COPPER SUPPLEMENTATION AND THE MAINTENANCE OF BONE-MINERAL DENSITY INMIDDLE-AGED WOMEN

Osteoporosis is a common disease of older women in developed countries . Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is currently the most effective wa y of reducing the rate of bone loss in older women. This study investi gated the effects of copper supplementation over 2 years on vertebral trabecular bone mineral density (VTBMD) of a group of 73 apparently he althy women, aged 45-56 years, recruited from a general practice in no rth Belfast. Women were given, at random and double blind, either a su pplement of 3 mg copper as amino acid chelate or a placebo to take dai ly. At the beginning and end of the study, VTBMD of the lumbar vertebr ae (L2-4) was measured by computed tomography-scan (CT-scan) and rando m blood samples were taken for putative measures of copper status (ery throcyte Cu and superoxide dismutase activity). The women were seen ev ery 3 months to monitor compliance with supplementation. There was no difference in initial and final VTBMD for the 24 women who took the co pper supplement (initial VTBMD 124.6 (32.1) mg/cm(3) and final VTBMD 1 23.8 (36.3) mg/cm(3)) while the 32 women who took the placebo had sign ificantly lower VTBMD at the end of the study period (initial VTBMD 12 0.7 (29.2) mg/cm(3) and final VTBMD 113.2 (26.6) mg/cm(3), paired t-te st P = 0.01). Seventeen women (14 allocated the copper supplement and three the placebo) stopped taking the supplement during the study. Alt hough copper supplementation had no effect on the putative biochemical measurements of copper status, it appeared to have reduced the loss o f VTBMD in these middle-aged women over a 2 year period. (C) 1997 Wile y-Liss, Inc.