Tea Helps Toughen Older Women's Hips

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Bone mineral density at the hip was measured at years 1 and 5.

By the end of the study, bone mineral density at the hip was 2.8 percent greater in tea drinkers than in non-tea drinkers, the researchers found.

Over four years, tea drinkers lost an average of only 1.6 percent of their total hip bone mineral density, while non-tea drinkers lost 4 percent -- consistent with previous studies.

There was, however, no relationship between the amount of tea consumed and bone gains, which raises some questions about the mechanisms which might be responsible for the effect.

"We didn't see a dose-response to tea drinking -- that is, if you drank more tea, then your bones were even better," Devine said. "The lack of relationship may be due to the small numbers of tea drinkers in each group, once we started examining these data. When we just look at the whole group, we have more power to see a difference."

The authors speculated that certain components of tea, such as antioxidant flavonoids, might account for the benefit seen.

Flavonoids "have been shown to have a stimulatory effect on new cells that build bone in cell line studies," Devine explained. "Also, the weak estrogenic [effect] of phytoestrogens found in tea may be beneficial especially to older women whose levels of endogenous estrogen is low. Also, the addition of milk to tea will add calcium to the diet, which is also needed for healthy bones."

More information

There's more on bone loss at the National Osteoporosis Foundation.