Children & Women
Eating blueberries may lower osteoporosis risk in postmenopausal women
By David Liu, Ph. D.
Mar 13, 2008 - 6:42:42 PM

THURSDAY March 13, 2008 (Foodconsumer.org) -- A new study published in a recent issue of the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry suggests that eating blueberries may help prevent osteoporosis in postmenopausal women.

Latha Devareddy from Florida State University and Okalahoma State University and colleagues found rats with the ovaries removed and prone to bone loss had low decline in bone mineral density if treated with blueberries.

In the study, the researchers treated 30 female rats differently. One group of rats were not ovariectomized nor received blueberries as control, one group was ovariectomized and treated with blueberries at the dose of five percent in their diet for 100 days and the third group ovariectomized, but treated with no blueberries.

The ovaries were removed to make the rats more vulnerable to senile osteoporosis, a bone-wasting condition that affects the elderly due to hormone deficiency and chronic inflammation.

The rats with their ovaries removed, but not receiving blueberries had their bone mineral density decreased by about six percent at the whole-body, tibial, femoral and 4th lumbar level.

In contrast, rats with their ovaries removed, but fed with blueberries showed less loss of whole-body BMD and increased retention of the BMD at the tibial and femoral position compared to the control and ovariectomized rats without receiving blueberries.