Can prunes reverse bone loss?

I first heard about prunes and their effect on bone health a few years ago, in a post by Dr. Susan E. Brown, PhD, of “Better Bones”. Dr. Brown is one the world’s leading researchers in bone health, and has a very interesting website (www.betterbones.com), with informative articles and resources for those wanting to learn the very best strategies in improving “bone health” and understand proper “bone nutrition“. She produces an excellent newsletter too.

According to Dr. Brown, fellow osteoporosis researcher Dr. Bahram Arjmandi has uncovered one of the most excitingfoods, to help combat the bone disease osteoporosis. It is the humble prune!

Dr. Arjmandi’s research shows that prunes have the capacity to reverse bone loss. Dr. Susan Brown writes…

“For more than a decade Dr. Arjmandi of Florida State University in Tallahassee has tested a wide variety of “functional foods” for their potential impact on bone health. He has studied soy, blueberries, strawberries, raisins, dates, and finally prunes. No other natural substance, he reports, comes near to having the bone-building effect of prunes. Further, when I saw him at the ASBMR international bone meeting last fall, he reported he had never seen any natural substance produce such consistent beneficial bone-building results.”

So what is actually in prunes, that gives them such amazing bone-building properties?

Dr. Brown explains…”Special phenolic compounds in dried plums up-regulate growth factors linked to bone formation (such as IGF-1) and counter the activity of factors that inhibit bone formation (such as TNF-alpha). It probably also helps that prunes are one of the foods highest in antioxidants and also contain generous amounts of various key bone nutrients including potassium, boron, and copper. While Dr. Arjmandi has found other natural substances capable of halting bone loss, prunes were the only food found to actually restore lost bone.”

A controlled human clinical trial on prunes and bone health starts this summer, and Dr. Brown explains this exciting research here….

“For this study, 120 post-menopausal women have been taking either 100 grams of prunes (9-10 a day) or an equivalent portion of dried apples for one year. While it will be a few more months before all the research data is in, thus far 30 women in the prune group have had at least a 6% increase in hip bone, and one woman had an exceptional 11% increase consuming prunes over the year. Preliminary data from a segment of research subjects found that all prune-eaters showed at least some improvement in bone mass by six months into the study.

For several years I have heard Dr. Arjmandi speak of his prune research and read many of his research articles. It makes sense: if you could limit factors that hinder bone formation, such as inflammation and oxidative stress, and at the same time up-regulate new bone formation growth factors, and provide key bone nutrients, you could well accomplish the unthinkable and stimulate new bone formation with a simple, wholesome food substance.

At the Center for Better Bones, a group of us (including myself) are doing their own “prune experiment.” If you are inclined to join us, take Dr. Arjmandi’s advice and start slowly with a few prunes a day, working up to the full 9-10 over time. I have found soaked or stewed prunes are easier to digest, and Dr. Arjmandi has found that prunes do not lead to either weight gain or increased blood sugar levels. Also they should help build new bone in men as well as women.”

References: Arjmandi, BH et al. 2002. Dried plums improve indices of bone formation in postmenopausal women. Journal of Women’s Health & Gender-Based Medicine, 11:61-68.
Hooshmand, S and Arjmandi, BH. 2009. Viewpoint: Dried plum, an emerging functional food that may effectively improve bone health. Ageing Res Rev, Apr 8:122-7.

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