Dairy Plus Vitamin D Needed to Preserve Bone Density in the Elderly

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Dairy Plus Vitamin D Needed to Preserve Bone Density in the Elderly


Consumption of dairy products helps preserve bone-mineral density (BMD) in older adults, but only in the presence of vitamin D supplementation, a new cross-sectional analysis of the Framingham Osteoporosis Study (FOS) indicates.
Reporting in the Journal of Nutrition, Shivani Sahni, PhD, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, and colleagues note that an estimated 10 million Americans over the age of 50 have osteoporosis.
Osteoporosis prevention includes regular physical exercise and adequate intakes of calcium and vitamin D — dairy foods are good sources of these nutrients, but > 80% of the US population does not meet the recommended dairy intake of three servings/day, they add.
While previous research has suggested a positive link between milk intake and BMD, most has concentrated on younger individuals and did not consider other dairy foods with different nutritional profiles or total vitamin D intake. And randomized controlled trials to date have focused almost exclusively on calcium and vitamin D supplement use and not on dairy intake.
“Our hypothesis was that higher intake of all dairy foods, except cream, would be associated with higher BMD and lower BMD loss in this older population of men and women, but that vitamin D supplement users would realize greater benefits than nonusers,” they explain.
In fact, they found that dairy foods protected against bone loss only when individuals were also taking vitamin D supplements.
Don’t Test, and Don’t Overprescribe Vitamin D to Elderly
Meanwhile, experts at the recent American Academy of Dermatology meeting have warned that physicians can easily overprescribe toxic levels of vitamin D, sometimes 4000 to 10,000 IU a day, to the elderly, which can lead to adverse effects such as exacerbation of arthritis.
This is primarily driven by testing for vitamin D, which is likely unnecessary and in the elderly in particular can produce misleading results, Susan Roper, MD, a dermatologist with Countryside Dermatology and Laser Center in Clearwater, Florida, told attendees.
If there’s any question a person isn’t getting enough vitamin D from incidental sun exposure and diet, the answer is just to take one supplement a day; tests are unnecessary, added Barbara A Gilchrest, MD, a dermatologist with Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
The research was supported by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases of the National Institutes of Health, the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute’s Framingham Heart Study, an unrestricted institutional grant from the General Mills Bell Institute of Health and Nutrition, NIH’s National Institute of Aging, and Friends of Hebrew SeniorLife. Dr Sahni has received institutional grants from General Mills Bell Institute of Health and Nutrition, PAI/Amgen, and Dairy Management. Disclosures for the coauthors are listed in the paper.
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J Nutr. Published online March 1, 2017. Abstract

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