14 DAY TRIAL // Though it may seem a bit like a stretch, a new Spanish study has found that women who regularly drink moderate to low amounts of alcohol have stronger bones than those who rarely touch alcohol. The study, which was conducted on more than 1,700 women, is detailed in the latest issue of the respected journal Nutrition, the BBC News informs. The science team in the study believes, however, that it was not the alcohol in the beer in itself that allowed for stronger bones in the test subjects, but rather the plant hormones in the drink.
The experts say that women of all ages should not drink more than two units of alcohol per day. Previous studies have shown without a doubt that a large, daily intake of alcohol is one of the main triggers for bone damage in the elderly. Additionally, as far as women are concerned, the risk of post-menopausal osteoporosis is added to the loss in bone mass due to alcohol. Therefore, elderly women who consume a lot of alcohol are at a two-time greater risk of suffering severe bone fractures later on in life than those who neither drink, nor have the bone disease.
“While low quantities of alcohol may appear to have bone density benefits, higher intakes have been shown to decrease bone strength, with an alcohol intake of more than two units per day actually increasing the risk of breaking a bone. There are also many other health concerns linked with alcohol which cannot be ignored,” Dr. Claire Bowring, who is an expert at the National Osteoporosis Society, in the United Kingdom, says after the new study. She has not been involved in the actual investigation. She cautions women not to interpret the results of this new study as an excuse to drink more.
The investigation was conducted by experts from the University of Extremadura, in Caceres, Spain. They say that phytoestrogens, the compounds in beer that are apparently responsible for maintaining bone strength into old age, deserve more attention, and that future studies could yield brand-new pills and gels that would make use of them. If this happens, the need for drinking beer would be eliminated, and all the other side-effects associated with consuming it would disappear as well.