Home
Site Map/ Index
Osteopenia Basics
Dexa Scans
Cause of Osteopenia
Osteopenia  Risk Factors
Osteopenia Treatments
Natural Treatments
Diet - Nutrition
Osteopenia Exercises
 Medications
Alternative Medicine
Patient education
Dowagers Humps
Success Stories
Products
Books
Newsletter
Clinical Trials
About us
Support Groups
Blog: Osteopenia
Financial Disclosure
Search
Donate

[?] Subscribe To This Site

XML RSS
Add to Google
Add to My Yahoo!
Add to My MSN
Subscribe with Bloglines

Green Tea Osteopenia

Green tea Osteopenia, Osteoporosis prevention and treatment. There are a number of scientific studies about the use of herbs and green tea for preventing bone lossand improved bone health.

1. In 2009 Nutrition Research published a study titled: Green tea and bone metabolismby C L Shen, J K Yeh, J J Cao JJ and J SWang from the Department of Pathology, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, TX.

The article states that "Osteoporosis is a major health problem in both elderly women and men. Epidemiological evidence has shown an association between tea consumption and the prevention of age-related bone loss in elderly women and men. Ingestion of green tea and green tea bioactive compounds may be beneficial in mitigating bone loss of this population and decreasing their risk of osteoporotic fractures.

This review describes the effect of green tea or its bioactive components on bone health, with an emphasis on (i) the prevalence and etiology of osteoporosis; (ii) the role of oxidative stress and antioxidants in osteoporosis; (iii) green tea composition and bioavailability; (iv) the effects of green tea and its active components on osteogenesis, osteoblastogenesis, and osteoclastogenesis from human epidemiological, animal, as well as cell culture studies; (v) possible mechanisms explaining the osteoprotective effects of green tea bioactive compounds; (vi) other bioactive components in tea that benefit bone health; and (vii) a summary and future direction of green tea and bone health research and the translational aspects. In general, tea and its bioactive components might decrease the risk of fracture by improving bone mineral density and supporting osteoblastic activities while suppressing osteoclastic activities.END OF SUMMARY of Green Tea Osteopenia, Osteoporosis article.

Journal of Osteoporosis research:

2. In 2008 the Journal Osteoporosis International published another article by some of these same researchers: "Protective effect of green tea polyphenols on bone loss in middle-aged female rats." (Rats are often used in Osteopenia, Osteoporosis studies when the study requires post mortem evaluation of bone density.

SUMMARY of this Green Tea Osteopenia, Osteoporosis study: "Recent studies have suggested that green tea polyphenols (GTP) are promising agents for preventing bone loss in women. Findings that GTP supplementation resulted in increased urinary GTP concentrations and bone mass via an increase of antioxidant capacity and/or a decrease of oxidative stress damage suggest a significant role of GTP in bone health of women.

INTRODUCTION: Recent studies suggested that green tea polyphenols (GTP) are promising agents for preventing bone loss in women. However, the mechanism related to the possible protective role of GTP in bone loss is not well understood.

METHODS: This study evaluated bioavailability, mechanisms, bone mass, and safety of GTP in preventing bone loss in middle-aged rats without (sham, SH) and with ovariectomy (OVX). A 16-week study of 2 (SH vs. OVX) x 3 (no GTP, 0.1% GTP, and 0.5% GTP in drinking water) factorial design using 14-month-old female rats (n = 10/group) was performed. An additional 10 rats in baseline group were euthanized at the beginning of study to provide baseline parameters.

RESULTS of this Green tea Osteopenia, Osteoporosis research study. There was no difference in femur bone mineral density between baseline and the SH+0.5% GTP group. Ovariectomy resulted in lower values for liver glutathione peroxidase activity, serum estradiol, and bone mineral density. GTP supplementation resulted in increased urinary epigallocatechin and epicatechin concentrations, liver glutathione peroxidase activity and femur bone mineral density, decreased urinary 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine and urinary calcium levels, but no effect on serum estradiol and blood chemistry levels.

CONCLUSION: We conclude that a bone-protective role of GTP may contribute to an increase of antioxidant capacity and/or a decrease of oxidative stress damage.

So it appears that Green tea Osteopenia or Osteoporosis may be useful.

Tai Chi and Green tea

3. Another Traditional Chinese Medicine study included both Tai Chi and Green Tea. " Green tea polyphenols and Tai Chi for bone health: Designing a placebo-controlled randomized trial" by Chwan-Li Shen and corresponding authors: Ming-Chien Chyu, James K Yeh, Carol K Felton, Ke T Xu, Barbara C Pence, and Jia-Sheng Wang.

BACKGROUND. Osteoporosis is a major health problem in postmenopausal women. Evidence suggests the importance of oxidative stress in bone metabolism and bone loss. Tea consumption may be beneficial to osteoporosis due to its antioxidant capability. However, lack of objective data characterizing tea consumption has hindered the precise evaluation of the association between tea ingestion and bone mineral density in previous questionnaire-based epidemiological studies.

On the other hand, although published studies suggest that Tai Chi (TC) exercise can benefit bone health and may reduce oxidative stress, all studies were conducted using a relatively healthy older population, instead of a high-risk one such as osteopenic postmenopausal women. Therefore, this study was designed to test an intervention including green tea polyphenol (GTP) and TC exercise for feasibility, and to quantitatively assess their individual and interactive effects on postmenopausal women with osteopenia.

METHODS/DESIGN of Study of Tai chi, Green Tea Osteopenia, Osteoporosis. One hundred and forty postmenopausal women with osteopenia (defined as bone mineral density T-score at the spine and/or hip between 1 to 2.5 SD below the reference database) were randomly assigned to 4 treatment arms: (1) placebo group receiving 500 mg medicinal starch daily, (2) GTP group receiving 500 mg of GTP per day, (3) placebo+TC group receiving both placebo treatment and TC training (60-minute group exercise, 3 times per week), and (4) GTP+TC group receiving both GTP and TC training for 24 weeks.

The outcome measures were bone formation biomarker (serum bone alkaline phosphatase), bone resorption biomarker (serum tartrate resistant acid phosphatase), and oxidative DNA damage biomarker (urinary 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine). All outcome measures were determined at baseline, 4, 12, and 24 weeks. Urinary and serum GTP concentrations were also determined at baseline, 4, 12, and 24 weeks for bioavailability. Liver function was monitored monthly for safety. A model of repeated measurements with random effect error terms was applied. Traditional procedures such as ANCOVA, chi-squared analysis, and regression were used for comparisons.

DISCUSSION OF RESULTS. We present the rationale, design, and methodology of a placebo-controlled randomized trial to investigate a new complementary and alternative medicine strategy featuring a dietary supplement and a mind-body exercise for alleviating bone loss in osteopenic postmenopausal women.

To read the rest of this article, click on Tai Chi, Green tea Osteopenia, Osteoporosis

End of report about Green tea Osteopenia, Osteoporosis For more information go to