Dietary Calcium and Bones- not a slam dunk?
Recently, a study was published claiming that if you want to protect your bones, you're better off getting your calcium from food rather than supplements. But that headline is far from the whole truth.
The current study focused on estrogen and bones.
Estrogen has long been thought to have a protective effect on bones (one of the reasons hormone replacement therapy was thought to be a good idea). But what many people don't know is that estrogen in the body has three potential fates. It can metabolize into any of three different compounds (called metabolites) and these have very different effects, some pro, some con.
Researchers asked 168 healthy postmenopausal women to fill out detailed food questionnaires. They then figured out the calcium intake of each of the women, and determined where the calcium was coming from—diet, supplements or a combination of both.
The results? Women in the "diet" group and the "diet plus supplements" group had higher bone density readings, but they also had higher amounts of the highly estrogenic metabolite 16-hydroxyestrone and lower amounts of the estrogen metabolite 2-hydroxyestrone.
Not such a good thing if you're trying to protect against breast cancer.
That estrogen metabolite (16-hydroxyestrone) that measured highest in both the "diet" group and the "diet-plus-supplements" group—the same one that seems to protect bones—is also potentially carcinogenic. It's exactly the metabolite you don't want to see elevated if you're at risk for hormone dependent cancers. In fact, the wonderful anti-cancer compounds in vegetables like broccoli work precisely because they act as traffic cops, directing estrogen metabolism into the "2" pathway rather than the "16", and thus producing a less cancer-prone estrogen environment. Unfortunately, the ratio of 2:16 metabolites that's most protective for bones is also the least desirable from a breast cancer point of view.
But here's the thing. In both the diet and the diet-plus-supplement groups, over 90 percent of dietary calcium came from dairy. That could very well be a source of additional hormones that you don't need to be taking in. The increase in the 16-hydroxyl estrogen metabolites might have been related to the presence of active estrogen metabolites in milk products.
So what's the take-home if you want to protect both breasts and bones? Get your calcium from a combination of foods and supplements, and reduce your reliance on dairy as a calcium source! Add to that regimine the best bone-builder in the world—exercise like weight training.
The supplement plus diet combo will protect both breasts and bones, especially if you avoid the possible estrogenic dairy products.
Healthy bones need a mix of calcium, magnesium, vitamin D, manganese, boron, silica, and protein. Eliminate some of the calcium robbers from your diet—like sugar and soda—and add some weight training, and you'll do just fine.
The current study focused on estrogen and bones.
Estrogen has long been thought to have a protective effect on bones (one of the reasons hormone replacement therapy was thought to be a good idea). But what many people don't know is that estrogen in the body has three potential fates. It can metabolize into any of three different compounds (called metabolites) and these have very different effects, some pro, some con.
Researchers asked 168 healthy postmenopausal women to fill out detailed food questionnaires. They then figured out the calcium intake of each of the women, and determined where the calcium was coming from—diet, supplements or a combination of both.
The results? Women in the "diet" group and the "diet plus supplements" group had higher bone density readings, but they also had higher amounts of the highly estrogenic metabolite 16-hydroxyestrone and lower amounts of the estrogen metabolite 2-hydroxyestrone.
Not such a good thing if you're trying to protect against breast cancer.
That estrogen metabolite (16-hydroxyestrone) that measured highest in both the "diet" group and the "diet-plus-supplements" group—the same one that seems to protect bones—is also potentially carcinogenic. It's exactly the metabolite you don't want to see elevated if you're at risk for hormone dependent cancers. In fact, the wonderful anti-cancer compounds in vegetables like broccoli work precisely because they act as traffic cops, directing estrogen metabolism into the "2" pathway rather than the "16", and thus producing a less cancer-prone estrogen environment. Unfortunately, the ratio of 2:16 metabolites that's most protective for bones is also the least desirable from a breast cancer point of view.
But here's the thing. In both the diet and the diet-plus-supplement groups, over 90 percent of dietary calcium came from dairy. That could very well be a source of additional hormones that you don't need to be taking in. The increase in the 16-hydroxyl estrogen metabolites might have been related to the presence of active estrogen metabolites in milk products.
So what's the take-home if you want to protect both breasts and bones? Get your calcium from a combination of foods and supplements, and reduce your reliance on dairy as a calcium source! Add to that regimine the best bone-builder in the world—exercise like weight training.
The supplement plus diet combo will protect both breasts and bones, especially if you avoid the possible estrogenic dairy products.
Healthy bones need a mix of calcium, magnesium, vitamin D, manganese, boron, silica, and protein. Eliminate some of the calcium robbers from your diet—like sugar and soda—and add some weight training, and you'll do just fine.
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