Can a healthy life prevent us from post-menopausal osteoporosis? Myths and truths

• Post-menopausal osteoporosis illness is closely related to heredity, raze, gender and age, all of these are factors that cannot be modified.
• However, activity, body mass, hormone and calcium levels and dietary habits are modifiable factors that can reduce fracture risk factors.
• Although some daily foods demonstrate positive effects in BMD and bone mineral content, food will never be as effective as drugs.
• However, food has the advantage of the lack serious adverse events.
• There is an important lack of clinical trials in postmenopausal osteoporotic women to establish the effectiveness of alternative therapies.

Postmenopausal osteoporosis is related to unmodifiable risk factors (genetics, race, gender and age). However, other controllable factors such as activity, body mass, hormone and calcium levels and dietary habits can reduce fracture risk. For example, significant increases in bone mass density have been linked to physical activity in children, supplements of Vitamin C taken for more than 10 years, or high consumption of fish, olive oil or dried plums. This review establishes the scientific basis behind these non-pharmaceutical practices and summarizes a number of basic studies and clinical trials involving them as well as discusses their potential for the osteoporosis treatment. A lack of clinical trials in postmenopausal women to establish effectivity and doses of alternative therapies is noted. Recommendations are based on both, epidemiologic studies and data obtained from pre-clinical trials in ovariectomized rats. Collagen, Lycopene, Hesperidin and Green tea pointed to changes in bone biomarker levels in epidemiology studies. Isoflavones demonstrated to prevent bone loss in ovariectomized rats. Some daily foods showed positive effects in BMD and bone mineral content but also that food will never be as effective as drugs. However, these alternatives lack serious adverse effects and then, could be mainstays of osteoporosis chronic treatment.

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