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Japanese Women & Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis is a disease common in women past the age of menopause. It involves the progressive loss of calcium from the bones, making them more brittle and more likely to break. Hip and vertebrae fractures are common in women with osteoporosis. Conventional wisdom suggests that a high-calcium diet can prevent osteoporosis, but women in Japan, where little calcium is consumed, have surprisingly low rates of this disease.

  1. Calcium Intake

    • According to Better Bones, the average Japanese calcium intake has just recently risen to 540 mg daily. The recommended daily calcium consumption for post-menopausal women in the United States is 1,200 mg daily. If calcium were the only factor in decreased bone density, older Japanese women would suffer from more fractures than Americans. However, the hip fracture rate for Japan is about half that for the U.S.

    Exercise

    • Weight-bearing exercise, such as weight lifting, jumping or running, is recommended to improve the functional strength of bones and help them retain density. According to the Partnership for Gender-Specific Medicine at Columbia University, one reason Japanese women have fewer hip fractures may be their habit of sitting on the floor. The need to get up and down over the course of the day may provide the kind of weight-bearing exercise that strengthens bones.

    Traditional Diet

    • While the traditional Japanese diet is low in calcium, it may contain other foods that reduce the effects of osteoporosis. For instance, fermented soybeans, called natto, contain a large amount of a substance called menaquinone-7. According to the Journal of Nutrition, women who eat natto regularly have a higher hip bone density than women who do not. The more often they consume natto, the greater the density.

    Estrogen

    • Low estrogen levels are often blamed for osteoporosis, but they may not directly correlate with this disease, either. According to Better Bones, Japanese women tend to have lower estrogen levels than women living in the United States, but retain a low hip fracture rate. Even in white U.S. residents, the time of greatest bone loss is often one of high estrogen levels.

    Menopause

    • One key to the difference between Japanese women and U.S. women when it comes to osteoporosis may lie in their menopause experiences. Rates of estrogen-related health problems are generally lower in Japan. In McGill University's 1994 study Menopause in Cultural Context, Japanese women reported fewer menopause symptoms than their U.S. counterparts, and some reported none at all. If Japanese women, either because of lifestyle or genetics, have a more gradual menopause, they may not suffer from the same levels of bone loss.

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