Milk in childhood cuts osteoporosis risk - Skeletal System - Brief Article

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), Feb, 2004

Women who had a low milk intake during childhood and adolescence have lower bone mass in adulthood and greater risk of fracture--independent of their current milk or calcium intake, documents a Cincinnati (Ohio) Children's Research Foundation study. These findings support efforts to promote a diet containing one or more servings of milk per day for girls during early development to enhance bone mass accretion and density in adulthood, and to reduce the risk of osteoporotic fracture.

Conducted by Heidi Kalkwarf in the Division of General and Community Pediatrics, this study is significant since calcium supplements increase bone mass in children, but the effect does not persist once supplementation is discontinued. Milk consumption during childhood, on the other hand, appears to have a lasting benefit.

Despite the current emphasis on preventing osteoporosis by maximizing bone mass accretion during childhood and adolescence, its benefits in childhood have not been clearly established. The Foundation presently is conducting a case-control study to examine the relationship between bone mass, density, and geometric properties and the risk of forearm fracture in injured children and teens. It will determine whether bone density is related to forearm fracture risk, and which skeletal factor--mass, density, or measurement--best discriminates between children who fracture and those who don't. When the most predictive measurement is identified, it can be used as an endpoint in intervention trials to increase bone mass and density in youngsters.