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| |  ASBMR: Vitamin K Deficiency Linked to Low Bone Mineral Density in Women By Jill Stein Special to DG News PHOENIX, AZ -- October 15, 2001 -- Low consumption of dietary vitamin K is associated with low bone mineral density in women but not in men. Researchers reported the findings today at the 23rd Annual Meeting of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) in Phoenix, Arizona. Dr. Kerry E. Broe, with the Hebrew Rehabilitation Center in Boston, Massachusetts, and colleagues elsewhere, examined the role of dietary vitamin K in relation to bone mineral density (BMD) and heel ultrasound (QUS) in 2,591 men and women in the Framingham Offspring Study. The Framingham Heart Study Offspring cohort of 5,124 men and women was established in 1971. Quadrennial visits include physical examinations, comprehensive questionnaires, anthropometric measurements, blood chemistries, assessment of cardiovascular and other risk factors, and follow-up for medical events. The Framingham Osteoporosis Study of the Offspring Cohort began with bone measurements taken in 1996-2000. Of the 3,532 participants, 1,112 men and 1,479 women had BMD and/or heel QUS measurements, a complete food frequency questionnaire, and were not using oral anticoagulants. In the present trial, significant positive associations between vitamin K and BMD were seen in women at the hip and spine. Women in the lowest quartile of vitamin K (mean 70 ìg/day) had significantly lower BMD than those in the highest quartile (mean 309 ìg/day). Age-adjusted means of femoral neck BMD across quartiles of vitamin K in women were 0.854, 0.874, 0.882, and 0.891 g/m2. Similar differences were seen in women at other hip and spine BMD sites and remained after adjusting for potential confounders. No significant associations were found in men. In addition, no significant associations were seen between vitamin K intake and QUS in either men or women. Dr. Broe said the positive association between vitamin K intakes and BMD in women are consistent with prior epidemiologic data from the older participants in the original Framingham cohort, in which low dietary vitamin K was a risk factor for hip fracture. The investigator also warned of study’s limitations. First, the trial had a cross-sectional design. Secondly, low dietary vitamin K intakes may be a marker of overall poor nutrition. Even so, these caveats do not explain the apparent sex-specific differences in the association between dietary vitamin K intakes and BMD, they said.
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