Re Osteoporosis "prunes aka dried plums have the capacity to reverse bone loss"

[snagglepuss]

Snip

"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.""

snip

"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."





http://simplynutritionblog.typepad.com/the_body_clinics/2009/05/can-prunes-reverse-bone-loss.html

[MineralMan]

1. Don't eat more than six!

[Warpy]

2. Fine if you want to live in the bathroom

but not terribly practical for those of us who still try to function out in the world.

Perhaps they'll eventually turn the active substance into a drug without the unfortunate side effects of megadosing on prunes.

[Liberal Veteran]

3. Hmmm. Gag down 10 prunes a day or take once monthly Boniva?

I'm going with Sally Field.

[DainBramaged]

4. Love your kitties

I eat four or five plums a day while they are in season, does that count???

[Liberal Veteran]

5. I love plums as well. Prunes? Not so much.

[snagglepuss]

8. I just stumbled across this info about prunes and they do alot more than just

act as a laxative. If you google prunes, studies shows prunes slow the aging process, lower cholesterol, improve cardio healh. Really intersting stuff. The following article goes into depth about how prunes affect health.

http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:3dMTAr4hEgUJ:www.sunsweetingredients.com/health/pdfs/Dried_Plums_in_Digestive_Health.pdf+do+fresh+plums+have+the+same+nutrition+as+dried+plums+prunes&cd=29&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca

[snagglepuss]

7. Its appears that phenols which are so important are more abundent in dried plums.

The following article provides a nutrient comparison between fresh plums, dried plums and prune juice.


http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:3dMTAr4hEgUJ:www.sunsweetingredients.com/health/pdfs/Dried_Plums_in_Digestive_Health.pdf+do+fresh+plums+have+the+same+nutrition+as+dried+plums+prunes&cd=29&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca

[DainBramaged]

12. Ummers prunes...................

I will have to check them out.......... I still love a fresh plum.

[snagglepuss]

15. I found comments by the researcher who says fresh plums aren't the same.

"Interestingly, consumption of fresh plums has not been shown to substitute for prunes in matters of bone benefits, says Dr. Arjmandi. The reason: Only certain kinds of plums become prunes. Dr. Arjmandi's team used an offshoot of La petite d'Agen, a native of Southwest France, which at maturity has a royal purple outer skin and amber colored flesh. This is the commercially available dried plum/prune. So, while all prunes are dried plums (the preferred name these days), most fresh plums cannot become prunes."



http://www.bottomlinesecrets.com/article.html?article_id=46926

[patrice]

6. Yum! Thanks for the info!

[livetohike]

9. I think there is something to this

My Grandmothers (both born and raised in Czechoslovakia) ate a lot of dried prunes, but admittedly in the form of prune butter which they baked with and used in cooking.

Neither ever had a broken bone, or suffered from osteoporosis and lived to be 92 and 83.

I love prunes, too :-).

[Why Syzygy]

10. I like them too.

They satisfy my sweet teeth.

The laxative effect normalizes after a few days.

[emilyg]

11. +1

[snagglepuss]

13. Same as my Ukrainian grandmother. Always had prunes and

never had osteo. Lived to 98.

[snagglepuss]

14. U of Oklahoma study showed that dried apples didn't work .Only

dried plums were able to increase bone density.

"Then they studied 58 postmenopausal women who were not taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT). The women were “randomly assigned to consume either 100 grams of dried plums or 75 grams of dried apples daily for 3 months. Both dried fruit regimens provided similar amount of calories, fat, carbohydrate, and fiber. Serum and urinary biochemical markers of bone status were assessed before and after treatment. "


The researchers found that "Only dried plums significantly increased serum levels of insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) and bone-specific alkaline phosphatase (BSAP) activity. Higher levels of both serum IGF-I and BSAP are associated with greater rates of bone formation.”"



http://www.articlealley.com/article_159200_17.html

[mopinko]

16. highly dubious.

doctors do not even recheck your bone density within 6 months when treating for osteoporosis, since even with good results, little will show in less than a year. and even then, 1-2% is considered good. i smell bullshit.

[snagglepuss]

17. Sounds like a knee jerk reaction. Of course it is completely possible

that these conclusions will be proven wrong but these conclusions weren't pulled out of thin air. The U of Oklahoma for instance did a followup study which was published in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry.

Study backs dried plums for stronger bones
By Stephen Daniells, 24-Jun-2008

Polyphenol-rich dried plums may boost bone strength and density by up-regulating growth factors linked to bone formation, reports a new study from the US.

snip


"Writing in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, the researchers explain that, while previous studies have reported benefits, it was not previously known how polyphenols from dried plum polyphenols influenced bone health.

"It is possible that dietary consumption of dried plums could serve as a source of polyphenolic compounds that favorably modulate both bone formation and resorption, and provide a natural alternative for individuals at risk of osteoporosis,"

snip

"We have demonstrated that dried plum polyphenols effectively enhance osteoblast activity and mineralization under normal and inflammatory conditions," wrote Bu, Hunt, and Smith.

"The findings of this study suggest that the polyphenols in dried plum are at least in part responsible for the anabolic effects of dried plum reported in previous animal studies," they added.

[mopinko]

18. reputable studies do not publicize incomplete results.

and 120 people, not even all of which were tested. give me a break.
knee jerk? yes. my knee jerks when i see conclusions based on poorly conceived, premature, incomplete studies.

[snagglepuss]

19. Hmm that is interesting. Point taken. I shall do some more digging.