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Later in life, drinking one to two alcoholic drinks daily may curb bone loss — so much so that just a two-week break from alcohol hastened bone decline in women in a new study.

Researchers looked at the effects of moderate alcohol consumption on "bone turnover," or the replacing of old bone cells with new ones, in healthy post-menopausal women. After menopause, women's production of new bone cells slows, but the rate of shedding old cells does not slow as much. In other words, the "out with the old" outpaces the "in with the new," leading to a porous skeleton that easily fractures.

But past studies have shown that women who drink moderately (one or two alcoholic beverages per day) have higher bone density than non-drinkers or heavy drinkers. Now, the new study suggests why: Alcohol appears to reduce bone loss in middle-age women by suppressing the rate at which their bones shed old cells.

Booze May Be good for

In line with previously observed trends, the women in the study who drank more alcohol (up to two drinks per day) had denser hip bones than those who drank less (as little as half a drink per day). [How Much Alcohol Is in My Drink?]

More tellingly, blood tests showed that abstaining from drinking for just two weeks triggered an acceleration of bone turnover in all the women. After a 14-day alcohol holiday, the women's blood contained heightened levels of a molecule that gets released during bone turnover. And less than a day after the women resumed their normal drinking, blood levels of that molecule  dropped again. keep reading

DRINKING ALCOHOL HELPING OLD BONES STAY STRONG? WHOA!

Via: Live Science