Zinc intake has positive impact on bones

Zinc, a nutritional trace element, is essential for the growth of human and animals.¹ Zinc is required for the growth, development, and maintenance of healthy bones. Bone growth retardation is a common finding in various conditions associated with zinc deficiency.² In Iranian schoolboys at year 1961, zinc supplementation was first found to restore both skeletal growth and maturation.³ Zinc deficiency is associated with many kinds of skeletal abnormalities in fetal and postnatal development. Zinc may play a physiologically important role in bone homeostasis. Skeleton contains a large proportion of the total body burden of zinc.⁴ Bone zinc has been shown to be concentrated in the layer of osteoid prior to calcification.⁵ 

Osteoporotic patients have been shown to have lower levels of skeletal zinc than healthy individuals.⁶ The reduction levels of biological markers of nutrition in postmenopausal osteoporosis may be related to zinc deficiency. In postmenopausal women, urinary zinc has been used as a marker of bone resorption. Plasma and urinary zinc concentrations in 30 women with postmenopausal osteoporosis and in 30 healthy postmenopausal women who served as controls have been measured.⁷ Plasma zinc levels did not differ between groups, but urinary zinc excretion has been found to be significantly higher in the women with postmenopausal osteoporosis.⁷ The elevation of urinary zinc elimination in osteoporosis may be dependent on bone resorption⁸ because zinc is located richly in bone tissues. To examine the independent association between dietary zinc and plasma zinc and the association of each with bone mineral density (BMD) and 4-year bone loss in community-dwelling older men. Of the original Rancho Bernardo Study subjects, 396 men (age: 45–92 years) were used. The mean dietary zinc intake was 11.2 mg. Dietary zinc intake and plasma zinc each have a positive association with BMD in men.⁸

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References

1. Prasad AS, Halsted JA, Nadimi M (1961) Syndrome of iron deficiency anemia, hepatosplenomegaly, hypogonadism, dwarfism and geophagia. Am J Med 31:532–546.
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3. Ronaghy HA, Reinhold JG, Mahloudji M, Ghavami P, Spirey Fox MR, Halstead JA (1984) Zinc supplementation of malnourished schoolboys in Iran: increased growth and other effects. Am J Clin Nutr 40:1203–1212.
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8. Hyun TH, Barrett-Connor E, Milne DB (2004) Zinc intakes and plasma concentrations in men with osteoporosis: the Rancho Bermardo Study. Am J Clin Nutr 80:715–721.