Green Tea and Tai Chi for Bone Health

Summary

Osteoporosis is a major health problem in postmenopausal women. Our long-term goal is to develop a new alternative treatment that include a dietary supplement (green tea extract) and a mind-body exercise (Tai Chi) for lessening bone loss in postmenopausal women with low bone mass. A combination of dietary supplement and moderate intensity exercise now becomes a new alternative treatment in reducing bone loss in postmenopausal women with low bone mass, due to the possible stronger effects of the combination than individual treatments. Objective: To test a CAM intervention including green tea polyphenol (GTP) and Tai Chi (TC) exercise for feasibility, and to quantitatively assess their individual and conjugate effects on postmenopausal women with osteopenia. Hypotheses: (1) 24 weeks of GTP supplement, TC exercise, and their combination will benefit bone remodeling as measured by bone biomarkers and muscle strength/physical function in postmenopausal women with osteopenia compared to those receiving placebo only, and (2) the changes in bone biomarkers associated with bone remodeling will be correlated with the changes in oxidative stress.

Timeline

Start

2008-02

Primary completion

2009-08

Completion

2009-08

Publications

• Background Shen CL, Chyu MC, Yeh JK, Felton CK, Xu KT, Pence BC, Wang JS. Green tea polyphenols and Tai Chi for bone health: designing a placebo-controlled randomized trial. BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2009 Sep 4;10:110. doi: 10.1186/1471-2474-10-110.
• Background Shen CL, Yeh JK, Cao JJ, Chyu MC, Wang JS. Green tea and bone health: Evidence from laboratory studies. Pharmacol Res. 2011 Aug;64(2):155-61. doi: 10.1016/j.phrs.2011.03.012. Epub 2011 Apr 5.
• Background Shen CL, Yeh JK, Cao JJ, Wang JS. Green tea and bone metabolism. Nutr Res. 2009 Jul;29(7):437-56. doi: 10.1016/j.nutres.2009.06.008.
• Background Shen CL, Chyu MC, Wang JS. Tea and bone health: steps forward in translational nutrition. Am J Clin Nutr. 2013 Dec;98(6 Suppl):1694S-1699S. doi: 10.3945/ajcn.113.058255. Epub 2013 Oct 30.
• Results Shen CL, Chyu MC, Yeh JK, Zhang Y, Pence BC, Felton CK, Brismee JM, Arjmandi BH, Doctolero S, Wang JS. Effect of green tea and Tai Chi on bone health in postmenopausal osteopenic women: a 6-month randomized placebo-controlled trial. Osteoporos Int. 2012 May;23(5):1541-52. doi: 10.1007/s00198-011-1731-x. Epub 2011 Jul 16.
• Results Shen CL, Chyu MC, Pence BC, Yeh JK, Zhang Y, Felton CK, Doctolero S, Wang JS. Green tea polyphenols supplementation and Tai Chi exercise for postmenopausal osteopenic women: safety and quality of life report. BMC Complement Altern Med. 2010 Dec 9;10:76. doi: 10.1186/1472-6882-10-76.
• Results Qian G, Xue K, Tang L, Wang F, Song X, Chyu MC, Pence BC, Shen CL, Wang JS. Mitigation of oxidative damage by green tea polyphenols and Tai Chi exercise in postmenopausal women with osteopenia. PLoS One. 2012;7(10):e48090. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0048090. Epub 2012 Oct 31.

Drugs

Indications