamin D, particularly together, reduce excessive bone remodelling or turnover;
Bone remodelling doubles across menopause and triples by the age of 65 years;
Several lines of evidence show that high remodelling rates increase bone fragility;
Both increased calcium intake and increased vitamin D status reduce bone remodeling because they reduce parathyroid hormone secretion.

3) Antifracture efficacy

Although antifracture efficacy has been well documented for calcium, the efficacy of vitamin D alone has been less well studied;
Some studies have now shown that vitamin D supplementation alone can reduce osteoporotic fractures while other studies showed no change; however, some methodological differences appear to exist;
There was a higher vitamin D level achieved in the study, which did show a benefit compared to the other studies;
The serum 25(OH) vitamin D value, and not the oral dose used, is important with respect to various measured outcomes.

4) Vitamin D and neuromuscular function

Vitamin D has also been shown to improve lower-extremity neuromuscular function and to reduce fall frequency.

Keywords: health studies, bone health

Shed some light on bone health and bone maintenance throughout all stages of life.

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Dairy Nutrition