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Potassium Citrate May Help Fight Osteoporosis
Taking a potassium citrate supplement to counteract the high acidity of the modern diet can lead to increased bone density in older women.
Taking a potassium citrate supplement to counteract the high acidity of the modern diet can lead to increased bone density in older women and fight osteoporosis.
Swiss scientists have found for the first time that merely by partially reversing the acidity of the diet, bone mass increased rapidly - within the range of increases produced by common FDA-approved medicines for osteoporosis.
During the study, 161 postmenopausal women were taking the potassium chloride supplement in an alkali base, while others took the supplement without an alkali base.
Those who took a base supplement had a significant, one percent increase in bone mineral density in the vertebrae of the lower back (lumbar spine).
For women taking the non-base potassium chloride supplement, lumbar spine bone mineral density decreased significantly by approximately one percent.
Women taking the base supplement had been able to absorb calcium better. This, along with other tests, suggested that the base supplement increased the skeleton’s retention of calcium, thereby reducing bone loss, on average, for the year of the study.
Numerous studies with approved drugs have shown that reversing bone loss results in prevention of fractures.
"In the modern diet, acid is generated from foods like dairy products, grains, and meats," Dr. Reto Krapf of the University of Basel, Switzerland, explains.
"Previous studies have found that the kidney does not quite keep up in removing this excess acid load, resulting in mildly elevated blood acidity. In essence, the base supplement modified the effects of the normal diet, making it mimic the low acid content of the ancestral diet of nearly all fruits and vegetables."
Osteoporosis is a major public health threat, affecting 55 percent of people aged 50 and older—mostly women after menopause.
All of the approved medications for osteoporosis or low bone mass have serious side effects or safety warnings, highlighting the need for safer, effective treatments.