Recent evidence consistently indicates that moderate ingestion of alcoholic beverages is positively associated with bone mineral density. Mechanisms are unknown but may be related to modest ethanol ingestion. Alternatively, such effects may be related to other componenets of alcoholic beverages and recently we suggested that orthosilicic acid (dietary silicon), which is found at especially high levels in beer, has a positive role in bone health (1). Here we sought to determine whether short term changes to circulating markers of bone resorption or formation occur following the ingestion of beer or some of its separate components, namely dilute ethanol or a solution of orthosilicic acid. A solution of calcium was used as a positive control and water as a negative control. On two occasions, exactly 1 week apart, 24 fasted volunteers (12 M, 12 F; 18-40 y) ingested 0.6 L of one of the following: deionised water (negative control); beer which contained 22 mg silicon and 3 units (~24 g) ethanol ; 3 units pure ethanol in deionised water; 22 mg silicon as orthosilicic acid in deionised water; 180 mg Ca (positive control) with or without 22 mg silicon in deionised water. Sequential sera were sampled and measured over 6 hours (8 am - 2 pm) for CTx and iPTH and, in some, also for calcitonin, CICP, bALP and osteocalcin. The project was approved by the Research Ethics Committee for Kings College London. Markers of bone formation (CICP, bALP and osteocalcin) were unaffected in the groups investigated (beer, calcium, silicon, calcium+silicon). As expected, CTx declined over the study period with deionised water alone (normal diurnal variation) and markedly more so, to near half basal values, with calcium ingestion (p < 0.001 versus deionised water) which was preceded by a fall in iPTH (p < 0.001). Following beer ingestion, CTx fell rapidly to less than half its basal value (p < 0.001, Fig) which would not be explained by the relatively low beer-calcium content (52 mg), or by the beer-silicon content as orthosilicic acid alone had no effect. In fact, ethanol alone induced a fall in CTx (p < 0.001) similar to that of beer. However, following ethanol or beer ingestion iPTH remained unchanged, as did calcitonin which was measured only in the ethanol group. These data indicate that moderate ingestion of alcohol acutely inhibits bone resorption in a non-PTH and non-calcitonin fashion. These data indicate that the metabolism of alcohol, similar to that seen for the metabolism of carbohydrate, may acutely inhibit bone resorption and perhaps provide an explanation for the epidemiological observations. Further work is investigating the effect of the ingestion of different concentrations of alcohol on blood alcohol levels and the relationship to acute changes in CTx. The potential role of GLP-2 in modulating this interaction is also being assessed.
(1) Jugdaohsingh R, Tucker KL, Qiao N, Cupples LA, Kiel DP, Powell JJ. Dietary silicon intake is positively associated with bone mineral density in men and premenopausal women of the Framingham Offspring cohort. J Bone Miner Res. 2004 Feb;19(2):297-307.
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Faculty Member's Name: Jonathan J. Powell, PhD
Grants/Research Support: Charitable Foundfation of the Institute and Guild of Brewing (UK)
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