Background: The Clinician’s Guide to Prevention and Treatment of Osteoporosis developed by National Osteoporosis Foundation (NOF) (Cosman et al. 2015) advise a calcium (1200 mg/day) and vitamin D (800–1000 IU/day) intake for women 51 and older, incorporating dietary supplements if diet is insufficient.
A 5y innovative programme of research by the authors under the aegis of the National Technology Centre, Food for Health Ireland (www.FHI.ie) led to discovery of a synergistic action of milk protein, dairy calcium and vitamin D on bone remodeling and bone health. Specific to women aged 50-65y, ingestion of milk protein enhanced the secretion of enterogastric hormones, a bioactivity augmented by co-ingestion of calcium. Putatively acting through the entero-osseous axis, the resultant change in bone remodeling led to increased BMD.
Bone remodeling exhibits circadian periodicity; higher resorption rates at night relative to day. To be most effective, coordination of the temporal bioactivity to timing of ingestion of nutrient supplements designed to affect bone health is proposed to optimise nutrient intervention.
Aim: Applying the outcome from our recent discovery, a pilot trial is currently underway to investigate the magnitude of change in acute, 24h, bone remodellinginduced by coordination of the temporal bioactivity to timing of ingestion timing of a milk-protein based supplement, fortified with dairy calcium and vitamin D to the NOF’s recommendation, in women aged 50-60y diagnosed with osteopenia.
Results: The results of the pilot study presented and related to the putative mechanism of action of the entero-osseous axis in the regulation of bone remodeling. The challenge ahead is to translate to a comparative intervention in a clinical setting.
Discussion: In providing evidence for a novel nutrient prescription (composition and timing) to mitigate against osteopenia we inform of cutting-edge research and hope discussion will lead to a collaborative interventional trial in newly diagnosed women with osteopenia.
